Sept. 13, 2010 Thousand Lakes RV Park Torrey, Utah

We drove about 4 hours this morning thru the desert to arrive here about noon. After getting things settled in the trailer and a wild chase after the dogs thru the campground, we ate some lunch then took a drive to Capitol Reef National Park about 12 miles away. At the entrance to Capitol Reef is a small little historic town called Fruita. This area is like a little oasis in the desert. It is situated on the Fremont River and is green and has lots of trees. There is also a fairly large apple orchard where they have signs to “pick your own”. The apples looked pretty small compared to those at home.

We drove on thru that area to the National Park area where the sign advised that it was a 20 mile round trip thru the park. You went in for 10 miles and back out on the same road. There were areas to pull off for pictures and areas to pull off and hike various trails. We stopped at one such hiking trail that went up a canyon between sheer rock walls called the Grand Wash that was 2½ miles long. To get to the hiking trail, you left the paved road and drove a winding rock and sand road about 3 miles into the canyon (this road followed the wash between the cliffs and ended at the beginning of the hiking trail). The hiking trail was rated easy but we went only about a half mile or so in to it before we turned around and came out. I was getting out of breath on it because it was a pretty gradual climb.





At the end of the 10 mile road, there was another rock and sand road that went about 4 miles into the canyon to reach the trail called Capitol Gorge. This trail was 1¼ miles in and was level so we thought we’d hike it at least part of the way in because it was supposed to have petroglyphs and pioneer markings and registries. We ended up walking the whole thing. At the very end there were supposed to be “tanks” with an 80 ft. climb. (These were supposed to be water pockets in the rocks.) I climbed up maybe 20 or 30 feet and decided I couldn’t go any further. Larry wanted to go on, so he kept going. There were a few other people doing the same thing. He climbed up to where he thought it should be, but never could find anything that fit the description. Other people had the same experience. One couple was still trying to find it by going in a slightly different direction. We never did talk to anyone who had found them. We came back totally exhausted. Luckily we had taken water in with us.





Fortunately we signed up for a meal that is to be served here at the campground tonight. Otherwise we would be eating sandwiches or cereal.