Capitol Reef Memorial Day weekend 2010

On a typical Memorial Day weekend we plan to not do anything because we know that the places we like to go will be crowded. This year Alene has not had much of a chance to do any camping (due to Bailey's bad sleeping) so we didn't care and planned a trip to Capitol Reef. We figured that Capitol Reef is so far off the map that it had a better chance of not being over-populated.

Since I could not get any time off work, Alene took Bailey and headed down on Thursday morning in the truck to try to find a campsite in the park. All the sites were taken, so she called Bill (who was on his way down with April) and he directed her to another campsite area outside the park along the Fremont River.

Once Alene got there and set up, she and Bailey played around the river and saw a snake. During the rest of the trip whenever Bailey saw a stream or river she would say "Snake, SSSSSSSS".







Bill and April arrived later that evening (check out Bill's photo blog to see some SICK evening pictures) and Bailey slept surprisingly good for Alene.

On Friday they all did some hikes around Capitol Reef while I worked. Caiden and I headed down Friday evening and did not arrive to the Park area until 8pm. I saw their cars parked at the Hickman Bridge trailhead, so we started heading up the trail to meet them about half way.

Bailey hiking bare-foot up the hickman bridge trail





We got back to camp, had a little fire, then went to bed. It was a WINDY day that day through all of Utah as the gusts were crazy even on the freeway ride down. That evening was a bit hard to sleep because of the wind, but Bailey slept good again (2 for 2).

On Saturday we got up and headed down to the petroglyph trail, then over to the visitor center. From there we decided to hike the Cohab Canyon trail, which heads east out of the park from the Big barn area.

Going up all the switch backs



Looking down on the Fruita park/campground area





Cohab canyon was beautiful with lots of fun little side canyons to explore.





(Bill's sister Whitney)



I tried to do some wall walking, but didn't get very far



After getting about halfway through the canyon, April and Bill offered to hike back to the cars and meet us on the other side of the canyon exit (at the Hickman Bridge trail head), so Alene, Caiden, Bailey, Whitney and I kept going through. We took a side trail up to the North overlook.





Once we met up at the other side, Bill offered to drop Alene and I off at the Sulphur Creek trailhead and watch our kids while we hiked the river back down to the Fruita visitor center. It was a 5 mile hike and we weren't quite sure what to expect. We were blown away by how beautiful and amazing this hike was. Definitely one of the best hikes I've done in terms of terrain, and scenery with water flowing, lots of greenery, and LOTS of waterfalls. Keep in mind that we just did Coyote gulch a couple of weeks ago and while this hike didn't feature the huge alcove cut-outs, it was very comparable.

The beginning of the un-marked trail starts across from the Chimney Rock parking area. The wash looks like this for about a mile until you reach Sulphur Creek



We enter the river area



A small alcove



More pictures of the river as we hiked down

























We ran into Bill, April, Whitney and the kids at this waterfall about 3/4 of a mile from the end.



Alene stayed back with Caiden, Bailey, and Lanik (April and Bill's son), while I took Bowen (April and Bill's other son), Bill, April, and Whitney in my truck up to drop them off so they could do the hike too. (see Bill's blog for their pictures)

While we waited at the Fruita park, the deer were all over the place, not really caring that we were 15' away



After they got back, we were all pooped. We headed into Torrey and grabbed a bit to eat, then headed back to camp for the night. Bill took this AWESOME photo of our campsite




We stuck around the campfire as long as we could before it was bed time. Bailey slept well again (3 for 3) so we were stoked that we knew she was warming up to camping. We think the warmer weather had something to do with it.

On Friday morning Caiden and I did the full hike up to Hickman Bridge while Alene and Bailey hung around Fruita for a bit.

Caiden on a little bridge on the way up to Hickman



Hickman Bridge (someday I'd like to hike on top of it)





After that we headed back home for the long drive. We snapped a picture of this local sheriff in Loa taking a nap



It was a great trip and I can't wait to get back to see more of Capitol Reef. The only major issue with this park is that if you want to get out and see more of it (it covers a lot of area) you have to drive for a while to really get out and see more. We pretty much saw most of the major local stuff off the highway.

I'm going to end this blog with pictures of all the various desert flowers in full bloom while we were there.

I really like Capitol Reef and Cohab Canyon is fun! Thanks for sharing.

totally agree

and I really love Capitol Reef, one reason I"ll stay there again this year for one or two days.
I really love your campsite, is it easy to find?
Is it near the river crossing? I can remember, there were some spots that looked similar and I made a mentally note that it would be a great campsite
And wow, those Sulphur Creek shots are really awesome

The campsite is outside the park on the east side along Hwy 24, north side of the Hwy. There are several along that area to pick from (primitive obviously).

My family and I have been visiting Capitol Reef just about every year as far back as I can remember. One of my favorite hikes is Cassidy Arch. I love that even in the middle of the summer it's not overly hot because of the elevation. Did you see the little Fremont grainery on the way to Hickman Bridge? I believe there are also some pithouse remains on that hike but there's not much left of them.

Yeah- there's the granary. The pithouses are nothing more than black rings of lava rock.

Cassidy Arch is on our list of hikes to do. My wife really wants to do it.