Capitol Reef and the Pando

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Now that I've finally posted all my Monument Valley pictures, I can hopefully get a little more caught up.

As I've said before,
we're currently camped
right outside of
Capitol Reef National Park.

I really hadn't heard
all that much about this park,
but I must say,
it's most impressive.

We’re in the small town of Torrey,
just a few miles from the park,
camped in a lovely site
(Wonderland RV Park).

We haven't yet really
explored the park
because the nice lady
in the Visitors Center
told us we should first go
to a place called Fish Lake.

She recommended we go
as soon as possible,
because the aspen were in color.
As soon as a good rain or wind
comes along,
the leaves will all be gone.

What great advice!

One note,
there is a large fire
in central Utah,
lots of smoke in the area,
so some of these photos
are kind of blown out.

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We have always talked
about going east for the Fall colors,
but I believe this was as impressive

After a bit of research,
we learned that this grove
is know as the Pando

These trees
are all genetically identical,

making this grove
one giant organism.

It cover 107 acres,
all joined underground

by a common root system.

The Pando contains
some 47,000 stems.

It's said to weigh
more than
six million kilos.

The age of this organism
(which is believed to be
the largest in the world)

is somewhere between
80,000 and 800,00
years old.

It was truly breathtaking.

I'm so glad we went yesterday,
since the wind came up today
and all the leaves may be gone.

The colors of the aspen
were jaw dropping.

It really didn't look real.

Terry says that in forty years,
he's never heard me say WOW!
so many times.

Quaking aspen are
my new favorite trees.

You might also want to look at
Laurie and Odel's blog
for more pictures of the Pando.

I'll finish
with this one shot of the sun
streaming through
the smoky skies.