First Stop on our Southern Utah Tour: Capitol Reef

Earlier this month, we took the opportunity to go explore Utah. James had a conference to go to in St. George and I convinced him to bring us along since AJ was out of school that week anyway. Then we decided to throw in some national parks while were were at it. So I am going to spend the next few days showing you the wonders of the western half of Utah's red rock country. (We're hoping to do the eastern half in the fall.)

I've been to most of places of any consequence in Utah either when I was working for the state, or just for fun. But the first day of our journey took us to a part of the state I'd never been to before: Wayne County and Capitol Reef National Park. We drove through the tiny towns of Sigurd, Loa, Bicknell, Teasdale and arrived in the booming town of Torrey. (Not much booming there, but compared to the other's it's a real big town complete with an Internet Cafe.)

Just past Torrey you enter Capitol Reef National Park. While you might think all the Red Rocks look the same, the ones in Capitol Reef have more variation in color. And you can't really tell from these pictures, but the middle of the canyon is lush an green. Here's my picasa collage of our day there (click on it to see it bigger):

In Capitol Reef, you are mostly at the bottom of the canyon, although there is an area where you do over look the Goosenecks that is really cool too. The other really cool thing about Capitol Reef compared to other National Park's I've been to so that there is an ever so tiny pioneer town right in the middle of it called Fruita. It gets it's name from the orchards that are there. It really did amaze me how much grew right there in the desert. If you ever make it there, be sure to get some truely yummy pie at the Gifford Farm house too.

The boys loved climbing rocks and checking out all the petroglyphs too. I loved finding all the wild flowers in bloom at all of our stops along the way. We kept the boys entertained by pointing out rock formations and trying to explain how they came to be. (Wish I'd taken more geology classes in college.)

If you ever get the chance to do it, go to Capitol Reef. It is a little remote and out of the way, but well worth the trip for sure. Come back tomorrow and I will share the second day of the journey.