Capitol Reef Utah; the lovely orchard

     Dinosaur poop, no, can't be, cow poop. This was our first thought coming into Capitol Reef National Park because of the big round black volcanic rock strewn around the hills. Note the big round rocks next to the flowers.

     Capitol Reef is simply an old pioneer orchard and within this orchard turned park is a fold in the earth that has water. That's it, that is the parks claim to being a national park. We had come from Moab where we were camped on the main drag in town and wanted the peace and quiet of off road camping. We got that here in Capitol Reef. For $5 a night we camped two nights in this lovely orchard. There is a restroom adjacent to the campsites with running water and flush toilets but no showers and no hookups.

 There were several marmots in the orchard and the park fed the deer.

There were turkeys all over the place.

     And this park has horses. The thought is to take the orchard turned park back to pioneer days. However, if that really happened, the orchard would not be livable. The pioneers left this area because they were not able to make it here. There was a school here that operated November through about March when no farming could be done. This was pioneered by Mormons.

    There are rock structures that are full of wholes and rocks that are greenish blue or rocks covered in sand that is full of bentonite. There are odd formations, the last of the pictures shows what we thought looked like some stone age baby rock atop a mommy rock.

     Around 1940 uranium was mined in the park and now there are hazards left behind from that. The mine shafts are barred because there is still radioactive ore present that could cause harm.  

     One problem, the gas furnace wouldn't light and it was turning quite cold. The first night we just hunkered down and were fine. But the next day it began to snow and it snowed, and snowed. The camp host allowed us to plug into the ladies room electricity so that we could run the electric space heater. Wonderful, this was a very wonderful place to camp and if you don't mind skipping the shower, it is cheap and has a very fine view. There is very clean water just steps away from the campsite. There is, of course, no wifi and in fact, no phone service of any kind – there is a payphone at the camp loop.

     It got so cold that the irrigation to the orchard became ice.

We went into the tiny town to get a few things and the snow just kept coming.

But it was a treat to see some of the rocks in snow.

 It didn't stop us from doing everything, we still saw the petroglyphs there.

And we had to take a look at what they call Chimney Rock.

     But the next day we were on our way to Bryce Canyon. There is not a great deal to see in Capitol Reef but we did like camping here. Much like Arches, neither of us can say what makes this National Park worthy – yes, if you are in the area stop by but it is not worth planning a trip to see just this park. Five parks in Utah seems quite excessive. This is a lovely orchard, if you are in the area, go. On the way to Bryce we saw bison in the snow.

     I leave you with this view of the rocks within the park as the snow is coming down. Get out and enjoy your National Parks! Your tax dollars at work!