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Torrey & Moab, UT and Durango, COL

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We reached the pretty little tree-lined town of Torrey on Saturday afternoon. The town was settled by Mormon pioneers in the 1880s. 

A typical old house
There was a mini Harvest festival taking place. 

Everything about the place was small as can be seen below. 

Torrey’s main Post Office

The following morning we drove to Capitol Reef National Park on our way to Moab, UT. This Park is situated in south-central Utah, in the heart of red rock country. 

It is filled with cliffs, canyons, domes and natural bridges in the Waterpocket Fold, a geological wrinkle on the earth, so we were told by a Park Ranger during a talk at the Visitor Centre. 



Park Ranger talking about the Park



A view in the Park
It also includes acres of historic orchards where you can pick fruit in season for free. We availed of this chance to pick some apples while being closely observed by the deer roaming the orchards. 
We visited Dead Horse Point State Park, a short drive from Moab offers amazing views of the meandering Colorado River, 2,000 feet below.

Dead Horse Point
It was here that the climactic scenes in the movie, Thelma and Louise were filmed. Thankfully we weren’t tempted to follow their example.





Unfortunately the weather wasn't great but the views were amazing nonetheless. 



Another view of Dead Horse Point

 Afterwards we visited Arches National Park, about 30 miles away. This park boasts the world’s largest concentration of red sandstone arches - more than 2000 and they range from 3ft to 3000ft wide. 



An example of an arch formation

Towering spires, pinnacles and balanced rocks vie with the arches as scenic spectacles here.






A balanced rock




Another rock formation 
 Due to flash floods that morning we were unable to go to Delicate Arch which is Colorado’s unofficial state symbol. 

Our next stopover was across the State line in Colorado. We stayed in Durango, an archetypal old Colorado mining town. Graceful Hotels, Victorian-era saloons and tree-lined streets filled the Historic Downtown district. 

The Strater Hôtel




Tree-lined street in downtown Durango 


Diamond Belle Saloon Bar

On Wednesday evening we went to the Diamond Belle Victorian-era saloon for some Ragtime piano-playing. The barmaids wore old time saloon-girl costumes.  Clearly many old western films were made in this area as photos of John Wayne and Gary Cooper are everywhere. 
The weather improved and we were back to warm sunny days with blue skies. 






Comments

  1. Phil6 October 2017 at 14:28

    Looks like a fabulous trip. I feel like I'm there, great photos and descriptions.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Phil6 October 2017 at 14:28

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete

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