Sunday, July 12, 2015

Capitol Reef...Complete

 We woke up to a beautiful morning with just the tiniest chill in the air. We saw (and heard) that the underneath side of Joon was filthy with caked on mud from the roads we traveled yesterday, so we decided to hit a car wash before doing the park. While out and about yesterday we came across a Visitor's Information Center, we stopped and got maps and booklets, but we also saw in the same parking lot there was a self carwash, so this is where we came back to. We pulled in to air up the tires and get things clean, we also washed our floor mats! 
I saw this sign, it made me giggle! I guess it's a real big problem! haha


Today we are going into Capitol Reef National Park. We looked at the map but once again it doesn't look like there's any (really) long hikes, but maybe I'm just not reading the maps right...?

  
While we were at the entrance sign, we were talking to a real nice couple and one of their little boys was watching this (picture below) go down and finally pointed it out to the rest of us. 
Now that's one way to be part of the food chain, eh!!

We saw about 3 or 4 Artists, painting or sketching the beauty in nature that is all around us.

The waterfalls were gone since there was no rain today, I guess we got lucky seeing them yesterday. Still a beautiful day!

 
We decided to pull over into a few places and take some pictures and maybe even hike a little bit to see stuff. Now you think I would learn from the first hike I did with my flip flops...? Thinking this was a different part of the park (with a flat wood bridge), I wore some flats, more or less like slippers and carried no water. Yep, I said no water.





 The hike wasn't too bad, it seemed like a lot of uphill at first, but once you come up on top, its pretty easy. The only time I had trouble (due to my shoes) was when we were 'climbing' (used very loosely) at awkward angles, they got a little slippery. I promised Jamie that I would wear the right shoes no matter what from now on! 😝

 We saw a sign at the top of the 'big climb' that said 
<--Hickman Bridge  .7
Rim Overlook  2 -->
Navajo Knobs  4.2 -->
Since we had no water, we decided for the .7 to Hickman Bridge. Hickman Bridge is a little treasure, for you have to find it on the backside of a loop! It's cool.


  
I love all of the variations of rock and colors...just nature, period, in this park, it's much different than the other parks.

  
We made it, with silly shoes and no water...now time to get back to the van and get some water!

  
The view is just as great going back as it was hiking to Hickman Bridge!


We met another super nice couple, Andy & Cathy, in the parking area of the Petroglyph's. They travel in a Tiger Motorhome that's been converted from an Astro van chassis. Their rig was sweet, the inside was very roomy...it was pretty neat seeing what could be done with an Astro, it had so much room in it! Turns out that we are doing each others trips backwards; they are on their way to Moab/Canyonlands and we were headed down Scenic Byway 12 after the park.


The Petroglyph's is where the flat wood bridge is...now that I had my Reebok's on! 


The bridge is beautiful, you can walk lazily down it while trees canopy over you, providing shade while different colors dance on the rocks.
 




  
We were both excited to get on Scenic Byway 12 so we didn't do much else in the park. I believe Scenic Drive (in the park) is a good 8 or 9 miles and we were ready to go drive "The Most Beautiful Road in America"!


PEACE

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