Capitol Reef National Park

Monday October 30th we left the house around 9:15AM. The drive on I-25 and I-70 was uneventful. Our only challenge was in Rifle, where we stopped to buy propane. Google failed us, with phone numbers disconnected or no answer, or places where they do not fill propane tanks. Finally we stopped at the Fire Department, who directed us to Action Shop Services; they primarily sell and repair small engines, such as chainsaws or lawnmowers. They filled the propane tank, telling us that they too have been deceived by Google Maps. We arrived at Island Acres campground after 3 PM; it is a nice campground but with highway sounds, railway sounds, and river sounds.

Tuesday we headed for Clifton, where we knew that there was a City Market. After shopping there, we headed to the Loves at the west end of Grand Junction, where we fueled and bought more propane. We knew that propane would not be available where we were going, and that we would use quite a bit of propane in the cold nights. We stopped at Stan's Burger Shack in Hanksville, where we were surprised to be waited on by a Cuban lady with a strong accent. We drove to the Fruita campground at Capitol Reef, and dropped off the 5^th wheel. We went to the visitor center, where we bought geology books and watched their introductory film about the Waterpocket Fold. We decided to visit the Gifford shop and museum; Fruita was a small Mormon community where they grew fruit. The Gifford family was the last family to live there. There are 19 orchards, growing 50 varieties of fruit. The park is replanting some of the trees, and caring for the orchards. We decided to take the scenic drive, and continued as far as we could. The cliffs were spectacular, with the sun shining on them and blue skies. We saw a herd of deer on the drive.

Obsidian

Wednesday we bought a couple of cinnamon rolls at the Gifford house, and then headed for the Grand Wash road for a hike. We hiked down more that halfway, past the narrows, which are about 15 feet wide. We had lunch at the camper, and went to the Geology talk at 3 PM. Shauna covered 270 million years of history in about 30 minutes. Each layer of strata has its own story, sea bottom, swamp, beach, sand dune,etc. The park protects the Waterpocket Fold, a 100 mile long monocline.

The herd of 17 deer seems to hang around the campground. The campground is quite nice, one of the nicest that we can recall, with good space between campsites. We are having to run the generator quite a bit to keep the battery up in the cold weather; the furnace draws a lot of battery, and the solar is not putting out a lot this time of year.

Thursday morning a tree crew was taking down trees in the campground. We drove to Capitol Gorge for a hike. We went down the trail a couple of miles. Richard hiked up to the “tanks”, natural potholes that hold water. Richard found one tank with water in it; tanks were important for travelers in the desert. In the afternoon we went to see the petroglyphs near the river. The weather was nice, so we just sat outside in the campground soaking up the sun and enjoying the day.

Friday morning we packed up and got on the road. Our first stop was Torrey, where we bought gas and picked up information at the visitor center. Highway 12 is spectacular, and we kept stopping at scenic overlooks. We stopped at Anasazi State Park, where we watched the video and looked at the exhibits. The lady at the desk at the park told us to go have lunch at the Burr Trail Grill in Boulder Utah, which we did. Our waitress raised the lamb that Richard ate! She told us a bit about the life in Boulder UT. the school has 20 students, pre-K to 6^th grade She and her husband are working on a ranch that is in a conservation easement, and they are applying regenerative agriculture principles. She said that the ranch looked much better after 5 years of work. We ate outside, as the weather was no nice.

We stopped to look at where Richard had put in for the Escalante river trip he took in May. The river is tiny; Sandi could hardly believe that Richard and Doug had paddled it. We stopped briefly in the town of Escalante to mail postcards and shop for T-shirts. We stopped at the visitor center in Cannonville, and got a helpful explanation of the Grand Staircase, which runs from the Grand Canyon to Bryce. We got to the campground near Bryce Canyon around 4 PM; Richard was tired. Highway 12 is beautiful, but the driving is not easy, especially in an RV. Then we discovered that there was no AC power getting to the camper. It took Richard a while to tear the power connector apart and get it going again. The campground is in the pines, so somewhat pretty; the water had been turned off due to the cold weather. It is kind of a gas station and campground; our site was tricky to get into. Not a five star campground, but not terrible. The people who run the place are looking forward to the end of the season, especially since they had stayed over last winter.