Woke up after a lovely sleep in the warm cabin, to fat snowflakes falling outside our window. Again! So it took us abit of motivation before we got going. Had some freshly baked muffins and very cheap tea/coffee from the campsite store, then hit the roads. Where we are staying in Torrey was exposed to the winds and very cold, about 0’degrees when we left.
Tanguy briefly braved the snow to draw on the table
Fortunately Capitol Reef was further down in the valley, sheltered and lower and it was a good few degrees warmer there. We started at the ‘Gifford House’ an old, Mormon farm house converted into a gift shop, where we got chatting to one of the ladies working who said the old school building was open today due to a past student volunteering there.
Some background: A historic Mormon farming town called Fruita still had scattered protected buildings at the start of the park, including an old blacksmiths shop, a stone museum and a school. So we figured we’d check out the school while he was there, had a chat to him and his wife in the tiny school building, which also had doubled as the church, community hall etc. Still had the original wood stove in the middle. We left there just as the next snow shower hit, and checked out some 800+yr old Native Indian Petroglyphs on the side of the road. They were pretty faded and not super exciting, but worth a look.
The old school building, circa 1896
Then started the scenic one way road in the park, before turning down a gravel side road to the start of some hikes. Luckily the sun was out now, and it had warmed up again. Enough to hike anyway! Hiked to the top of ‘Cassidys Arch’ another natural stone bridge on top of a ridge of mountains in the park. Had a snack lunch there and enjoyed being the only ones there which doesn’t seem to happen much in the US! Aside from a lone chipmunk (whom we love to have around), a juvenile kept us company today.
Cassidy’s Arch. The tiny black thing in the middle is me
How close do you dare, baby chipmunk?
The day was getting on so after we got down we drove the rest of the 10mi scenic drive, we decided to take the gravel/dirt section all the way to the end. Glad we did as it was even more beautiful with steep cliffs right next to both sides of the roads. After arriving, decided to do one more shorter hike down the river bed to some ‘Tanks’ basically wash-out round holes in the stone where pools of rain water collected.
Tanguy driving the gravel section of the road
Okay, time to head back and find some food! But this place is just too lively/beautiful, had to stop again when we saw Marmots right next to the road. Pretty exciting for me as I’d never seen them before, one of them stayed so watched him awhile. All the deer were out at this time too. On the way back to camp, stopped for dinner at ‘The Rim Rock’ restaurant, which offered 270′ views of the setting sun on the red cliffs and hills at the entrance of the park. Could definitely spend more time in this area, if it wasn’t so cold and we didn’t have Alaska to get to!
Marmot!
Back to our toasty warm cabin for one more night before hitting the road to our next destination.
–Zoe
Sort of a round-trip today?
Just for the fun of the road and the scenery
Like that!
It’s not always about the destination, today was about the marmot!
Baci
Love the idea of the drawing on the table !
Finally a good sleep in a warm confortable bed ! I guess you need that once a week at least. You have to be fit during the day as you do a lot of exercices.
Cute these little animals coming so close for a bite or two.
Lovely pictures !
Can’t wait for the next ones yaya!
xxx Mum
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