An amazing trek through Capitol Reef National Park in Utah:
We found this amazing campground that was built among the fruit orchards planted by the 10 or so families that settled the area. The National Parks Service still maintains the orchards and allows the public to pick from the apple and pear orchards. Although we were in a very dry region, there is a constant creek right next to our campground that the kids enjoyed and Andrew made balanced rock sculptures along the shoreline.
We enjoyed listening to the Ranger talk on nuts and trees, entitled, “Sometimes you feel like a nut!” Did you know the bark of the Ponderosa pine smells like French vanilla ice cream (but Nikki says it smells like orange ice cream). It is so true! Now we have become a tree sniffing family!
The weather was quite hot and we found a natural waterfall that flowed into a beautiful clear pond. Andrew was the only one who had the guts to jump from the top! (Only after other people showed us it was safe!) He had a blast and we all laid around in the water, not unlike a tribe of mammals who found a new watering hole.
There was a small (darling!) historic house on the site of the campground. They had an amazing kitchen of fresh baked goods and homemade jams and salsas. We bought little pies that were baked down the road at a FIVE STAR restaurant! Who knew this town had such a restaurant as it was TEENY TINY town!! Boy, was that pie the best we have had in our lives!! This house was so adorable and small and I actually felt like it was BIG (in comparison to our RV) and we all agreed we could live in a house that size. We shall see where we end up after this two year trek.
When we left Capitol Reef, we drove over a beautiful mountain range. The fog was so dense you would think the ocean was near. Then, it started POURING RAIN! We got to see a flash flood emerge in the river alongside the road. Quite exciting and a bit scary had the flood been more extreme.
Our next stop, ZION National Park. Who knew it was going to completey live up this its name!
