Valor Photography: A story about a trip to Capitol Reef

A friend and I took a trip to Capitol Reef this weekend to work on an upcoming mixed media assignment. We decided to take this truck so she didn't have to take her only car down and save on a rental car, I no longer take my car to Southern Utah if I can help it, it just rides too close to the ground. This is the story of how this beautiful landscape includes my husbands truck stuck on a ledge overlooking the national park, about 2 miles into Fishlake National Forest. The first day started off beautifully after we checked into a hotel in Bicknell, UT...

Ferron Milkvetch, April-May, Occurs only in south-central Utah.

Golden Throne as seen from the road.

We finally found a campfire ring and stove, I took this shot as she cooked tin foil dinners.

The next morning we stopped in at the Gifford House for some fresh, homemade pie.

On our way to Fruita, UT

On the dirt road I finally found some tumbleweed for a friend, I've been looking for forever.

Glass Mountain, Temple of the Sun....

Near Cathedral Valley, on our way out of the Park.

That's when things took a turn for horrible. We looked for signs for a main road, our map had partial general directions to I-72, we passed by 2 forks with no indication of a road to take I could only see mountains and cliffs and we were going off her GPS while I drove looking for a road. We passed a farm and headed towards the mountains that finally had a sign for an interstate into fishlake forest, only 11 miles to go, the sun was still high in the sky. The road was not closed, the gates were open so we headed up. Almost to where we thought was the top of the mountain and we got stuck. Thinking we could use the side of the road that wasn't covered in snow for traction we went for it. We hit some snow just before, I even said I hope there's not anymore snow. The truck slid and the road crumbled away, leaving us on a ledge, seemingly fine but dangerously close to rolling down the side of the mountain. I tried inching forward, then backwards each time just getting more stuck, and more paranoid of rolling. Miraculously she had cell phone service and she called 911. We had water, some food, some blankets, lighters, a pair of boots, a sleeping bag, and some hand warmers. Search and Rescue got our location and headed toward us but their truck couldn't make it through the snow on the other side, we wouldn't have ever made it. We took the wrong way out of the park, I should have listened to my gut feeling and common sense direction. She started a fire with some sage brush to make it easier for them to see us. The sun had set and it was getting cold. They grabbed us around 10:00 PM

This was search and rescue going around the truck with the razr's. They actually slid into the car and hit the bumper and cracked the front light, no biggie, but the next day that truck moved almost a foot further. So scary.

Josh and Scott drove us home in this suburban. Search and Rescue are volunteers.

I decided to hike up the mountain to get more stuff to burn and kept going until I saw some blue lights of the RAZR's in the forest and headed back down. They were coming from the forest and the park to come get us. Wayne County Search and Rescue are heroes. They said it would be to dangerous to move the truck so we had to leave it. Luckily the Deputy didn't talk with us and her husband took us back to Utah County from Loa, Utah. I was shocked they let me leave the truck up there without some kind of assurance it would be promptly moved. I stayed at home for 4 hours until sunrise then promptly worked on finding a tow truck before we headed down with my car and lost service. My insurance said about 4 different stories and 2 other tow trucks they sent us refused to help. Apparently they wouldn't cover anything 100 yards off a paved road, which wasn't said beforehand since we just needed a wench, not really a tow. The Search and Rescue guys are who we called, they also worked for M & D Auto, we had no other choice but they were also there the night before and knew right where we were and how to get us back on the road, we were quoted a $900 bill. I'm so thankful that I had a husband to help me through this, it was a lot to be left with.