Capitol Reef

Another late start today but it's just a short 5 mile drive into the park. I stopped at the visitor center to get a trail guide and get some recommendations on good hikes. The park ranger suggested the Cohab Canyon trail and the Grand Wash trail. I started off at the Cohab Trail and decided against hiking to the Hickman Bridge since I had seen Arches yesterday. Cohab was supposed to be a moderate trail with a pretty steep start and then views of a hidden canyon and the valley below. I got lost a few times but was able to backtrack and get back onto the trail. On one sidetrip I came across a large hole in the stone with a thin natural bridge hanging out over the ground below. It was pretty cool to find but a reminder to watch your step :)
After hiking for awhile I was starting to get a bit tired and it looked like the trail headed up a pretty steep slope around to the right. I was just about ready to turn back but figured I'd see just where the trail headed and it went around to the left and revealed a large balanced rock that you could climb all over. The top of the trail wasn't too far beyond that point and there were some great views all around. I had met a guy from Washington earlier on the trail and he was on his way back when I got to the top (the trail continued on for a bit). He had been on the road since February and had a few more weeks left on the road, a true road warrior.
The hike back down much easier and I took a few detours to explore a bit off trail. Lots of rock formations and wildflowers all around. I think the round trip was probably about 4 miles.
I headed around to the scenic drive where the Grand Wash trailhead was located. It was a few miles down a dirt track road so I got to do some rally driving on the way in :) The Grand Wash hike was to some narrows in the middle of the wash, about a 2 mile round trip. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I didn't check the map for details and hiked beyond the narrows and almost all the way to the other side of the park. By the time I got back I think I had walked about 4 miles instead of 2. There were some cool cliffs beyond the narrows so it was worth the hike in but I was hoping to get back to the small store in the park for some home made ice cream and a Weinhard's Orange Cream soda and it was getting late. I did a very fast pace walk back to the beginning of the trail and made it to the store right at closing time. I was exhausted from the hike and crashed on the stairs with the ice cream and soda :)
I wanted to get sunset pictures but had a few hours to kill so I went back to the hotel to recover from the hikes and get some laundry done. Around 6:30 I headed back to the park and hiked up to Sunset Point which had a great view of the Fremont River gorge below and mountains for off to the east. I set up camp on a ledge and relaxed watching the sunset and taking pics as the sun went down. I stayed a bit too late though and by the time I made it back to the hotel the restaurant was closed and pretty much everything in town was too. I made a pretty good dinner of wheat thins, trail mix and ben & jerrys :)
So except for the lack of food and running out of water a couple times it was a fantastic day. Capitol Reef seems to go largely unnoticed among the other parks in the area and is very lightly traveled. There are many more hikes, petroglyphs, the river, fruit orchards and two large sections of the park I didn't even get to. Definitely need to make a return trip back here too :)

Capitol Reef pics