After the morning chores, which this morning included cleaning the solar panels, we set off down Cathedral Valley in bright sunshine and nice (moderate) temperatures. As you might have guessed from the name the road traveled down a valley between eroded rocky cliffs past a number of free standing rocky features that have been given names like Temple of the Moon and Temple of the Sun. One of the interesting features we passed was a large sinkhole carved by infrequent flood waters. At the southern end of the road the flat valley floor gave way to sandstone outcroppings and the road meandered through these for a number of miles before finally joining up with SR24.

A short drive along SR24 towards the west brought us to the main entrance of Capital Reef National Park and to an impressive geological feature called the Grand Wash, a deep, steep, narrow canyon carved through the sandstone by water. We walked some of this canyon. The walking was a little difficult on the soft sandy canyon bottom - or are we just getting old!.

After a short visit to the parks visitors center and a 30 mile drive to Hanksville for fuel we took a road south (called the Notom-Bullfrog road) to an old abandoned farm called Notom and then farther south along gravel road to Cedar Mesa campground. We were lucky enough to get the last of the 5 campsites and after a bit of maneuvering managed to fit the ER into the allotted parking space.

We finished the day by cooking steak on the camping stove while accompanied by a horde of annoying biting black flies.