Thursday, March 22, 2018

Up nice and early today. The plan was to be on the road at 8:00 for our 2 1/2 -ish drive. The drive it was pretty non-eventful. The landscape in this part of the state is breathtaking and I’m pretty sure I would never get used to it if I lived here.

We altered our itinerary some to visit this park on this day since it was supposed to rain all day in Bryce Canyon which was where we originally planned to visit.

Once we reached the park, our first stop was…you guessed it, the Visitors Center. We got some tips on where to visit from the cashier and we were off. It is a relatively small park and didn’t seem to be very popular. It looked like we could see a lot of the park today.

Our first hike was up to the Hickman Natural Bridge. A one mile hike uphill almost the whole way and back down again. The hike started out nice and warm. But as we progressed, storm clouds rolled in. Rain would have been a real bummer, but it never did rain. But it did get more and more chilly as the hike went on.

The hike was great! And the natural bridge was amazing! I took a picture of Seth with the bridge in the background for his teacher, who recommended we make the trip to this park.

We continued our scenic drive around the park. We made a stop in Historic Fruita at The Gifford House for some homemade cinnamon rolls and a small strawberry-rhubarb pie for me.

Enjoying cinnamon rolls and strawberry-rhubarb pie at the Gifford House:

(My Awww Yeah! face. So good!)

The end of the scenic drive on paved road brought us to to a long dirt road with breathtaking canyon walls on either side. The end of this road brought us to our next hike.

The Capitol Gorge hike was about a 1 mile one way hike down a dry river bed. There was a “pioneer registry” on the canyon walls where settlers from the late 1800s and early 1900s would scribe their names and even leave their initials with bullets. Very cool.

This hike was the most fun for me. The kids were all having a great time hiking and climbing the surrounding walls. Toward the end of the trail Sonya and the boys hiked up a short trail called The Tanks. Not impressive according to their report. Savannah and Vivian enjoyed stacking rocks during this time and Dad enjoyed a quick snooze, his pillow a stone.

Pictures from the Capitol Gorge hike:

Heading back the scenic drive we stopped to see The Behunin Cabin and Schoolhouse. The Behunin family were Mormon settlers in this area for a very short time before being flooded out.

Behunin Cabin and Schoolhouse:

From there we wrapped up the day with a stop at a couple of views called The Goosenecks and Panorama Point. Two breathtaking spots where we took pictures.

Pictures from Goosenecks and Panorama Point:

One thing that these little country towns seemed to lack was any type of visible law enforcement. The speed limit slowed down as you passed through the town. But there wasn’t really anyone to enforce it. Except for Loa UT.

Because of the weather coming in, the drive back was very windy! Other than that, the scenery was beautiful and it was another great day.