This is Liz here. Many of the crew has gone into town to resupply, but the children and I are in camp happily playing. We have been having so much fun that we didn't have time to write! I told Mark that although I am not nearly as witty, I would try to get us up to date.
July 23, 2011
Traveling from Capitol Reef, we took Route 12. Car and Driver rated this the most scenic drive in America and they were not exaggerating! The scenery was so amazing and so varied. Every 5 minutes it looked like we were in a different part of the country all together. There were sage flats, aspen forests growing into slickrock, red and orange rock hoodoos and more. From the passenger seat, I think the highlight was driving the RVs across a hogback. For those of you unfamiliar with the word, a hogback is a ridge with steep cliffs on not one, but both sides of the road. I didn't know which way to lean, and was glad for once not to be driving! Tonight there is a big rodeo in town with a firework show following to commemorate a Utah holiday called Pioneer Day. Pictures will surely follow!
July 22, 2011
The scenic drive in Capitol Reef was finally open today. We stopped at the visitor center and all three kids got their Junior Ranger badges. We drove a mile down the road to the Gifford House, a historic homestead within the park. They maintain orchards, and apricots were in season, so we had our first experience picking fresh apricots from a tree. We used these neat basket/grabber arm extensions to get the ripest fruit from the tops of the trees. Everyone tried and enjoyed them! As this was part of the park, they asked $1 a pound, and we picked 6 pounds! Make sure grandma knows we turned it into compote and froze some for her!
After we'd picked our fill, we started to hike the Colab Canyon Trail. Mark drove to the bottom of the trail and hiked up to meet us. The beginning of the trail was a brutal set of 21 switchbacks going up almost 700 feet. My favorite (and I am being ironic here) part was that Isabella chose this moment to try to push past Poppy and Yaya on the cliff-fall-to-your-doom side. It was hard to be a part of, but once we reached the top the hike was amazing. The sandstone at the top was white with many pine trees growing all around. There were several slot canyons to the sides of the trails, which even Yaya got into climbing! Alex did some death defying free climbing up a sheer rock face with these small hole-like erosion patterns - I think the only thing that kept him from going further was Dad's anxiety and the idea placed in his mind that spiders or other creatures might have made the rocks their homes in the holes and might not like his hand there! Dad stopped to take some pictures, and the rest of us hid in a small area around a corner. We jumped out and growled, scaring him. The funniest part was when some tourists from another country passed us on the trail, they mentioned they thought they'd heard a mountain lion and to keep our eyes open. We didn't have the language skills to explain our joke... See the pictures to get the idea! Mark met us half way down. We finished the rest of the hike (about 2 miles total) together. On the drive back to the campground we stopped to see the Freemont Petroglyphs. Kieran was interested to talk about the difference between historic rock art and graffiti.
July 21, 2011
The water was finally down far enough to take the Great Wash hike. It was a great hike (about 4 miles total), but especially interesting to take after the extreme flooding that happened on our way into the park. The ranger mentioned that this area traditionally receives 7 inches of rain total in a year. In the past 2 days it had rained 3 inches. Because of this rain, there were many areas along the hike that were still wet. The red mud looked like melted milk chocolate - where it was drying it curled up over the surface, giving the appearance of walking on chocolate curls. The rocks we were walking on were many different colors. In many places it looked like you were walking on candy the purples and greens, oranges and yellows were so vivid. It was a wonderful hike, but as we'd started a little late, the shade was minimal. At the two-mile mark, we turned around. Other than the rocks, the highlight of the trip was seeing a mother bighorn sheep and her lamb. They were busy eating some of the fresh greenery brought back to life by the recent rain.
There had been road construction to repair the scenic road above the Great Wash. Along the hike Mark and the kids found various parts of the construction barrels. On the way back the kids filled their packs with the smaller parts, and Mark carried a barrel on his head like a basket of fruit. How's that for picking up litter?
After such a hike, we decided to go out to eat at Cafe Diablo. It was divine! Southwest food at it's freshest and finest, pared with a chef who took great pride in the presentation of each plate. We took pictures of the entrees for Aunt Sarah to enjoy, but you are welcome to salivate as well. Taro root cakes, plantain chips, yucca fries, rattlesnake cakes..... I could live off the memories of this food for a week. The homemade ice cream was amazing. Izzie picked mulberry ice cream, and it voted the best flavor by the Gownezio clan.
We set up the telescope for the first time that night. It was a bit of a procedure - Dad brought out the computer and read the setup steps to Mark and then double-checked to make sure it was all okay. It turns out they were supposed to sight it in the daytime to align the site to the GPS computer attached, so there was more cursing and banter to get that fixed. Finally, the set up was complete and Mark lined up the first object in his field of vision. It turned out to be Saturn. You could see the rings! It was so cool! We sat around the campfire taking tuns looking at objects until we got ready for bed! It was a late night for the kids!
June 21, 2011
Our first full day in the park was started with many mishaps. The sliding counter came off its hinges requiring a 30 minute fix. The bathroom wouldn't flush - another 30 minutes down. One thing happened after another, and when Mark had all the packs ready, all the kids ready, and all the morning clean up done, Dad was still in his pajamas. Oh dear!
Once underway, we chose to do the hardest hike first. It was called Chimney Rock, a 3.8 mile hike with a 900 foot elevation gain. This is not the longest nor the most elevation gain we have ever done. However, this was our first desert hike and there was absolutely no shade to be found. Again, most of the elevation gain was at the beginning of the hike and on the edge of various cliff faces, but there was a wonderful cool breeze that followed us our entire hike. We couldn't believe when we got to our high point how far up we'd come - we were looking down on Chimney Rock from above, and could see in the distance our car like a tiny little speck. We had plenty of water, and finally found a large sandstone rock big enough to cast a shadow we could sit and eat our lunch beside. Two thing happened - one, there was some creature that had made the underside of the rock its home as evidenced by a LOT of strange looking poop (I mean scat - we are, after all, naturalists here). Also, I found a water bottle still full to the brim of still frozen water. How refreshing! The hike was a loop, and as we followed our tireless hike leader, Alex, we saw the most intense yellow-colored rocks. We were not sure of their content - Liz suggested sulphur, Dad was worried about Uranium cakes though, and wouldn't let us explore too closely.
Mom, Dad, Mark, and Alex all got bad headaches that afternoon. (too much heat, too little water?) The kids all enjoyed the pool with Mark while some of us (Liz) slept until dinner. A good day was had by all! Dinner was spaghetti with the first of Dad's sauce we've had since we left home. SO GOOD!
July 20, 2011
We drove form Colorado Springs to Torrey, Utah today to get to Capitol Reef. The drive was lovely. When we were almost at the park, we started seeing signs of flash flooding. The banks of what looked like creeks were flooding with red, turbulent water. At one point were were stopped by park rangers who informed us we would have to wait until the road was cleared before proceeding. The flooding was so bad it had knocked down trees, carrying rocks, sand and other debris into the roadway which the park rangers cleared with some nifty looking, well placed construction gear. We got set up at 1,000 Lakes RV park. Dad made dinner while Mark, Liz, Mom and Izzie drove back into the park for some information. Our first campfire in a while! Chicken cooked on a wood campfire is the best!
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