6/12/10 Capitol Reef National Park

We took a quick one night trip to Capitol Reef National Park with Marcus, Megan, Payton, and Emma. It was a fun, quick trip. We went on a couple of short hikes, checked out the Fremont swimming hole, went on the scenic drive, let the kids play at the nature center for awhile, and generally enjoyed one of (if not THE) most beautiful campground(s) in the entire National Park system!

The weather was slightly less than cooperative, although thorough. We had cloudy, rainy, windy, thundery, lightning-y, hail-y, a bit of slush on the drive home, and enough splashes of sunlight and blue skies here and there to keep us out of doors and to keep the spirits up. Oh well, less than perfect weather often makes for short moments of some the most incredible landscapes, if you look quick enough.

It was a lot of fun to go camping with Marcus and Megan, they are fun to be around, they even appeared to tolerate us, and seem to enjoy the outdoors as much as we do! I think the kids all really enjoyed it too. Now, if we could just get Riley to share his spikey ball without a meltdown and if we could get Lacey and Payton to NOT try and start the dry weeds on fire with flint and steel... well, no trip is perfect I guess ;)

Anyhow, here's the goods:

CAMPGROUND - As said before, the Fruita Campground in Capitol Reef N.P. has got to be one of the best around. Fruit orchards, a river, 2 streams, grass, a horse pasture, historic buildings, an ice cream & quilt shop, all with a backdrop of multi-shaded red sandstone cliffs in three different directions.


PETROGLYPH "HIKE" - After checking out the Fremont River Waterfall and swimming hole (which was overrun by a large youth group who appeared to be using the swimming hole as their first bath in a week), we thought we would be a little bit nerdy (as usual) and show up for a Park Ranger lecture at the Roadside Petroglyph Panel. Well it ended up being very crowded and very windy, and very hard to hear, so we skipped the lecture and took advantage of the hope that while everyone else was listening to the Ranger, the hike would be less crowded. If you call 200 feet of wheelchair accessible boardwalk a "hike" that is.


RIPPLE CREEK NATURE CENTER - Always a fun place to let the kids be kids for awhile.


SILLY TENT PIX - In serious need of a nap and/or a time out, Ron took Lacey to the tent one afternoon so she could "chill" for awhile. They got to chatting, and then they got to giggling, and then Lacey got ahold of the camera, and... well...


CAPITOL GORGE - After a morning of taking down the tents in a hailstorm, a heartily unanimous VETO to Ron's suggestion to go hiking in the rain, and even some talk of going home early, we settled on the scenic drive. The weather cleared up significantly and urged us to take the Capitol Gorge hike at the end of the road. We made it to some petroglyphs and some historic graffiti, but overdue naps and lunch prevented us from continuing the hike on to the Pot Holes, which would have been pretty cool right after the rain. Oh well, we'll be back soon enough, two weeks if I'm not mistaken.


6/12/10 Capitol Reef National Park adventure statistics:
adventure days=2.0
work vacation days used=0
highway miles=486
off-highway miles=0
hiking miles=1.75
average lodging cost per night (1 night) = $5.00