Leaving Beautiful Torrey, UT Before the Snow Arrives

The past few days we've had a cold front come through, bringing wind, rain, hail and snow flurries on Wednesday, and cool, windy, threatening rain conditions for the past two days...and we've loved it!

Coming from Southern California, I actually thought we'd experience a few more inclement weather days while traveling than we have. We've done such a good job of following fair weather that cozy days inside the RV are few and far between.

Wednesday fluctuated between 36 and 46 degrees all day, so after a leisurely morning snuggled up in our comfy little home on wheels admiring the red cliffs outside our window, we headed out for lunch. Cafe Diablo had very mixed reviews on Yelp, people either loved it or hated it. The food presentation was pretty and unique, but I found the flavors to be very bland.

After lunch we moved on to Robbbers Roost Bookstore and Coffeehouse. What a gem! We spent a leisurely couple of hours on a comfy couch in front of a wood stove, sipping coffee and chai and indulging in a delicious peach coffeecake. They had an interesting selection of books and a decent wifi connection. It was the PERFECT place to spend a cold, blustery afternoon!

Cozy Robbers Roost

On Thursday with temps forecast to be in the 50's and only a tiny threat of rain we headed into Capitol Reef National Park. We visited this park in 2007 but did not do the drive up Capitol Gorge; so that was the destination of the day along with the two mile Tanks hike and the four mile Golden Throne hike.

A delicate arch has formed on the pour-off from The Tanks.

Rock art.

The Golden Throne.

On Friday the temps were still in the 50's and breezy and we didn't feel like driving too far. We'd noticed a sign for the Great Western Trail and access to Sand Creek just half a mile East of our home base, Thousand Lakes RV Park. A little research turned up a hike to Sand Creek Waterfall, so an exploration of the colorful cliffs immediately North of our park was in order.

From highway 24 we turned up Sand Creek Road and shortly entered Fish Lake National Forest. The road started out very rocky, but soon became reasonably smooth dirt with a few easy crossings of Sand Creek which was very small.

While we never found the parking spot described in the link above, nor the waterfall, even though we hiked along Sand Creek (according to Google Maps) for several miles, we did enjoy an adventurous hike among some gorgeous colorful mountains. If we ever return to Torrey, UT we will definitely explore this wilderness area further, with a topo map in hand. Even though The Great Western Trail is open to ATV's, horses and mountain bikes in this area, we never saw another soul on this day.

The dirt roads North of our RV park took us into a colorful wilderness just begging to be explored.

Layers of color opened up before us as we headed deeper into the wilderness.

The colorful layers weren't only on the rocks!

Though it's been chilly during our stay in Torrey, the temps were good for hiking and the scenery around us serene and beautiful. The RV park has been no more than half full, which was perfect. Another storm is on the way and supposed to drop 1 - 3 inches of snow on Sunday. We're moving on to slightly warmer climates as we head North and West over the next few days.