Driving on from Cedar Mesa we stopped into Hanksville for gas and to confirm the closing time of Stan's Burger Shak (9pm so great!). We had only about an hour of daylight so decided to make the most of it by driving 15 minutes west for a 1 mile badland hike near Skyline Rim into an interesting natural amphitheater with a spotlight erosional remnant spire. The road in and hiking was bone dry and clearly did not receive the recent rain near Mexican Hat, which was good news for us. This was clearly a popular place and we saw more people hiking here (4 groups) than anywhere else. Despite boring skies I enjoyed flying my drone from different vantages around the spire, including some with the Henry Mountains forming a snowy horizon. We left a little before sunset for a tasty meal and a break from the cold at Stan's. After our meal we drove the lonely Cow Dung Road 7.5 miles to where we camped at Burpee Dino Quarry, excited to see what our surroundings looked like in the daylight.
Another cold morning to start but decidedly less condensation and frost was appreciated. The solitary sign had some interesting info on the six species of dinosaurs that had been found here in the remnants of a Morrison Formation river channel deposit. Right in the parking lot I spotted a petrified log embedded in rock. The low winter light did not necessarily amount to the best top-down aerial views of the colorful badlands, but nevertheless it was neat to check out the colors and patterns at several locations as we drove back out along Cow Dung Road. For one of the flights Heather drove, allowing me to fly a transect along some of the striped red badlands. The terrain was starkly desolate with nearly a complete lack of vegetation.
Back at the highway I formulated a plan for a quick jaunt west into Capitol Reef, Heather's last unvisited Utah national park. We drove through the many tilted layers to stop at the petroglyph panels. Unsurprisingly the best of them had pockmarks from being shot at. We stopped at the visitor center (closed for the season including bathrooms), drove up the road to the Chimney Rock trailhead, then returned to check out the scenic drive which was new to me. It was a fine taste of the park but I was ready to find some more peopleless roads.
For the second half of the day we turned off onto West Factory Rd near Caineville where a large sign aggressively warned that the road was impassible to most vehicles. There was certainly some interesting driving through wet washes, tight corners, and a tilted slab but once the road exited the wash and traversed the blue-grey mud badlands it was silky smooth and fast. We drove a full 11 miles down the road to a nice vantage from the northwest side of Factory Butte. Here I sent the drone out for a nice long flight over the badlands towards the butte. As I did, Heather found a bunch of small agate and jasper pieces which prompted us to spend some time searching on the other side of the road which undoubtedly would be less picked over. Sure enough hands and pockets were soon filled with interesting treasures.
We drove back 3.5 miles to a slight turnoff to assess whether we would try the northernmost scrambling route up the formidable cliff-capped North Caineville Mesa. It was 2:30pm which I was pretty sure would give us enough time to get up and back but we still brought headlamps just in case. With light packs we set off through the tilted sandstone of North Caineville Reef and crosswise through several washes in the badlands. When we reached the base of the slope I was delighted to find much more of a trail than I was expecting which certainly helped us make better time and removed most of the guesswork. As we climbed through the rockfall slopes we still could not see an obvious way through the topmost cliff band. Towards the top the trail thinly crossed a large gully then had a final series of switchbacks to the base of the cliff. Only when we were about a stone's throw away was the gap in the capping cliff visible. It was much more merciful than I could have guessed with just a few very easy climbing moves, arguably easier than getting to the Citadel Ruin the day before.
It took us about an hour to reach the lonely mesa top. I did the math and decided we could spend about a half hour up here and still have enough time to get back down before dark. We walked the rim to the sharp northernmost point of the mesa where I captured some aerial views of the expansive desert and long shadows. It was a neat isolated spot that felt a world apart.
Despite Heather's concern for the loose descent, we made it back in a little less time than the hike up and got some nice pastel pink sunset lighting on the lower slope badlands. Heather and I both agreed this hike ended up being a highlight of our trip and blew any hike we could have done in Capitol Reef out of the water. It was an impossible looking climb that was really quite reasonable. The top had an isolated island in the sky feel to it, a good place to casually find dinosaurs roaming undisturbed.
The drive out the remainder of West Factory Road was straightforward and arguably less stressful as I would see headlights around the blind corners were there anyone else (there was not). We drove into Hanksville to top off our gas before driving on to our campsite. Incredibly (it was Thanksgiving after all) Stan's Burger Shak was open! Despite having the same meal the night before, this was such an incredible treat to have a well-made burger, seasoned fries, and an Oreo shake instead of making ourselves dehydrated meals in the cold. The place was packed with many other groups also enjoying a meal, probably the only place open for 50 to 100+ miles in every direction. Stan's already had a special place in my heart as a refugia between trips or on the Hayduke Trail, but to now feed us on Thanksgiving, it was love. We had a late half-hour drive into Temple Mountain Campground East near San Rafael Swell where we had our pick of campsites. All in all a nice day out with lots of variety.
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