New old places

My last time at Capitol Reef I had seen the start of the Cassidy Arch trail but decided against it because of the nearly 1000ft elevation gain. This time though, as we were deciding which hikes to do Danielle suggested we give it a shot.

The hike starts from a parking lot down the Grand Wash and heads up a steep trail over slick rock and broken rock formations. This is my favorite kind of trail because in many places there isn't a well defined trail so you can kind of pick your own way through and it feels a bit more like canyoneering. There are amazing views down into the valley as you ascend and wind your way down the trail, the views changing and opening up new angles below. There are also varied and interesting rock formations and details along the trail itself so we of course stopped for lots of pictures.

Eventually we rounded a bend and could finally see the arch itself perched out on the corner of the canyon, overlooking the road to the Grand Wash 500+ ft below. Up ahead of us was a group with climbing gear and as we got to the arch they were getting setup to rappel down into the pit below the arch. We sat and watched  a few go down and I tried to lean over the edge and see down to the bottom but I never could. We took a few final pictures and had a light snack and then headed back as it was starting to get cloudy.

After the hike we took the scenic drive down to the end of the paved section and got pictures of the various rock formations along the way. We finished our visit with a couple of root beers and a peach cobbler at the general store.

That was all just the first part of the day. On the way out of the park we stopped off to see some of the petroglyphs along Hwy24. They really do look like aliens. From there we traveled on to Hwy95 which would take us the rest of the way to Chinle, AZ. Hwy95 cuts through the Glen Canyon scenic area after a long drive across a fairly boring trek. The Glen Canyon bit was awesome though, We were able to make up a ton of time carving through the quicker bends that arced back and forth through the canyon. We emerged on the other side and traversed a forested mesa where we cruised with virtually no other traffic. Eventually we dropped down into Blanding where we had dinner at a combination gas station/convenience store/bowling alley/A&W. Really.

The last 120 miles into Chinle went by quickly and we settled in to the hotel shortly after sunset. As we were unpacking we discovered our water was brown and a call to the front desk confirmed that was pretty much just the way it was in town. Our original plan was to spend two nights in Chinle but we quickly reevaluated that and decided that spending two nights in Flagstaff would solve a couple of problems, it would get us some cleaner water and give us more time to spend in Sedona. I rebooked the hotels and we hit the bed ready to hike Canyon de Chelley in the morning.