Capitol Reef National Park

We decided to spend a day and a half exploring Capitol Reef National Park.  After hitting the ranger station for some advice we decided to head to Cassidy Arch to see our 1^st ever arch (remember we are Minnesotans who have never been in this part of the country).  A 1.7 mile hike got us there.

The arch was much larger than we expected.  When we got there a group of climbers was setting up to rappel 100 feet to the bottom.  That gave us an idea.  Here we are in a climber’s playground.  We have our approach shoes on.  So……we decided to try a little bouldering and scrambling on the sandstone.

We had fun climbing up to the highest viewpoint so we could look into the valley.

We saw some unique sandstone features that made me think of…….never mind.  You decide.

We also hiked down the Grand Wash through a canyon cut through the sandstone by occasional floods.  It made some intricate sandstone formations.

Then we drove through Frutia on the way to the next hike.  We spotted two massive gnarley cottonwoods that we had to visit.  We thought of them as grandpa and grandma of the oasis.  I always love seeing the big trees.

Our next hike was to the Natural Bridge.  We crossed through the ‘dangerous’ rockfall hazard area.

We came to the natural bridge.

And we managed to stay on the trail with the help of appropriately placed signs.

All in all Capitol Reef was a nice park that I think we covered well in a couple of days.