Grand Circle Chronicles
Capitol Reef �colourful oasis�
by Quamrul Haider
Capitol Reef was the last park of the Grand Circle in our bucket list. We left for the park in the early morning of August 11. Located 150 miles southwest of Moab in Utah, Capitol Reef is known as the colourful oasis of the southwest because the cliffs and peaks of the park change colour with the movement of the sun and clouds.
The early inhabitants of the region were Native Americans of the Fremont Culture, named for the Fremont River that flows through the park. For some unknown reasons, they moved out of the area around 1300. Later, nomadic Ute and Southern Paiute tribes made the region their home.
In the 1880s, Mormon pioneers moved into the area and established the community of Fruita. The tolling bell for the Fruita community started ringing after the establishment of Capitol Reef National Monument in 1937.
The landscape formation process at the Capitol Reef National Park is totally different from that of the neighbouring Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. Capitol Reef is the result of a Waterpocket Fold, which is a 100 mile-long monocline _ a sinuous wrinkle in the Earths crust with a steep tilt on one side in an area of otherwise nearly horizontal layers.
Geological evidence shows the Fold was formed between 50 and 70 million years ago when a major mountain building event reactivated an ancient buried fault. When the fault moved, the rock layers above the fault formed the Fold. Subsequently, the rocks along the Fold have been pushed upward. Eventually, the Colorado River was the primary landscaper, carving out deep narrow canyons and other interesting rock formations within the last 15-20 million years.
From massive rounded sandstone domes to soaring monoliths, Capitol Reefs landscape is unmatched in geological diversity. Other unique formations include tall spires and uniform layers of shale rocks that have been lifted, folded and carved into shapes that stir the imagination. Exposed rock layers or slabs of differing thickness, colors and textures lay one upon another. Nearly 270 million years of geologic history, beginning from the Permian period of the Paleozoic Era, are recorded in these layered rocks.
Theres a 25-mile long scenic drive that runs through the heart of Capitol Reef. The drive offers incredible view of the parks geological treasures crowding both sides of the road.
We saw sheer sandstone cliffs of Triassic era etched with faded petroglyphs on the rock walls. They are a symbolic way of depicting the ancient culture of the Native Americans who lived in Southern Utah from approximately 600 to 1300 AD.
An interesting sandstone formation at the Capitol Reef dated as early Jurassic is the Navajo Dome. Its white, rounded dome, a look-alike of the nations Capitol building, inspired part of the name for Capitol Reef National Park. Prospectors with seafaring experience viewed the dome as a reef since it was a barrier to transportation. Hence the nautical term reef has been attached to the name of the park.
The most recognizable and arguably the most spectacular formation in the park is a daunting fortress-like sandstone formation called The Castle.
On our way to the motel located in a hamlet called Torrey, we saw some fascinating rock formations displaying crossbedded fluted walls in their full splendor. Fluted walls are multi-hued corrugated surface of clay with dark brown sandstone ledges shaped by erosion. Many thin parallel layers of rock intercepting one another at varying angles is called crossbedding
American environmentalist Wallace Stegner in his Wilderness Letter described the Capitol Reef as a lovely and terrible wildernessharshly and beautifully colored, broken and worn until its bones are exposed, its great sky without a smudge of taint... This terrible wilderness teases the imagination and lure visitors who are seeking escape from the hustle and bustle of modern life.
The writer is Professor of Physics at Fordham University, New York.
