Finally wrapping up our trip to Utah, we had one more stop to make – Capitol Reef National Park. After hitting 4 National Parks and a National Monument, we were definitely exhausted, so we didn’t give this park as much attention as it deserved, but we still got a couple of good hikes in!
Capitol Reef
After nearly 55 miles of hiking over the course of our trip, the flat, easy hikes we took in Capitol Reef were both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, we were able to go slowly, enjoying the nice weather we stumbled into; but on the other hand, we were just so tired and homesick, we barely made it a couple of hours in the park before deciding to hit our Airbnb.
The first hike we did was Capitol Gorge. The highlights of this walk for us were the petroglyphs and the names of pioneers etched into the gorge walls. The history of this walk was super interesting to learn about – especially the fact that this gorge was used as part of a route into the 20th century, when automobiles would drive through the gorge.
After that fairly short hike, we headed to the Grand Wash hike, which had impressively tall, narrow sections of canyon. Unfortunately, this is where we really lost our motivation – so, just part way through the hike, we decided to turn around and head back.
And with that we left Capitol Reef. I hear such good things about this park and really don’t feel like we gave it the attention it deserved. Maybe next time!
Headed Home
After spending the night in our Airbnb, we headed off bright and early to make it back to Denver, where we had plans to hang out with a high school friend. We got lucky with this drive and didn’t hit terrible traffic on I-70 going through the Rockies, even though it was a Monday – I hear Sundays and Mondays can be bad, as people head back to Denver from their skiing weekend.
The next day we decided to adjust our plans slightly, and instead of spending the night in Omaha, we were just going to drive straight through. 16 hours later, we pulled up to our house, ready to be done with vacation. At least for a couple of days 🙂
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