Left Goblin Valley and headed to Capitol Reef. Beth’s back was still hurting. Not sure why, but it’s embarrassing when you have to have your hubby tie your shoes. So we did a small relatively level hike.
This was mostly a car trip day on scenic roads. We had lunch in Fruita under a huge cottonwood tree. Fruita was a community of about 10 Mormon families who planted orchards. The Park Service came in in 1941 or so, but keeps the orchards going,
We stopped at an overlook and saw some pictographs by the Fremont indians who are largely distinguished from the ancestral Puebloans by their wall art.
Gary and Evan went down Capitol Gorge a couple miles while I stayed and painted at the picnic area and took these photos.
Pioneer registry of people who passed through the gorge on their way west. The wash was a road for many years, but if thunder loomed, it was best to avoid it. Flash floods of a lot of the rain in the park go through it.
This photo was to show why they called it Capitol Reef. Reminded travelers of a capitol dome.
Potholes enlarged to hold water most of the year called the tanks. Evan was excited about the tadpoles in them.
While I was painting, a group of four college-age kids liked my Haise van, and took pictures, and while they were eating lunch, I discovered that they were the Mars rover competition team for University of Nevada-Reno and had come in third this year. One had met Fred Haise. Here’s a link.
http://www.unr.edu/nevadanews/templates/details.aspx?articleid=5052&zoneid=15
When Gary and Evan returned, we drove on extremely scenic, sometimes scary, roads (Route 12) to Escalante, UT.
Decided to stay there to see if a mattress would help Beth’s back and had a nice dinner at Cowboy Blues restaurant.
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