Parting with the Escalante River this morning was sweet sorrow. It is a marvelous canyon, but such a chore to follow. We started a little earlier this morning, walking up Moody Creek close to sunrise. We passed a few puddles up to middle Moody and lower middle Moody actually had a bit of flow in it. All in all it was weird to be in dry terrain again. “Oh, yeah, we’re in a desert.” We stocked up for the 20 miles to Muley Tanks.
Moody Canyon is truly bizarre. Most canyons begin at their head as a small wash, which evolves into a slot canyon or draw and they steadily widen and deepen as they drop down through the layers of rock to the main river at the bottom. Moody canyon seemed to go backwards. The red Navajo Cliffs tower above us moving further away from us, riding a slope of purple Chinle. We then entered a short section of intimate, intricate pale Windgate sandstone narrows, which gradually deepen and broaden into the inner canyon. Instead of finding ourselves at the top of the head of the drainage, we were at the bottom! We had to climb back up and out of the same rock layers. It was exactly as if we had followed Moody Creek down and we’re now climbing out! This was obvious evidence of the massive, uplifted “fold” in the Earth’s Crust that makes up Capitol Reef National Park.
After a scramble up to a pass in a gap in the Navajo Cliffs (here known as the Circle Cliffs) we took an unusually long break to absorb the view. Our entire route from 50 Mile Mountain to the Henry Mountains was at our feet. The Henry’s, snowcapped from last week’s storm, rose out of the desert utterly alone. It is a wonder, isolated and visible as they are that they took so long to get discovered. They were the last range in the lower 48 to be mapped. Far to the East we could even make out the Munti La Sal Mountains just south at Arches. Breathtaking.
A tedious bushwhack contouring under the Circle Cliffs brought us to an old mining road, which we followed to Hall’s Creek. Hall’s Creek follows the bottom of the “Water Pocket Fold,” which we had just been on top of. It is an impressive drainage, and it was an easy walk upstream to Muley Tanks, with a series of large potholes obviously popular with the wildlife. Impressive moon tonight.
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