Adventuring {Capitol Reef National Park}

Ever since Gregg's sister Heather and her family got back from a trip to Capitol Reef a couple of months ago and told us all about it, we've been itching to get our little family out on a National Park adventure.  Capitol Reef is one that we'd both been to, but didn't really remember since it had been years and years and we didn't spend much time there anyway.  From what Heather's family said, it sounded like a perfect fit for our small hikers and a great way to spend a weekend.  So, we booked a cheap hotel in Bicknell, loaded up the car with sandwich fixin's and jammies and headed off after Gregg finished up with some work on Thursday (April 28th) afternoon.  Turns out this trip became a rainy day road trip, too.  Adventure, here we come!

First stop: dinner at the Santa Queen in Santaquin.

Onion rings as big as my face.  Holy moley.

Can't get enough of these wide open roads and
moody clouds.

Yep, another one.

Oh wait, did I say "rainy day road trip"?  I meant
"snowy day road trip".

It got pretty sketchy there for a few miles.

Potty pit stop at the entrance to some farmer's field.
What a trooper that Dad is!  (It was quite chilly
and windy out there.)

After a pretty horrible night's sleep (turns out Sam's amazing sleeping improvements as of late went completely out the window in our hotel.  Cal woke up a ton, too.  Let's just say it was a looong night.  But luckily morning comes every time, and Friday morning came in cool and snowy (nothing sticking, but flakes were falling outside our window).  We ate some breakfast and headed to the park for some exploring.  First stop: Hickman Natural Bridge trail.  Cal was a fantastic little hiker and Sam did awesome in the pack.  We had a few rain showers at first (barely enough for the umbrella to come out), but by the time we came down the trail, the sky was blue and the sun was shining!  What a fantastic mood changer for me, especially.  Trompin' a trail really is good for my soul.

Startin' out on the trail.

Cal (age 2) by the number 2 post.  We had fun
spotting all the numbers (and wondering where the
missing ones could have disappeared to).

These cacti were so red and so beautiful!

 

There's seriously nothing like hiking in red rock
country.

Happy hiker baby.

Cool sky.  Cool rocks.

Happy hiker kid.

Can you see the bridge?
(It's pretty camouflaged.)

 

The trail takes you right underneath and it
is huge!

Does anyone know the difference between a
natural bridge and an arch?

Family selfie under the bridge.

So many layers!

There's that sky turning blue! 

 

There are a couple more little bridges to the
left of Gregg and Cal - they were checking
them out.

I thought the ripples of the creek beds were so cool.

 

I loved the swath of bright spring green that
followed the river through the park.

After our hike, which was supposedly only a mile (one way) but felt much longer than that (maybe because I had a baby on my back and we were moving at a two-year-old's pace?) we drove back down the road to the "bridge hike" we passed earlier.  It was really a short, quarter-mile, boardwalk that took us along the "Petroglyph Panel".  The drawings were a bit tricky for Cal to see, but she did notice many, many fuzzy caterpillars along the railings of the boardwalk, so she renamed that hike the "Caterpillar Bridge".

The biggest and most petroglyphs were here, right in the middle
of the photo, above and to the left of where a chunk has fallen
off the wall.

Across the street from the petroglyphs was this field and those
rocks.  I thought it was pretty.

Can you see any?  I can't either.  Ha.

He really is the happiest baby.

We then headed to the visitor's center to get a stamp in our passport.  We also picked up a map and paid the fee for the scenic drive, which we took (twice) while the kiddies napped after lunch.  Lunch was lovely at a great picnic area near the orchards.  Sam was loving his new-found sitting and scooting skills while he got to be out of the carseat.

I snapped this mostly for my sister, Heather, the plant girl.
But I thought it was a cool story and fun to see it blooming
in real life!

Here's the vine in the flesh.

With blossoms, too!

All scenic drive shots were from the front seat of the car because
we didn't stop since there were nappers in the back seat.  All the
hiking along this stretch was hard to access, too, since the dirt roads
to the trailheads were closed due to wash-outs.

Great clouds and red rocks.  Cannot be beat.

 After naps, we stopped at the historic Gifford House for a pie and a cinnamon roll (saved both for breakfast the next day) and then headed back to the hotel for some much anticipated pool time.  Cal was so excited to go swimming and Sam got some splashing time, too.  (His first time in a pool!)

Just look at those trunks!

Not too sure what to expect at first.

But he got into it pretty quickly.

Cal wouldn't jump into Gregg's arms, but she was quite good
at reading all the "no's" on all the signs.

Little fishies.

After dinner at a tasty Mexican restaurant in Torrey, we ventured out for "one more hike".  We chose The Goosnecks Overlook, which indeed had some spectacular views, but was pretty dang scary with steep and deep dropoffs and very little fencing.  We hurried back to the parking lot and when Cal asked for one more, we obliged on Sunset Point, which started in the same parking area, and was the most spectacular views of the day.  The name was fitting and we lucked out with our timing because the lighting and clouds and rocks were just . . . wow!  What a way to end our trip!

My only picture from the goosenecks - I was too
worried about wrangling kiddos and not dropping
my phone off a cliff to get anything else.

 

Oooh, this is gonna be good.

Smiles all the while.

YES!  Wowza!

Family selfie fail.

Good thing there was a nice lady willing to take our picture
and share her shadow.  I love this shot of us.

We had a little time for some cairn building.

And eating.

  

It's so fun to explore and discover and be outside with this little
person.

My squishy bundle of gladness.

We slept one more night (badly, again) and waited for the pool to open the next morning before realizing that the pool was not going to be open in time for us to swim before we needed to hit the road.  Cal was disappointed (mild word for it) but we loaded up the car and made the trek home, stopping in Nephi at a windy park for lunch and playtime.  We made it home in time for naps for everyone and pizza for dinner.  Pretty great way to spend a weekend with my favorites, if you ask me.