Capitol Reef National Park

Yesterday ended with a beautiful sunset.  I took a picture this morning to show the snow on the mountain which can be seen in the sunset picture.  It got down in mid 20's last night but thankfully, we have heat in the motorhome.

We didn't leave camp until 9:00 a.m.  It is nice to be able to relax in the morning before hitting the road.  Capitol Reef is a small park so we knew we would have time to see what we wanted to see.  We took a short hike to a place called "The Goosenecks"   After that I took another hike in the same area.  Carol sat that one out.

I took this picture from the hike I took.  It shows the valley of Fruita looking so beautiful with the trees and their golden leaves.  Mormon settlers came to this valley and planted fruit orchards.  Now that the entire area is a national park, the trees can be harvested by visitors.  In the past when we have been here, we picked apples from the trees.  We have never been here this late in the fall and didn't realize how beautiful the trees would be.  I love fall and felt sad to think I would miss the changing leaves of Illinois but I got to enjoyed them here in Utah.  The Mormons named the area Fruita because of the fruit trees they planted.

There is one paved road that goes into the park so we took that road and then two other unpaved roads.  We had never been on the unpaved ones.  We saw the huge stone canyon walls from the floor of the canyons and it was awesome.

There is a very nice campground in the park that is in the orchards.  The deer are very plentiful.  They are protected here and have a ready food supply in the orchards.  We have camped here three other times and always saw deer in the campground.  We didn't camp here this time because the campground does not have electricity.  We missed not being in this campground.

Everywhere we looked  we saw golden trees.

Uranium was once mined here. It was unsuccessful but the remnants remain.

I took this picture because I thought this rook looked like the face of a pig.  What do you think?

This barn was built by one of the Mormon settlers.

This house is an original building from Mormon days.  The original house was only one room but over the years, they built additions to that one room house until it looked like this.

The view from that house.  What a view they had.  They worked hard and probably didn't have time to sit and marvel at their surroundings.

By the house and barn there is a meadow with cottonwood trees.  There are two extremely large trees that have been here since the settlers came into the valley.   There was a sign telling of the things these trees would have seen over the years.

The tree by the road is called the "Mail Tree" because it was a common area where the settlers would receive their mail.

The trunk of both trees were enormous.  You can judge the size by comparing it to Carol.

This is the Little Fremont River that flows through the valley.  

Beginning of week eight and we are still having a great time together.

One picture of the deer drinking from the river.

The Capitol Dome rock.  It was named by the early settlers because they thought it looked like the dome of the Capitol Building.

This is the last picture I took because my SD card was filled!!  There was so much beauty and I just kept snapping pictures.   We left the park about 2:30 and decided to drive up Highway 12 which is considered one of America's premiere scenic highways.  We have driven it two times before but it was still very beautiful.  There is a spot on the road where you are literally driving on the crest of the mountain.  When you look left or right, all you see are valleys below on both sides.  It is breathtaking.  We didn't drive that far today. We only drove to the town of Boulder and then returned back to camp.

It is going to be another cold night and the wind is blowing again.  We are sad to leave this place.  We both think it is a hidden gem in the national park system.  It is out of the way and not easy to get to but it is worth the effort to visit it.  Carol ranks it right behind the Grand Canyon.  I agree it is a special place.  Tomorrow we leave here for Arches National Park in Moab.   I have already put a large SC card in my camera in anticipation of lots of pictures.