Peddle, peddle, peddle, peddle as fast as we can to get to Capitol Reef National Park from Mesa Verde because we know that there is only one campground in the Park and we are determined to stay in it just like we did eight years ago. My memories of the place are all good, really good. Peaceful, beautiful campground right next to the Fremont River, biking long rides all by ourselves. But, here's the deal, it's first-come, first-serve, hence our hurried pace.
We couldn't help ourselves though when we crossed the bridge over the Colorado River. Too picturesque not to stop, and you can do cartwheels down the center lane if you want.
Nobody on the road, nobody passing us by. We got this. School's not even out yet, right?
Quick nerd shot of the entrance before we get our perfect campsite. But wait, what's that, no place to park at the Visitor Center. WTH, campground full! Oh, the humanity. This cannot be, let's check at the actual campground. I give the camp host credit, he didn't actually laugh when we asked if the campground was, in fact, full. According to him it was full since 9 a.m. If I knew how to insert a frowny face emoji I would.
So, we were forced into an RV Park in the town of Torrey 9 miles outside the National Park. To add insult to injury, when I opened the Bambi up a dozen eggs, a quart of yogurt and the pickles were all over the floor. The fridge door had come open at some point and just dumped the contents onto our rug. Gross! A dozen broken eggs mixed with yogurt and pickle juice is not as much fun to clean up as you would think.
RV Parks are our last resort unless we need to do laundry but we are intrepid pioneers at this point so we wiped our tears and soldiered on.
Maybe it's like I said and school is already out or maybe it's because it's the centennial of the National Parks but, yikes, the park is crowded. Not Yellowstone or Yosemite crowded, but still when we came here 8 years ago it was a paradise. We pretty much had the run of the place with no one on the road, at the campsites, or on the trails. But now, jeesh.
Ok, enough whining. We were stuck in a different kind of Park, RV vs. National for 3 days and that was that. So we got up early every day at the crack and guess what? We mostly had the trails and roads to ourselves. Including the most popular hike in the park.
Yeah, just so you know, that's not Hickman's Bridge one of the most popular hikes here. As we walked the trail around 7:00 a.m. we only encountered one other hiker who was going in the opposite direction, and he was basically like "Oh, you just missed the best light, it was beautiful, gorgeous, amazing, just 10 minutes ago". So we get there and we are like "Really?" this is kinda meh, whatever let's take a bunch of pictures anyway. Yeah, we are basically idiots, cuz that's not Hickman's Bridge, it's a little further along. We stopped too soon.
I googled it after the hike and we, very briefly, considered rehiking it, but then we drove past the parking lot later and it was completely full, so, much like Bush 43, we declared this mission accomplished.
We did several hikes short hikes in the park.
Anasazi selfies
The Fremont River hike starts out easy, peasy along the river where you'll likely encounter birds and kids playing hide and seek and grandmas with walkers, but then it starts climbing up a narrow trail straight up till you reach panoramic overlooks of Fruita. Fruita was a Mormon settlement where they grew, wait for it, .....fruit.
Yellow-breasted Chat
That green valley is Fruita and if you hit it at the right time of year, you can pick your own apples, peaches, and pears but it was too early for us.
Notom-Bullfrog Road and Burr Trail
If you look online and read about this road, you probably wouldn't take it. The descriptions include words like harrowing, scary, rough, hair-raising. Well, I'm here to tell you quit being a wuss because not a hair was raised on my head. It's not that bad and I know because I am a wuss. Fred has dragged me down way more scary roads than this one.
Here's the deal. All of Capitol Reef National Park is part of the 100 mile wrinkle in the earth called the Waterpocket Fold. It's a geology thing, look it up you might learn something for God's sake. The Notom-Bullfrog Road gets you the best looks at the fold but be forewarned it's 34 miles of unpaved, bumpy, washboard road. But, hey you'll get a nice redneck massage outta the deal so there's that. I made Fred stop every few miles because the desert was in full bloom and what's better than that. Nothing.
The Grand Staircase is not something Scarlett descended in Gone with the Wind. Nope, it's the massive rock step-down from the high desert plateaus all the way down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Lots of grand things out this way.
The turnoff to the Burr Trail is where things start to get really interesting. The switchbacks ascend 800 ft in half a mile.
That sign says 10 mph which is kind of a joke because no way can you go that fast
Hard to capture how twisty this road is, but once on the other side, we rewarded ourselves with a peanut butter sandwich lunch and a walk down a quiet, unmarked trail alongside a stream called Deer Creek.
On our last day we cheated and did 3 easy hikes. Goosenecks, Sunset Point and Grand Wash.
I'll really miss Capitol Reef. It's been 8 years since we were here and probably be another 8 or more before we return and you know it erodes every day so by the time I come back it could be a big 'ol pile of rocks. Not that I could tell the difference actually.
Every night as we drove back through the town of Torrey I nagged Fred to slow down because there was a cop car parked on the side of the road. By the third night I got suspicious so I had him pull up along side the car.
Yep, that's a mannequin. Well played City of Torrey, well played.
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