From the Grand Canyon we drove north to Capitol Reef National Park, one of our very favorite parks. We've visited before, but this was our first time staying at the Fruita campground within the park. We had one of the nicest spots in the campground, right next to an enormous shade tree. The Fremont river is just on the other side of the tree.
Visible from the campground is the Gifford Homestead. During the 1880's this area alongside the Fremont river was settled by Mormons who worked the land and planted fruit orchards (hence the name of the town/campground). The park service has preserved both the homestead and a nearby one-room schoolhouse as a living history museum.
The park service also cares for the 2500 fruit trees in the orchards along the river. Inside the Gifford farmhouse, they sell fresh fruit pies and other baked goods. The best kind of souvenir, in my opinion!
We hiked part of the Cohab Canyon trail and were able to get a good perspective on the fruit orchards. The lush landscape along the river is a drastic contrast to the arid desert land on either side of the river valley. You can see why the Mormons would choose to settle here.
Of course the Mormons weren't the first human inhabitants of this area. From about 600-1300 A.D., Fremont tribes and Ancestral Puebloan people lived here. They lived in pit houses and left many artefacts of archaeological significance, including some amazing petroglyphs.
Humans aren't the only residents in the park. Some of our campground guests included wild turkeys and a small herd of deer.
The last time we were here we only had limited time for hiking. But for this trip we were excited to be able to explore a bit more. One of the first hikes we did in the park was to Cassidy Arch.
Cassidy Arch is named for Butch Cassidy, the famous outlaw who grew up in this part of Utah. His boyhood home is not far from the park. The area near Cassidy Arch trail would be the perfect place for outlaws to hide out from the law -- lots of twisting canyons and interesting rock formations.
The Cassidy Arch trail is one of the most popular hikes in the park. But because of an extra-early start, we only encountered two other hikers while we were on the way up (they were on their way down, so they must've had an extra-extra-early start!). By the time we got to the trail summit we had the whole arch to ourselves.
Coming down, we encountered many more hikers. It was still pretty early in the day, so we decided to hike partway into the nearby Grand Wash as well. There were many narrow slot canyon passages.
Once we got back to the parking area, we could see gray clouds and lightning on the horizon. We did not want to be in the narrow canyon during a storm so we got back in the car and headed back to the campground. This was June 23rd. There was a rainstorm in the afternoon and a flash flood did come through the areas of Grand Wash (where we had been hiking) and Capitol Gorge, stranding hikers and destroying vehicles. Luckily no one was hurt. We spent most of that rainy afternoon safe and dry in the tent, but after the rain stopped we could hear the rescue helicopters working late into the evening bringing people out of the wash to safety. For the rest of our three-day visit, most of the popular hiking trails were closed for safety reasons due to the storm damage. We did manage to hike part of the Cohab Canyon trail to the Fruita viewpoint (as I mentioned above) and we also hiked to Hickman Bridge. The Hickman trail was a lot more crowded, probably because it was one of the only open trails in the park. We loved our time at this park and I am sure we will return again in the future.
After a week of traveling, we stopped in the nearby town of Torrey to do a quick load of laundry. Then we headed up the road to Teasdale where we had splurged on a one-night stay at the Red River Lodge.
What a place! It's a huge working ranch, over 2000 acres, and the lodge is luxuriously furnished.
There are 15 guestrooms, and we loved the vintage theme of our room on the third floor. It felt like we were living in a movie set.
This was a wonderful place to hang out and relax. We spent the afternoon lounging outside watching the sun move over the red cliffs nearby. And Kevin made a friend. We hope to stay here again next time we head to Capitol Reef.
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