First Thursday - 1964 comparisons in Capital Reef

First Thursday

1964 comparisons in Capital Reef

By Thursday morning, the weather had turned beautiful, as we had hoped and expected... about 65 degrees and sunny. Our mission today was to locate the rock formation behind us in four 1964 slides I took of the family as we drove from St. George, Utah, to Louisville, Kentucky, in mid-July, 1964.

The first one we were looking for was this one, with Nancy holding Allison and Annette behind.

Annette had noticed the 'petroglyph' in two of the photos, and was sure she knew the area. So, these were the first rock formations we looked for, in that area.

We parked the Jeep in the pullout near the current 'petroglyph' boardwalk... the rock formations were certainly there - but trees were now grown up, a bit in the way. Here, you can see the rocks.

To get the right angle, to close the rock formations together, they needed to be to the left in the photo, over by the entrance to the boardwalk. Below is a photo of Annette on the boardwalk to the petroglyphs. I am standing about on the spot were the sign was, before.

Do you see the petroglyphs on the red wall, behind? I didn't either. Here is a closer look. There are many, many more, proceeding to the right, down the boardwalk, now.

Here is the second 1964 photo; the petroglyph sign, again. I'm holding Allison, Annette at side.

The trees even seem to be the same, here. Unbelievable!  ;-)

Next, we went on east, to the entrance of the park, turned around, to locate where the entrance to the Monument was - in 1964, Capital Reef was a National Monument, not a National Park. Just east of the Behunin Cabin, we found the curve in the road and the rock formation. See here:

and, again, 

The sign is gone, but the spot is still there; the cement foundation and some fragments of the bricks.

Here, Annette looks at the remnants.

So, we achieved our goals. Earlier in the trip, we ate lunch at Chillzz.

Driving into town, we saw a Golden Eagle nearby the road.

And, along the road, in the park, two big-horn sheep lept across the road in front of us... then stopped nearby. I got a partial view, but Annette was able to get out of the car, stand up, and took this one.

This is a fairly rare occasion, so we really enjoyed it!  ;-)

While on the petroglyph boardwalk, we met a nice couple and chatted a bit:

Leaving the park, I took this photo over the Visitor's Center - neat, huh?  ;-)

It was another very good day!  ;-)