Capital Reef day 2

We cooked bacon and eggs this morning before heading back to Capital Reef. Our camp host told us about cinnamon rolls made in the park on the Fruita area so that is where we went first. In what was the last house of the Mormons to live there, they have a store with a lot of country things and homemade cinnamon rolls and pies. We shared a delicious cinnamon roll and bought a strawberry-rubarb pie and a peach pie for later.

We drove along the main road stopping at the Mormon one room school house and other historical places.

We started the Grand Wash Hike. It was an easy 4.5 round trip hike through the wall area that had carved out these beautiful walls of rock. There is no water now but there are signs for flash flooding when it rains. When we came to the other end of the trail we saw a sign for the Cassidy Arch trail, mashed for Butch Cassidy who supposedly hid out here. It went up almost a 1000 feet. A hiker coming down said the views were worth it so we decided to do it. It was very steep at first but then a gradual climb. At the top, we were above the arch, and yes, the views were amazing. After a snack and sharing a few nuts with a chippie, we headed back down. Once we got to the bottom, we still had 2 miles back to our car. Our simple hike turned into a 8.5 mile hike. We were tired and ready to be done. A quick stop at the petroglyph path and then back to the campground. There were cattle at the campground entrance to greet us. This is open range area, no fenced to hold them back.

We had a fire, ate dinner, are our delicious pies, and listened to Jimmy Buffett followed by the Steeler gameRead more