Saturday, Oct 15 - Driving around Capitol Reef

 

We drove over to the Wild Rabbit Cafe which had a line outside at 8 AM.

Breakfast at the Wild Rabbit

 

Calistoga Wagon accommodations at our Resort

 We quickly got inside and ordered  delicious scrambles and avocado toast. and then drove into the Park to Fruita, an old town settled by a few Mormon families in the 1800s who established flourishing fruit orchards. The park service maintains the orchards now and sells small pies of many flavors from the old Mormon Gifford Farmhouse.  The picnic tables outside were full of families munching on pies!   Yesterday they ran out so we wanted to be sure to get there early.   We're leaving Torrey at the crack of dawn tomorrow and wanted to have pie and coffee in our cabin before setting off.

Fruita orchards

 

It is still fall school vacation, every hotel in Torrey was full last night, and we were afraid that the most popular trails and sights would be crowded.   We drove down Scenic Drive, south out of Fruita.  We turned onto Capitol Gorge Road, a dirt road heading east, past the Golden Throne, a large yellow sandstone tower, to the trail head, but the parking lot was completely full and overflowing.  Hilary just managed to turn around and we left, passing a large number of cars heading to a chaotic traffic jam!  

 

Driving into Capitol Gorge

We tried another trail head without success, and avoided the Hickman Bridge, a magnificent 133' expanse, which we knew would be jammed.  Still we were driving past amazing geological wonders and seeing sandstone in multiple colors from black, purple, deep red to orange, yellow and cream, and having a relaxing day as we didn't have to get anywhere today!

 

Bob directed us to a boardwalk where one can see many petroglyphs carved into the sandstone walls, some quite high up.  These were drawn by the Fremont and Ancestral Pueblo peoples 600-1300 AD and depict sheep, deer, one bear, coyote and strange humanoid figures.  This was one area that wasn't crowded which was strange as it was easily accessible.     

 

We decided to return to our comfortable cabin at 2:30 and relax.   Hilary and I walked around the grounds of the resort and found the llama and horse corrals.  We drove into town at 4:30, went to a crafts show and the Farmers' Market where pears and apples were sold and a lively country band was playing.   We walked over to Capitol Burger, a trailer with a good selection of burgers.  I had a Cheese 'n' Mac burger which was delicious and well stuffed with cheesy pasta, chilies and bacon!!

 

We returned to the Resort for the evening and watched the Cleveland Guardians/New York Yankees ball game.

Mac 'n' Cheese Burger!