I have always had something of a soft spot for Capital Reef because it was the first Utah park I ever stayed in, and that was 19 years ago! Hard to believe I've been going to the Utah parks for that long now. I still really like this particular park. We arrived in Capital Reef National Park on Thursday morning, set up camp and then went to the Gifford House. This is a little historic farmhouse that they use as a semi-museum, semi-souvenir store. Our campsite this year was only a short walk from the Gifford House so as soon as camp was up, we went over there. They also happen to sell small one-person pies that my friend has been dreaming about since before we left on this trip. So we got pies, apple and cherry, and ate them first thing. Then we went to the Visitor's Center and then back into Torrey for ice and Subway sandwiches. Torrey's the closest place to get ice for the ice chest, and usually I have a massive fast food craving by the time we hit Torrey and am really looking forward to those Subway sandwiches. This year we were especially lazy and spoiled and ate out a lot rather than cooking at the campsite. My fast food craving wasn't strong, but I still enjoyed them.
Like most of the parks in Utah, Capital Reef has some amazing rock formations, well worth seeing. The first picture in this post is of a formation called the Castle, and it also shows some of the amazing rock colors in the area. One of the things I like about the park though is the stark contrast between the rocky formations and desert, and the very green and fertile campground and area around the Fremont river. There are fruit orchards there and massive old cottonwoods, and the campground is green and peaceful, with the sound of the river rushing by. This time of year it's usually muddy and rushing also, from the afternoon thunderstorms.
We spent most of the time in Capital being lazy, driving scenic routes and visiting the petroglyphs. Friday morning when we got up we hiked the short (1 1/2 mile) Fremont Trail. I've been wanting to hike it again ever since I went up it 19 years ago, and try to take pictures to compare to the ones I took back then. But usually we only spend one day at Capital Reef unless we're doing the Navajo Knobs hike. So if we only spend a day, it's too hot in the afternoon to go up that trail by the time we arrive and set up. And if we stay an extra day and hike the Knobs, I'm too tired for the extra mile and a half. So this year, just to do that hike, we stayed an extra day in Capital Reef without hiking the Knobs.
I did get my pictures, but now I have to find the original ones I took back in 1993. The picture looking down at the campground also shows another problem we had this year that was increasingly noticeable as we moved east across the state. The atmosphere was very hazy from the summer wildfires in Utah and Colorado. Late in the trip when we got to Grand Junction on the western side of Colorado and were pointed east into Colorado, you couldn't see the mountains at all! 
Of course that means we had plenty of time to be lazy, and drive to scenic overlooks like the Goosenecks and do scenic drives. The mosquitoes were really bad this year, especially here at Capital Reef and at Arches, so here we used the car to escape the little demons. I guess it's been a wet year out here. While we were visiting the petroglyphs we saw a gray fox bound up over a rock pile. This time neither of us was fast enough to catch him on film though. My friend did take some video of a group of tiny bats flitting and feasting over a wet part of the campground where the mosquitoes were really bad. You can actually catch glimpses of them in the video.
Saturday morning we got up and broke camp and drove to Moab. We stayed in Moab and hiked in Arches and visited Canyonlands, so my last vacation blog post will be about those two parks.
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