US Trip 2017 – Day 11 – A scenic day

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This part of the trip was from Moab to (almost) Panguitch. We’ve driven this stretch several times before, and we usually drive Scenic Byway 12. This year we did a slightly different route, stopping at a lot of caches, a few Utah GeoTour-caches and some virtual caches.

Approximate time on road/out caching: 15 hours
Total miles driven: 341.4 mi / 549,4 km
Total cahes found: 72
Total DNF: 14
States visited: Utah
Famous places visited: Capitol Reef National Park
Most memorable cache: GC6JGXJ Utah GeoTour-Sevier-Pando Grove/Old Spanish Trail
Biggest surprise: The amount of DNFs today
Weather: Sunny
Highest temperature: 93°F / 34°C
Lowest temperature: 61°F / 16°C
Roadwork: Yes

Getting up early

Last year we got up really early, to see the sunrise at Mesa Arch. We settled with the sunrise from our tent today, but still had to get up early. It was totally worth it!

 

Leaving Moab

Before leaving Moab, we needed to get some gas. And we also had to take som photos while there, too bad there wasn’t any geocaches there.

 

We’ve driven the road from Moab to Capitol Reef several times before, so we didn’t stop at more than three caches from Moab to Hanksville. And the first one ended up with a DNF…

Finding some GeoTour-caches

We had several Utah GeoTour-caches on our plan, since we wanted to get as many patches as possible (and the geocoin, of course). That, and the caches are all really good caches.

The first GeoTour-caches today brought us on roads less traveled, at least by European tourists 😛 And we also met this really cool lizard.

He didn’t want to tell us where the cache was, but we found it anyway!

Picking fruit in Capitol Reef National Park

When driving through Capitol Reef, we once again encountered road work. And this time we had to wait for the pilot car. But the weather was beautiful, and we spent the time chatting with the girl holding the stop sign.

We almost have to call this a tradition now. Every time we drive through Capitol Reef NP, we stop to pick fruit. This time we picked apples, some of the best apples we’ve tasted!

Nope, not this time

The next GeoTour-cache we attempted was GC6H06N Utah GeoTour-Wayne-Fish Creek Cove. But we eventually had to just give up, no way we could continue driving the rental car on those roads. But we gave it a try… Maybe next time?

After a DNF along the road, we stopped at SunGlow Cafe and Motel in Bicknell to taste their (apparently) famous pie. And yes, the pie was worth the stop!

Let’s find a lot of caches

After a few more caches, including a couple virtual caches, we were at the start of the Rock band Series, GC45VYK Rock band Series #1 Metallica. We spent about one and a half hour on the trail itself. We skipped a couple, and DNFed a lot (it felt like a lot more when we were there). We also did the short detour to the virtual cache GCGM1E Visitor Information Sign (and the other cache there) at the end of the trail.

A short visit to Fish Lake

We also wanted to find the GeoTour-cache GC6JGXJ Utah GeoTour-Sevier-Pando Grove/Old Spanish Trail, and both the virtual and the earthcache that was there as well. And we also had to stop at GC142BV CAU-Piute Co, since we collect the CAU-caches as well. Yeah, we have a lot we want to find 😛

On the way up, we were lucky enough to see some of the local wildlife on the side of the road.

The GeoTour-cache was awesome, just as expected. We’re going to keep prioritizing them!

Still a few caches left

We still had a few caches left on the plan, and some miles to drive. We started running low on gas, not critical, but low enough that it was uncomfortable. So we were very happy when we found gas in Koosharem! We also found a couple caches there.

We found a couple more caches, and two more GeoTour-caches. Now we had enough counties completed to qualify for the coin! 😀

By the time we arrived at GC15P1D Osiris, Utah !, there was almost no daylight left. So we had to drive the last miles in the dark. We’ve visited Widtsoe before, so we didn’t really have much more caches to find anyway after we stopped at the next cache after Osiris.

There is something very inspiring about driving when it is so dark that you can see the stars around you. And this is one of the few places where we can do that. Experiences like that totally makes it worth arriving late at the hotel!

Pictures

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