Overland Camping Roadtrip Blog
Travel Day 25:
Total km driven to date: 5542km
Total km walked to date: 206.17km
Caineville, UT – Dixie National Forest, UT
70km drive
5.37km on foot
Wow what a difference 70km can make! I started my morning off on the dark side of Mars, or as I took to calling it, gravel pit country. Hwy 24 wound through the gravel hills loosely following Fremont River until I got to Capital Reef National Park. From there the road winds through a deep canyon, slowly climbing, first light brown slickrock and then up into the red rock that was everywhere in Moab. Still very hot and very desert like scenery, with little Oasis’s around certain parts of the river with fruit trees and even some greenery. Once I got to the junction with Hwy 12 everything quickly changed, the road had climbed high enough that there was trees and even grass! We passed a bunch of farms and ranches and there was pine trees on the hills up ahead. We started steadily climbing up into Dixie National Forest and a climate much like the Okanagan or what I experienced in the Eastern foothills of the Rockies in Colorado. At about 8300ft the road levelled off and I saw a track leading off into the woods, it was early, only 11:30 but after the dry desert wasteland of the past few days this seemed like a paradise so I decided to turn off the Hwy and set up for the afternoon.
Found a great spot amongst the pines and with the shade and cool mountain breezes it is only 29* at 1:30, instead of the 39* I had yesterday. Axel and I rest through the hottest part of the day and my dog is back, no longer hiding in the AC he is wandering around doing his dog thing, finding sticks and bones and following his nose and even wagging his tail. Things are gorgeous here, if I can find some water (unlikely) for a swim or even a soak we might end up staying tomorrow night. I decided to take the bike out for a ride up the mountain and quickly realized that even though I’m very used to hiking at this point and can easily do 10km uphill with barely getting out of breath I haven’t been riding my bike and I was breathless in less than 10mins! Up the hill we went, over some big rocks and through some dirt sections until it got too steep and we left the bike and hiked to a clearing in the trees and took some pictures of the scenery way below us. Then it was back on the bike for a thrilling but scary as hell ride down the mountain at break-neck speed! Five km on foot and about 10km on the bike, I call that a good day. At this point I have 11 days to make it to Glen Helen which is only a 10hr drive from here so I am in no hurry at all and I know more of the hot desert awaits!
