Capital Reef National Park

 We slept so good - no noise whatsoever from outside!  And after a great breakfast at the Pioneer Restaurant which was just a short walk away, we headed to the park - it was only about a 5 minute drive.

This park was totally different than the other 2 - the road through the park is actually a main highway - not a busy one of course since it's desolate out this way and the only place you actually pay is for a scenic drive down one of the canyons.

Lots of red rocks as we started into the park.

Our first stop was Goosenecks Overlook where we climbed through the rocks to a deep canyon - so massive  I didn't even try to take a picture!

The view from the lookout point.

Right in the middle of the park is a section called "Fruita" where there are numerous orchards -hard to believe this oasis is in the middle of all this rock!    It was lovely in this valley and the trees still had gold leaves on!!  I was excited to stop at the Gifford Farmhouse where they have a gift shop AND serve pie and coffee - and then quite disappointed when we got there and it was closed - probably due to the virus.....

We enjoyed seeing the orchards and in one spot you could park and walk along a boardwalk - the rocks were so pretty!

If you look at the bottom of the red slab you'll see petroglyphs - that was cool to see!

We took the 8 mile scenic drive - it was a gravel road and pretty bumpy but beautiful - went to a spot called Grand Wash where you could take a 3 1/2 mile trek UP to see the Cassidy Arch - I did forget to mention that my leg was super sore when I got up so I knew I wouldn't be doing any heavy hiking today which was pretty darn disappointing - but I knew that trek up the mountain to get beside the arch wouldn't have been anything we would have done anyway.  But we climbed up a short trail to see it in a distance and it took me FOREVER to finally catch it with my eye!  Too far away to get a picture though!

We enjoyed the scenery we did see - and had to bypass the Hickman Bridge trail too as it was 2 miles and I knew my leg just couldn't handle it!  What a disappointment!!

All in all, Capital Reef was my least favorite of the 3 parks we saw - don't get me wrong - it was gorgeous and if I could have hiked some, that would have made it a lot better!  But I still prefer the other two!

We were actually done seeing the park by early afternoon - Glenn wanted to do some gem hunting so he took me back to the suite where I relaxed and walked around the place.  Glenn found some "treasures" and had a fun time too.

That night we drove across the highway for pizza - it was good and we enjoyed visiting with the crazy waitress!  Afterwards I had Glenn stop at the restaurant at the resort so I could get another piece of the peach crisp to take back to our place!  And it was JUST as good the second night!

And I can't forget to mention that since Tuesday was election day, we spent our evenings watching the news and the election results!