Capital Reef National Park follows a Waterpocket Fold...a place where the earth layers got pushed up. The geology and the landscape is quite different from Bryce Canyon! The following two pictures are off of the NPS website.
This is an aerial view...
You can see the red layer got shoved sideways and upwards.
Capital Reef has an orchard and if you go in season, you can pick the fruit. There was an old town here at one point and they still have a lot of the buildings...a school, a barn, a home that now serves as a gift shop/bakery. Today was going to be a day of hiking and more hiking!
We decided to head out from the campground and start on the Cohab Canyon trail and then take the Frying Pan trail over to see Cassidy Arch.
We started the hike in the morning. Of course, there were beautiful views all around.
The junction of the Cohab Canyon trail with the Frying Pan trail. We were wondering how they came up with that name...I said because in the middle of summer it feels like a frying pan out here?
Here is a REALLY REALLY big rock...
Don't believe me?? There is Jason sitting next to the big rock!
We made it over to the Arch...couldn't believe the size of it! It was weird to hike across the rock and all of a sudden turn and there it was! We had lunch at the arch...Jason had a nap and I had took some pictures of the surroundings!
Here is Jason napping after our exotic lunch of Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches. By the way, how can you not like PB&J sandwiches?? My niece and nephew only eat Peanut Butter...I just don't get it :) We are wondering what peak in the second picture's name was...we saw Molly's Nipple the other day!
The frog...come on...you have to agree with me that this looks like a frog!
Here is another angle of the Arch...and the view from the road. The first picture is from the hike...or the top of the arch. The second row of pictures are from the road. I had to search for it when we were on the road! I couldn't believe how big it was when we were on top of it...yet how small it looked from the road. I zoomed in on the arch for the second picture!
This is the closest I could get for this picture...I am scared of heights...strange that I can go hiking on all the trails with drop offs but can't walk to the edge and look over. This cliff...just dropped off...straight down...I would realize it until later how steep it was! I have added the picture that I took from the road of the cliff I was on when I took the first picture.
More views from the highest point on the Frying Pan Trail...
The campground was a welcome site after hiking over 9 miles! The second picture is the car! We stopped by the Gifford house on the way back to camp. It is an old homestead on property that is a gift shop and sells ice cream and pies. Jason bought some salsa to go with the chips back at camp and we had some ice cream. I had chocolate (of course) while Jason had Cherry. It sure did hit the spot.
After we got back to camp, we decided to head up to the Grand Wash trail and walk in to the Narrows. We didn't go all the way down the trail--we just followed the wash thru the Narrows. The walls of the Canyon were amazing--so tall and straight!
We then stopped by and checked out the Petroglyphs. There were multiple petroglyphs in the area...and unfortunately some of the rock walls have naturally fallen off and forever ruined the petroglyphs. I have cropped the pictures down to show the petroglyphs.
We did the scenic drive at Capital Reef after that...not too scenic after doing Bryce Canyon's scenic drive. We were able to see Cassidy's Arch and learn about the Oyler's Uranium Mines. You can still see the tunnels.
I will part with a picture of a really funny tree. We had brats and chips for dinner along with baked beans. I forgot to take a picture of it *gasp* because I was trying to figure out how I was going to clean my stove of the burnt baked beans :) We planned to have Apple Grahams for dessert but we met a couple from Wisconsin who brought us freshly baked cookies! That kind of spoiled dessert! We hiked about 12 1/2 miles today...total of 30 1/2 miles for the trip!
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