On to Capitol Reef

Hi all,
Oh boy, we have not had good Internet the last few days so a lot of catching up to do.
 We left Kodachrome headed for Torrey, Utah last Sunday. The weather was nice and sunny and the route was beautiful.

Torrey was to be our stepping off point to tour Capitol Reef.
 Tim and Renee are to meet up with us later on Monday needing to take care of chores in a nearby good sized city.
 We got a site at Thousand Trails Campground with a nice view of some Utah red rock. We decided as the sky was blue and the forecast not that we would sneak a peak into Capitol Reef.
 Just driving into the park you see some great views of the majestic formations. Capitol Reef is home to the Waterpocket Fold, a massive warp in the earths crust, creating unique features including colorful canyons, arches, bridges and domes.

Chimney Rock

Castle

 As we thought Monday was a crappy day, we awoke to a light rain and a pretty cold wind. We hunkered in the warm rv and Wendy made banana bread and a chili supper to battle the cold.

 On Tuesday morning we had snow on the ground. It melted by 10:30 so we joined Tim and Renee and headed into Capitol Reef. With a cloudy and high chance of rain forecast the next few days we just had to put on our big boy/girl pants and make the best of it.)
 We stopped in and got our orientation in the visitor center then headed out to check it out.
  Famous in the park is the old Mormon settlement of Fruita. In 1880 Mormon settlers established the community and using irrigation from the Fremont River created orchards that are still maintained by the park today.

 I would sure like to be here in the fall as you can get free sample apples, peach, pear, apricot, plum, and cherry in the orchard.
 To try and keep this short I will just post Wendy's pictures with some captions. Thanks for following along.
 

View from Gooseneck Overlook

Scenic Drive

Capitol Gorge Road

Tim & Renee

Fremont River



Home to a family of 13

Fremont Petroglyphs

Bryce Canyon- Part II

Hi all,
 We sure are having a time in Utah, if you ever get a chance do the tour and check out these fabulous national parks, grab it!
 We continued our tour of Bryce and boy was it fun. Wendy really pulled a good one, she had read on a trail ride to the canyon bottom and thought a great way to see the canyon and not have to hike up to get out. Although neither of us had rode a horse in over 30 years she decided it would be fun.
 So she booked the three hour trail ride which was the longer of rides available. The Peek a Boo loop was a 1:00 pm ride that took us to the heart of Bryce Canyon. We saw features named Wall of Windows, The Chessman, and Thors Hammer amongst the thousands of unnamed hoodoos and red rock spires.
 We lucked out and got a perfect weather day for this with just the right amount of clouds to help enhance our pics.
 Wendy got a big old horse named Tuff and I got a tall mule named Keystone (how fitting my favorite beer). Wendy really had a time as Tuff really liked to walk the edge- Wendy's side was sore from leaning away from the edge.

 They make one stop for a potty break at the canyon bottom, good thing they helped dismount or we would have fallen over for sure. And you just know how we felt at the rides end. Wendy and I both grabbed onto a nearby rail and waited until our legs came back.
 Overall we had a great time and a memory that will last for a long time.

On the edge

We had one more day in the park along with Tim and Renee to complete the drive to end of the park.
 Bryce Canyon is one beautiful place and you can just stand and stare at the vistas for hours never seeming to get it all in.

 Our next stop was a short drive to Panguitch, Utah. Panguitch is a neat old west town that had couple old west antique shops and not a whole lot more. Our reason for Panguitch was some Internet catching up and a few other chores needed to get done. ( Its not all fun and games, you know)).
 

Red Rock Canyon

Bryce Canyon part 1

Hi all,
 All we can say is WOW Utah just keeps getting better and better. We moved up to Kodachrome Basin State Park and yes it was named with the consent from Kodak because of the beautiful contrast of colors in the park.
 The park is tucked into a huge basin and also features nearly 70 monolithic spires with heights to 170 feet. It has a small campground with only 31 sites hidden in pinion pine and juniper trees. Also nice as many sites have full hookups and all the roads have been recently black topped.

View of campground from one of the trails

 There are some nice hiking trails in the park and a vender operates horseback rides into the nearby red rock canyon land.
  We met up with Tim and Renee and will be using this as our stepping off point to Bryce National Park.

 So off day one to check out the famous Bryce Canyon, we hit the visitor center first to get a feel of the park and the shuttle system that is also available. Turns out the shuttle only operates on a small portion of the park and is not mandatory to use as in Zion.

 We chose to make a drive to some of the vistas and rather than try and write to much will let Wendy's pictures do the talking.
 On the route home we stopped for a short hike to a waterfall.

 Day two we decided to take a drive up Scenic Byway 12.  We are camped along the 124 mile byway so we didn't have to go far to continue the drive. Again I will let the pics do the talking.

Tim, Renee, and Snap

lunch with a view

       We drove as far as Boulder taking in Anasazi State Park Museum.


Ancestral Puebloan habitation

The drive actually continues on to Torrey, Utah the doorway to Capital Reef National Park our next destination.