May 23-25, 2014
Angie, Wade, and I spent Memorial Day weekend in a fantastic National Park, Capitol Reef. We arrived after a 3-hour rainy, windy, and hail stormy journey. It was the kind of driving that Wade loves. Ok, actually the opposite of that is true. Anyways we made it to our privately owned campground safely. As it was a holiday weekend all camping spots in the National Park were full. But no worries, our site was just minutes from the park.
Upon our arrival we found a nice local restaurant in Torrey, Café Diablo, to enjoy lunch. It is always fantastic when you can find a great tasting, quality ingredient, locally owned restaurant! That is money well spent. After having satisfied our hunger we drove to Capitol Reef National Park. It was still a rainy, yucky day so we just stopped by the Visitor’s Center and drove some of the scenic roads. Further exploration would have to wait to the next day.
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So the next day after we enjoyed some breakfast and packed our lunches we headed back to Capitol Reef. We thoroughly experienced the many scenic drives, stopping by the petroglyphs and fruit orchards along the way. The cool thing about Capitol Reef is that Mormons settled the area. The Mormons made their homesteads along the Fremont River and planted orchards. There are over 2700 fruiting trees present, including cherry, apple, apricot, peach, and pear. During the fruiting season park visitors are welcome to pick and eat the fruit at no charge. An old schoolhouse, a blacksmith shop, and the Gifford Farmhouse are still present. In fact the Gifford Farmhouse is well preserved and they also sell delicious fresh bakery items to hungry guests. We enjoyed the cinnamon bun and cherry pie after our hike. Our hikes today lead us up the steep cliff walls to Hickman’s Bridge, which is a rock bridge. We then continued on to the Fremont Gorge Overlook. Our hard hiking work was rewarded with amazing views over the valley, including the orchards. We ended our day by enjoying the 8-mile scenic drive and the Capitol Gorge.
Angie planned our final day in Capitol Reef. She found a gem of a hike that was off the map and not publicized. It involved a little backcountry dirt road driving to arrive at the trailhead, but it was well worth it. The trail actually was the Pleasant Creek. It was a river trail! We were prepared with our water shoes and walking sticks so the journey began. We happily hiked through the slightly frigid waters through the canyon. The views were amazing and hiking in water is SO much fun! Well, you see Angie’s planning all started with a post card image. Angie and I had seen a post card in the local General Store that showed a beautiful river gorge and it was labeled as Pleasant Creek. So we wanted to find this image. We wanted to capture the beauty with our own eyes and cameras! Therefore, we hiked along this river for quite some time. At several points, Wade said, “I think this is a far enough guys, we do have to walk back.” But, Angie and I said, “No, we are almost there, it is just around the next corner.” So we would hike to the next landmark, then the next one, then the next one, until finally we came across two fellow hikers. Luckily for us, they informed us the ‘rock pools’ were only a few minutes away! So we made it! We even braved the rushing water to get our shots. I think the excitement was better than the photos, but isn’t that always the case. The journey is the destination after all! We then enjoyed our sandwiches and made our way back up the river. We encountered a treasure on our return journey as we stumbled upon more petroglyphs. How cool! We really enjoyed our day in the Pleasant Creek. It was just so pleasant!
And that sums up our visit to Capitol Reef National Park. Oh, I forgot to mention that a local at the General Store told Angie that we should bring fishing line and ‘tall boys’ to the river so that we could catch fish and cook them in the cans! We didn’t try it, but fun times were had by all![/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]