Capital Reef
Trip Start
May 09, 2009
1
18
22
Trip End
May 29, 2009
Torrey,
Utah,
United States
Monday, May 25, 2009
About a quarter mile in we came across a wide bend in the canyon where the water had softened the steep walls, building up a sandy bench where juniper and many shrubs had gained foothold. Consequently there were many birds. Their songs echoed off the canyon walls. I spied the usual rock wrens, yellow warblers and juniper titmice, but we also caught sight of a canyon wren. My guidebooks note they are "elusive" and you are more likely to hear than see one. This single canyon wren was darting quickly from water pocket to water pocket in the canyon walls until it quickly disappeared. We also saw an antelope ground squirrel, very similar to a chipmunk. The little critter was bounding up the canyon wall, using the waterpockets and any crevice for a toehold. He would disappear into a waterpocket only to emerge a few feet away, scampering to the next pocket. I could certainly see where the antelope portion of the name came from.
Waterpockets are bizarre geological features in the area. Sections of the sandstone walls are eroded like divots in a vertical lawn. Little divots begin eroding - either from the stream when the water was higher or from rainfall slowly dripping down the face and finding a soft spot in the sandstone - and once tiny divots begin erosion enlarges them over time. Soon, geologically speaking, the walls almost appear as swiss cheese. I was reminded of x-ray photographs of bone when looking at some of the highly eroded sections of waterpockets, with eroded pockets joining behind the face of the cliff to form little tunnels and arches.
We passed the The Narrows, a section of towering cliffs where the canyon is maybe thirty feet wide. Some of the faces were worn smooth and stained with desert varnish. We also passed the turn off for the trail to Cassidy Arch. Butch Cassidy and friends were supposed to have used Grand Wash and the nearby area for hide-outs between escapades. After reaching the washed out dirt road at the other end of the wash, we turned around to begin our trek back to the car. Almost as if on queue the sky darkened and we heard threatening thunderclaps to the west. The bird who had been so prevalent before were now deathly silent. Jane quickened her pace. I had a hard time keeping up. Perhaps we could keep pace with all those guidebooks noting "this hike is 2.5 miles and takes about an hour" since we have a tendency to dawdle. After feeling a few raindrops I could see Jane's tension grow. I was not as concerned, but I was also amazed at seeing hikers heading up canyon too deep in conversation to even notice the thunderclap overhead. We soon made it back to Charlie, and spent the rest of the day driving around to view canyons and gorges from the safety of the road.
Comments
Waterpockets
Glad you managed to hike in Grand Wash despite the weather - how strange it has been!
The 'waterpockets' you talk about are in fact Tafoni and are thought to be the result of chemical rather than physical erosion. The waterpockets that the park feature is named after are 'tanks' on horizontal surfaces that provide summer sustenance for animals. They are more prevalent in Capitol Gorge at the end of the scenic drive, I'm sure that was flooded too. They do of course occur all over the park and have been nicely filled this week!
Bob Palin
Torrey, Utah
Re: Waterpockets
Bob, thanks for the clarification. My wife was trying to convince me they were from when the river ran higher but I didn't think that was right since the pockets follow the grain of the strata even when it's been uplifted at an angle. I thought I read somewhere that chemicals in the rain would first dissolve one grain giving a foothold for further erosion/dissolving. I hadn't seen the term tafoni in anything at the visitor center.
We didn't make it to the tanks. The road was closed to vehicles and we started to walk but it was still pretty mucky. Thanks.