Capitol Reef National Park and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, UT

Jenney Samuelson

Day 9 – June 18, 2016

Mileage – 75,966

Outside Capitol Reef National Park

 

(Kevin and Jenney) Kevin woke up early this morning to catch the sunrise over the canyon, a beautiful sight. Eventually the kids got up. We have been moving at a good pace on our cross-country journey, with a little bit of travel to our next destination each late afternoon/evening. As a result it is sometimes tricky to get everyone in bed at a reasonable hour.

After a short stop at the visitor’s center we headed out on our long hike of the day. A 3.5 – 4 mile hike down Grand Wash, a dry riverbed that narrows to about 16 feet across as the canyon walls climb hundreds of feet above you. While we did encounter other visitors on the trail Capitol Reef National Park feels like a hidden gem in the Park System, one that hasn’t been fully appreciated by the hoards of people we encountered at Arches. One highlight of the Grand Wash hike was Teryn channeling her inner Geologist – finding geodes on the trail and using larger rocks to break them open to reveal the crystals inside.

In addition to an extremely rich diversity of geological wonders Capitol Reef has a rich cultural component. Another highlight of the day, and the one things that Jenney professed we had to do was stop by Gifford House. Gifford House was an old home build from the turn the century that currently houses a small store and bakery. We quickly devoured a large cinnamon bun, a strawberry rhubarb pie, and home make ice cream. The story goes, Mormon’s came to this location and planted over 3,000 fruit trees many of which are heirloom species. They also constructed gravity feed irrigation systems that are still in use today. As a result visitors are free to roam the orchards of the park and eat all they wish on site. Unfortunately the only thing in season during our visit was the Mulberry Trees.

The last stop in Capitol Reef was a quick view of ancient Petroglyph – some estimated to be from 300 AD. The car showed a whopping 103F, so this jaunt was short then back to the AC in the car in fact Jenney lasted less than 5 minutes and a quick peak.

We embarked on another ‘scenic’ drive to Bryce Canyon. The trip took a little over 3 hours of some of the most amazing and hair-raising roads we have been on yet. Once again we wove our way through several ecosystems, some reminiscent of Rocky Mountain with poplar, birch and an abundance of conifer trees, others dry and arid. There were many viewpoints where we could look out from the lush high elevation terrain over the canyons. The roads twisted and turned at one point narrowing to two car widths, no guard rail, no shoulder simply hundred foot plus drops on each side. No pictures here, Jenney couldn’t take it, she had close her eyes duck her head and said a few words we will not repeat. It was all worth it though; the road less travelled by. We have seen amazing and desolate parts of this country many never get the opportunity to visit and we have only been travelling for a week, less than 1/5th of our journey. Our final destination was campsite on National Forest Land, less than a mile from the entrance of Bryce Canyon. It was a bit of a trek down a path, here is where Kevin got nervous, but we weren’t alone in our adventure with RV down something I’m not sure classified as a road. The final resting spot was peaceful, more secluded than a campground and free of charge. The capstone was a viewing of baby pronghorn.