A road...and a trail...less taken

I left the tiny town of Torrey, UT, having spent a very nice night at the Days Inn there. I'm staying at a LOT of Days Inns on this trip, but some...like this one...are better than others. A perfect shower set up and SOFT towels can make all the difference in the world. Oh, and then there was the small rubber duck in the bathtub...don't know what that was all about.

I drove about ten minutes east to the park of the day... Capitol Reef National Park.  Never heard of it?  It sits between Bryce Canyon and Canyonlands, but I have a feeling most people just pass it by.  That's a shame.  Capitol Reef has some awesome rock formations, too and really nice trails.  I had two such trails on my agenda today.  The first...Capitol Gorge trail...is located at the end of the main park road, then another two miles more along a dirt road.  My Blazer handled the sometimes rough road just fine.  The Capitol Gorge trail proved to be a wonderful hike. A 2 1/2 mile round trip, the walk takes you up a dirt and gravel wash with steep canyon walls on either side.

 

Along the way, you can see petroglyphs both very old and somewhat newer.  Rock drawings done by ancient ancestors of the Fremont Indians, and graffiti placed by Mormon settlers  in the late 1800s and early 1900s. As I was returning to the parking lot, I encountered a group of guys walking in the opposite direction. From their accents, they sounded like Australians or New Zealanders.  They asked me if I could take a couple of photos of them. One guy handed me his smart phone and another his digital camera.  I happily obliged, and they were very appreciative!

My second planned hike was the more challenging trail to Hickman Bridge...a natural stone arch. The first part of the two mile hike consisted of a series of ascending switchbacks up a dirt and rock trail. It gave me quite a workout, made even worse by the increasing heat of the day. The payoff was worth it, though...the view was impressive.

 

After taking pictures of the arch, the return trip to the parking lot was easier, mainly because the trail was mostly downhill. I met an older couple on the way back and chatted with them a bit. They said they were from Wisconsin, and like myself, they were not used to the heat either. I guess where they live, the weather is similar to what I'm used to. Tomorrow, I'm planning a couple more hikes at Arches National Park. It's supposed to be another scorcher. So, what's new?