Monday, July 10, 2006 - Capitol Reef, Utah

Today we decided to take a scenic drive around and through Capitol Reef. This drive consists of paved and unpaved roads. Since we have four wheel drive, the ranger told us we should be able to make the trip. The problem has been the rain on the unpaved portion. We started out driving on the scenic drive east through the park until we reached the junction with the Nortom-Bullfrog road. We continued along the Nortom-Bullfrog road several  miles until it changed to a dirt/gravel road. This portion of the road was sandy and smooth is some parts and rough and wash board bumpy in other parts. The scenery was magnificent! We were on the ridge and some views were of the distant mountains and some were of fertile, irrigated valleys. Along the way, we heard a disturbing high pitched sound coming from the front right wheel. We slowed and proceeded cautiously. We continued this way until we reached a landmark, the Cedar Mesa campground. From here, it was shorter to return and retrace our route than to continue for the rest of the loop. We considered several possible causes, such as wheel bearings, brakes, or even a bad serpentine belt. Shortly before we reached the paved portion, Bob jerked the steering wheel sharply and the noise stopped. We continued carefully, drove back through the park and returned to the campground.

After we reached our campground, we walked to the front office and asked if they could recommend a good local mechanic. The son of the owners of the Thousand Lake Campground had a garage directly behind the campground. The manager called him, but he was not available. She left a message for him to call back. We then went grocery shopping in Bicknell. When we returned from shopping, we stopped back at the office. The mechanic said he would stop by our campsite later that evening. We later learned that in addition to running his garage, he was a general contractor and was busy working on a house he was building. He did not make it to our site because they were working late.