I had grand plans to wake early and hit the road to explore Capitol Reef National Park. Waking early was NOT the issue. At 5am I bounced up, made coffee and opened up the trusty weather app.
3 Freaking degrees!!! (-16°C)
While it appears I'm fine with camping at 18°F, I have hard boundaries below 15°F. It was 9am before it anything close to 20°F so that's about the time I asked Beast to wake up and join me in the day.
We took Hwy12 (I think) south to Boulder UT then things got scenic as we turned west onto the Burr Trail. Once again super alone and free to park willy-nilly, then squat in the middle of the road for the right picture.
If you haven't traveled the back roads of Capitol Reef (and Grand Escalante-Staircase) then you are missing out. Winter brings the clearest, deepest blue skies to red rock images but I'm sure autumn would be spectacular here too with cottonwoods and aspens all over the place, it has to be raining golden leaves.
(Epiphany: Two weeks ago in Boulder CO, I was grappling with the love of winter and its quiet beauty but lamenting the 50 shades of gray that winter brings with it. Today, 500 miles away in Boulder UT, colder than Colorado but somehow warmer too, I realized the COLOR made my world happier. Red rocks, blue sky, yellow grasses and flowers... a beautiful palette of vibrant primary colors.)
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