Capital Reef

For Spring Break this year we decided that we were going to go to Capital Reef National Park here in Utah. We have been talking about how people from all over the world come to Utah to see these beautiful National Parks and we haven’t even been to one of them as a family. So our new goal is to start visiting all these parks surrounding us. We bought a used trailer and made our first trip this last week. It was incredible to say the least! We had such a great time we even stayed longer than originally planned and would have stayed even longer if the obligations of the civilized and more stressful world did not drag us back into reality.

We stayed right in the park at the campground and left on a couple of day excursions during our stay. We ended up hiking Little Wild Horse Canyon, visiting Goblin Valley, Hiking Lower Calf Creek Falls, and Cohab Canyon as well. I have kind of grouped the Pictures to show each activity.

The First Group of Pictures are just variouse views from around our camp and us hanging out, enjoying the stress free life. The colors and views were so amazing and the pictures do not even begin to do them justice. We can not wait to go back! The buildings are of an old Mormon Pioneer settlement that ended up not taking off and is now owned by the National Park. The settlement is called "Fruita". There is a pioneer home named the "Gifford" home (named after its settlers) that is open to the public and you can see the way of life that they enjoyed. It was realy neat to see this and the kids all enjoyed seeing this as well. The town had many orchards that are still maintained today and during season you can pick and eat the fruit while you visit the park.

Our Hike to Little Wild Horse started out cold and Julie’s motivation even wavered as we drove to the trail head and she could hear the wind and see the Temperature drop. However we just bundled up warm and our determination was rewarded. This is probably the most amazing hikes I have ever done. Every step of the way you tell yourself that it can not get any better and the next corner you are even more astonished. This was Julie’s favorite hike of the trip and the kids needed no motivation because the whole hike is a playground! Incredible is the only word that can describe this Canyon. Hey it kept a two year old excited and motivated for four miles; need I say more?

Right near our camp was a trail head for Cohab Canyon. It is a very nice relaxing hike up a beautiful canyon full of different shades of browns and reds and the views from up top are incredible. I can’t believe desert can be so breathtaking. This hike has many off shoot narrow canyons that the kids loved to scamper up and down. Natalie and Brennan wore themselves out and Julie and I ended up carrying them back part of the way but the rewards were well worth the sacrifice. Brennan found sand up this canyon that was finer than any sand I have ever seen and he was mesmerized by it. He kept stoping any chance he got to run the sand through his fingers and marvel at it.

One of Nathan’s favorite parts of the trip was visiting Goblin Valley. All the kids enjoyed it but Nathan fell in love with it. He would set up a homestead and raise his future family there if it were allowed I think. Hide and Go Seek was the game of choice in this valley. While walking through these unearthly formations the only living vegetation was one flower and we couldn't figure out how it made it in this desolate valley.

I really enjoyed the Hike to Lower Calf Creek Falls. The trip to the trail head even had me second guessing the decision to go on this hike though. We had to go over Boulder Mountain Pass (9500 ft) and the weather did not resemble anything like Spring! It was 15 deg. And blizzard like conditions at the summit. Once we came back down to 5400 ft the temp was back up and not blizzards around. It is amazing what elevation does to the weather. This was the longest hike of all we did (6 miles round trip) but the kids were troopers and as long as we kept singing either “Santa Clause is Coming to Town” or “Follow me Boys. . . .Pick ‘em up and put ‘em down” Brennan was willing to keep hiking. This water fall is beyond description. It is out of a fairy tale or something. On the trail there we passed numerous Anasazi Granaries up in the cliffs (how did they ever get up there to build these things!?) and a pictogram that we nick named “The Three Nephites.” It is fun to imagine what life was like back them for these people and what all these remnants left behind meant.

this picture shows up close (above) and far away (below)of one of the graneries.