Capitol Reef 4/20 - 4/23/14

See slideshow on the right for Capitol Reef pictures

Capitol Reef National Park

Day 1

Sun 4/20/14

41° at 7am in Torrey UT.  We left the RV park at 8:40, and headed into Capitol Reef.  We got to the campground at 9:00 (we were not very far away).  We lucked out once again because there are several campsites to choose from.  After we got settled in, we rode our bikes a mile down the road to the Visitor’s Center and caught the Ranger talk on geology of the area.  We bought a book on the hiking trails and then rode back to RV.  The park is famous for the “Waterpocket Fold” which is a 100 mile long “wrinkle” in the Colorado Plateau.  There is an underlying fault which when pressured by the Pacific Plates, caused the rock cliffs on one side to fold up against the cliffs on the other side.  One side is at an elevation of 7000 feet.  Most of the formations here are not much different than what we’ve seen in other parks.  There are some petroglyphs and pretty cool hiking trails.  So far the weather is pleasant in the 60’s and the campground is in a great location, nestled in an orchard.  We don’t have electric hookups, cell service or wi-fi but it’s only $5.00 a night (for senior citizens) so who can beat it!

After lunch it started howling wind and pouring rain.  We sat inside and downloaded pictures from the camera and chill-laxed.  About 6pm, after the rain stopped, we jumped on the bikes and rode a little over a mile up the road to the trailhead for one of the hikes we are looking at.  The ride was on a paved road with some hills and little traffic (no bike lane so we had to ride on the shoulder of the road).   Back at camp (which is now completely full) by 6:45 (temp at 71°).  It was so pleasant we ate dinner outside:  grilled chicken thighs, sautéed sweet potato fries, steamed mixed veggies, broccoli slaw.

DAY 2

Mon 4/21/14

53° at 7:30 am

Grand Wash Trail

Cassidy Arch

It looks to be a great day.  We rode our bike back down the road to the trailhead we rode to last night.  The trail is “Grand Wash” and is 2.25 miles with no elevation change but you hike down a dry stream bed in heavy gravel/sand.  The trail takes you through the canyon where the rock walls tower straight up.  It was the old wagon trail thru the canyon and at one section (the “Narrows”) the trail is only about 16 feet wide.  It’s amazing that wagons could get thru there.  We walked for about 50 minutes (maybe 1.75 miles) then turned around and headed back towards the trailhead.  Near the trailhead, we took another trail which lead us 1.5 miles UP with an elevation gain of roughly 1000 feet.  The trail takes you to “Cassidy Arch” named for Butch Cassidy whom it was believed to have come thru this area as he was being chased by the law.  He may have even taken refuge at the arch (although the literature we read said there was no known accounts of that actually occurring).  The hike was pretty difficult for about half a mile then it leveled off as we hiked along the rim of the canyon.  Most of the trail was marked pretty well with cairns until we got to the top.  From there we had to walk and scramble up rocks to just find the arch.  There were cairns placed around the top but it seemed they were placed nilly-willy and showed no general direction to go in.  When we finally got to the arch, it was pretty fantastic!  We hung around for a while talking to others and just enjoying the view.  We finished the hike and the bike ride back to camp by 2:30.  Total mileage:  6.25 miles hiking and 6.5 miles biking.  My knee was shot when we finished.  I relaxed by stretching and lying on the bed with my legs straight up against the wall.  That really helped the stiffness

Rain clouds had been rolling in as we hiked down from the arch and by 3:30 we had a nice little downpour which lasted only about 45 minutes.  We were going to do another short hike about 5 but the rain clouds were still lingering and we didn’t want to venture too far from camp if we were caught in a downpour.  Once again the campground is completely full.

Greg took a "selfie"

We wound up taking a short walk around the campground about 5:30 and down a trail next to the Fremont River and fruit orchard.  We saw some mule deer, a rabbit, and a prairie dog.  Another pleasant evening so we ate outside again.  Stuffed bell peppers with taco flavored caribou ground meat, Spanish rice, and chips/salsa.  We sat outside until dark snacking on popcorn and watching the deer graze in the pasture next to the campground.

Bell peppers with caribou tacos

DAY 3

Tues 4/22/14

51° at 7:30 am

Hickman Bridge

At 9:00 we drove the RV a couple of miles from the Visitor Center to “Hickman Bridge” trailhead.  We hiked 4.5 miles up the “Rim Overlook” trail and the “Navajo Knobs” trail.  It was pretty steep with hiking on sandstone rock most of the way.  My hiking poles did not work very well at propelling my up the sandstone.  About 2.25 miles up we stopped at the Rim Overlook.  Stunning views of Fruita Valley with it’s orchards and the campground in the distance.  I brought my phone with me and YEAH we had cell reception!  We sent a few texts to the kids then continued on our hike.  The next 2 miles were still steep but it was the last ¼ mile that did me in.  We had to climb up rocks to get to the top of the Navajo Knobs!  The panoramic views were spectacular!  The wind was blowing so hard we didn’t spend much time on top (actually it reminded both of us of the top at Guadalupe Peak in Texas).  We crawled and hiked down about a mile to get out of the wind and eat some lunch.   On our hike back to the trailhead, we took a spur trail to the Hickman Bridge.  It was about a mile more with some steep steps in stone.  It wasn’t a difficult hike but after doing the 9 miles up and back from Navajo Knobs, my legs were about shot.  The bridge (or was it really an “arch”?) was really pretty neat to see.  We weren’t able to climb on top of it but got some good pictures all around it.   Total hike today:  10.5 miles; 6 hours; elevation gain 1600 feet. 

Climbing up to Navajo Knobs

View from Navajo Knobs trail

Back at the trailhead and the RV by 3:30; we changed clothes and I laid in the back with my legs elevated while Greg drove about 20 minutes into Torrey.  Brian was sending a package of mail to us via Fed Ex and it was to arrived about 4:30 at the RV park we stayed at the other night.  We got the package and drove into town parking at the general store.  They have public showers so we both took one….at a cost of $6.00 each!  I only showered, if I had known it was so expensive I would have shampooed my hair and shaved my body.   But after a 6 hour hike I was not in the mood to dawdle in the shower (a nice soak in a bath would have been much more to my liking!).

On the way back to the Park, we stopped at a restaurant for pizza and beer.  It was sooooo good.  They didn’t have wine so I shared a pitcher of Polygamy Porter beer with Greg.  I don’t normally drink beer, but it tasted so good with the pizza!

Pizza and Beer!

While we were eating, the wind began to gust and weather reports state it would get worse overnight.  I was so tired by the time we got back to camp that I had a very hard time staying up til 8:30.  It did not take anytime to go to sleep and I heard NOTHING all night!

DAY 4

Wed 4/23/14

45° at 7:30

Greg said he heard the wind blow a few times overnight but not me; I had a great night’s sleep.  It’s breezy and overcast this morning.  We walked across the street from the campground and hiked up the “Cohab Canyon” trail.  Stories state that the early polygamists hid in the canyon with their wives and families.  The first quarter mile was up about 400 feet in elevation gain, but the rest of the hike was relatively easy.  We took our time hiking thru soft sands and looking up at the pock-holed canyon walls.  It was like looking at a bunch of bird houses.  We took a side trip up to a couple of overlooks.  The hike was just over 2 hours long and maybe 3 miles.  It was something easy to stretch our legs and recover from the hard hike yesterday.  The temperature change was not that great from 9am to noon (51° and 58° respectively).  Not a great day to lay in the sun.  We relaxed in the RV until about 3:30 then drove down the road (the Scenic Highway) about 12 miles until it becomes a gravel rode.  We then rode our bikes another 2.25 miles down the gravel road to the trailhead for “Capitol Gorge”.  The hike into the gorge is on dry stream bed with soft sand and gravel.  A short hike in from the trailhead is the viewing spot for 1000 year old petroglyphs.  They were really faded and had so much graffiti around them it was hard to see.  Just a few feet up the trail and across the canyon on another wall and about 50 feet up is another carving with several names and the date of 1911.  This is the list of US geological survey members who were working in the canyon.  It is pretty amazing that the names are engraved perfectly at that distant above the canyon floor.  No one knows how it was done.  Further on down the trail is a historic register from early pioneers who traveled thru the gorge on wagon trains.  Some of the names date back to 1871 (this is like the “register” we saw at Hueco Tanks outside of El Paso).  Once again, there is so much graffiti that you can hardly read the older inscriptions.  I was almost over-come with emotion to see how present day tourists are so disrespectful.  Maybe in another hundred years someone will be teary-eyed over the 2014 inscriptions that make me mad today!  Back at the trailhead to the gorge there is another trailhead leading to the “Golden Throne”.  It is 2 miles up for an 1100 feet elevation gain.  The Golden Throne is a huge sandstone monolith that is only visible at the end of the trail.  We had waited until later in the day to do this hike because the guide book says that if you “hike towards day’s end you may see the golden cap glow with sublime salmon and yellow colors.”  Unfortunately, 5:30 pm in April is not late enough in the day to see the “sublime salmon and yellow colors”.  If we had waited until later, it would have gotten dark on us for the hike down and we still had to ride our bikes over 2 miles to get back to the RV….. oh well, we can only imagine what the colors of sunset on the Golden Throne look like.

Cohab Canyon

Golden Throne

Bike ride from parking lot to
Capitol Gorge trailhead

We managed to get back to the campground by 7:20.  Generator usage is from 6 – 8 at night so I had about 30 minutes to get dinner heated (we saved the left over stuffed peppers and Spanish rice for just this reason).  We did not get to eat outside tonight, but we did stay up until around 10.  Greg had to walk over to one of the neighbors RV and ask them to turn their music down.  They were having some kind of dance action going on that we weren’t invited to!  Even though the campground has been full every night, there has not been any noise or distractions of any kind until tonight.  Thankfully the music was immediately turned down and we didn’t hear anything else the rest of the night.