We are now in Colorado, the fifteen state that we have visited on our Great Adventure. On Thursday, Sept. 12th, we drove over 250 miles through central Utah to get here. Wow, miles and miles of nothing but beautiful vistas of mountains, buttes, dry river beds, and high plains or desert vegetation.
The state of Utah is strongly influenced by the Church of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church), so many of the laws reflect that influence. There are beautiful Mormon Tabernacles (churches) spread throughout the state, even in mid-sized to small cities. In small towns for example you can not only, not purchase any alcohol on Sundays, but the stores themselves are not open even for groceries. Beer, until 2019, had to be a maximum alcohol content of 3.2% or less (changed while we were there).
Many of the rural areas and smaller towns were settled by Mormon pilgrims, mostly in the 1800s, and still bear a resemblance to earlier times.
On the way, we stopped briefly in Capitol Reef NP again to pick some apples and pears. A couple of the local inhabitants were there to greet us as they browsed in the grass for fallen treats.
These are mule deer, of course, a couple of bachelors out looking for a morning snack. Dad said I had to remain quiet so we wouldn't scare them away, while he took a picture.
As we passed through central Utah we came across a local celebrity and his birthplace. Yep, we found the small cabin where the infamous Butch Cassidy was born. We have also seen several places in our travels where Butch Cassidy and his gang of outlaws are rumored to have hidden from the lawmen that pursued them. Several box canyons and even a place in the Bryce Canyon where they hid from the posses that chased them.
We even found a place in Parachute, Colorado where Butch Cassidy's "Hole in the Wall" Gang were pursued and one of them lost his life in the pursuit.
On Friday, Sept. 13, we drove south to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park near Montrose, CO. The canyon walls are very sheer and vary from forty feet to a quarter of a mile wide, but plunge 2,000 to 2,700 feet deep to the roaring Gunnison River below.
The walls of the chasm appear black because they are so sheer they create their own shadow which makes them look black instead of the actual grey color they really are.
On Saturday, Sept. 14th we explored a nearby state park near Rifle, Colorado. Rifle Falls State Park has a unique triple waterfall that was really spectacular. There were several caves in and around the waterfall that varied in size too.
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