Route 24 in Utah runs right through Capitol Reef National Park. Most of Route 24 from Interstate 70 is uninhabited and west of the town of Hanksville, it becomes a convoluted, twisted road that must be taken at lower speeds. However, the trip is worth the drive. The campground is spacious and paved, even though my site wasn't level - but don't expect any cell signal out here.
The scenery here is spectacular, with red rock walls that seem to be the norm in this area. There are some other formations I haven't seen before, such as the photo below. I think these formations look like they're melting, causing the piles of sand at the bottom of them. In a way, it probably is, since it's from the weathering of the rocks.
I took a hike one morning to reach a natural bridge.
On another day, I took a couple short hikes, one to an overlook of a gooseneck canyon with a small river at the bottom. It's 800 feet to the river down below.
On one of my hikes that day, there was a huge rock formation, and at the bottom there were a couple entrances to an abandoned mine that have been closed off. If you look between the bars, you'll see the universal warning sign for radiation. They were mining for uranium in the early 1900s. Back then, it was consumed as a "health tonic". In the end, very little was found here, very little profit was made and the mines were closed.
In another area, there was one of the many tall rock walls with petroglyphs carved into them.
More photos are below.
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