Capitol Reef National Park

The drive from Bryce on highway 12 towards Capitol Reef was awesome, the views were spectacular!!  This is one of the lesser known parks but not any less beautiful than the others.  We just decided to spend the day here before continuing on.  Elisabeth still had the time to complete the junior ranger booklet to add another badge to her collection on her hat.  We first stopped at the visitor’s center as we usually do to get information on the park, show Elisabeth what we are going to be visiting and looking at, and see the video that they always offer.  This is nice because we can learn about the park before visiting and check out the animals and flowers to know them for our hikes.  The ranger told us that the Grand Wash hike was a nice one to do, not too long and great views.  So before heading off on our hike we stopped at an old homestead that can be visited.  This area used to have a tiny little community with about 20 families that were self-sufficient up until the Second World War.  Thanks to the river that ran through the canyons they were able to plant orchards and other plants.  The community is no longer there but there are still their orchards filled with apples, pears, and other fruits.  We did end up stopping at the orchard to grab some apples and pears before going on our hike.  But first we toured the inside of the old homestead and completed this portion of Elisabeth’s junior ranger booklet.  They sold some homemade pies, ice-creams, and goodies that we would taste later after our hike. 

Reaching high in the trees for the best apples!

The hike was not very long, only about 4 miles but it was quite strenuous with the heat.  We were walking between the towering canyon walls which made it very hot in the sun.  However, once we were in the shade it not so bad.  We had fun exploring all the little caves and crevasses on the sides of the canyon.  At the end of the walk we were pretty drained with the heat of the day so we stopped off at the little store to grab some ice creams and root beer (of which I made a root beer float!).  Then we continued on back to the visitor’s center for Elisabeth to take her junior ranger pledge before checking out the old school house. 

Elisabeth taking her junior ranger pledge.

With her collection of junior ranger badges.

The old school house.

Petroglyphs carved in the side of the canyon.

The drive out of the park on highway 24 towards Green River was very beautiful!  We stopped by a little market on the side of the road called Mesa Farms, which you would never notice if it hadn’t been in the guide book, which ended up being a real little gem.  Here they make their own cheeses and yogurts from goat milk, breads, as well as other farm fresh vegetables.  We bought a couple different goat cheeses with some bread and cherry tomatoes for dinner.  It would have been perfect to have a bottle of wine to go with it but we found out later that it wasn’t so easy to buy wine in Utah!!  Apparently grocery stores are only allowed to sell beer and it is only the ‘state’ stores with a special license that can sell wine.  We ended up stopping in Green River for the night, which we found out was a popular spot for all of the rafting on desert sports in the area.  In order to find a bottle of wine we had to go in this random restaurant where you had to ask for the bottle specifically since it was behind the counter, locked behind a glass window!  Craziness!  But anyways we ended up at a hotel that night in Green River and enjoyed our little delicacies!