capitol reef adventure

Beautiful isn't it? The kids were out of school for fall break this last weekend, so I threw together a quick trip to Capitol Reef National Park. We had never been there before, but had heard lots of good things about it, so we were eager to go explore. We were lucky enough to talk Alan & Heidi's family and G&G Vawdrey into going with us too, so that made things extra fun. The park is small compared to Zion, but big on natural beauty and kid friendly exploring. It is definitely every bit as beautiful as Zion's or Bryce. We didn't get our fill this trip, so we're anxious to go back again. After a picnic lunch in the park, surrounded by fruit orchards and deer, we headed off to the Hickman Bridge trail.

We quickly found out there would be lots of holes and "caves" to explore along the way -- even for the littlest kids, Katie and Matthew.

Here's Hickman bridge -- an arch. I don't have a good picture of it, because I was too busy making sure the little kids didn't fall out of their holes. But here's Heidi and Katie waving at the camera.

Jared's spot.

Ryan's spot.

Ethan, Katie, Matthew & Jared.

Matthew's thoughtful spot.

I'm not sure what this mountain of rock is called, possibly Capitol Dome, but it just came out of nowhere and is simply amazing.

Here's a few of our herd heading back down the trail.

You can see quite a few petroglyphs, like these, right along the road in the park. They have survived hundreds of years and are pretty clear.

This is a good portion of us at Sunset Point.

After hiking and exploring all afternoon it was time for dinner -- at Cafe Diablo in Torrey. This place was awesome (except for the fact that we were a large group and the service was slow) and I would definitely go there again. Their kid menu had all the standard good stuff -- chicken tenders and fries for example.

Or, steak and fries if you are Ryan & Jared. Or steak and mashed potatoes (to die for) if you are Jacob.

They served some wonderful tapas (vegetables, spicy mushrooms and jalapenos, and bread) to begin the meal -- I should have taken a picture of those. But I definitely had to get a few pictures of some of the adult entrees -- wow! This is a rack of pork ribs, looking very much like a volcano!

I chose beef flank steak, which is cut into slices surrounding a fried potato spiral in the center of the plate which was stuffed with mashed potates and garden vegetables and topped with a large sprig of sage and beet curls. Pleasing to the eyes and taste buds!

Mark chose the pumpkin seed trout. It literally melted in your mouth. YUM!

The next day we started with a scenic drive through the park and then hopped out to explore the Grand Wash trail. What fun! Lots of rocks to climb, holes and caves to explore, and an easy walk through towering narrows of sheer red rock walls. Ryan is definitely our family mountain goat and loved this hike -- I don't think he complained once!

Rachel and Jacob holding up the rock mountain.

Love the red rock walls.

Ryan couldn't resist poking his head out of this little hole.

Matthew atop Grandpa trying to take in all the grandeur.

Near the end of the hike we found this fabulous little arch. It has hereby been dubbed "Matthew's Arch". He went around and around and through the hold a bazillion times.

Proof that our whole family was together during the adventure. We're standing in front of the old Fruita schoolhouse. It was closed when we got there, so we only got to peek in the windows, but it was a pretty tiny room that probably served 28 students. It was all furnished with desks and a chalkboard inside.

We ended our adventure with lunch in Bicknell at the Sunglow Cafe. The "claim to fame" there is the weird pies -- pinto bean pie, lemon buttermilk pie, pickle pie, and oatmeal pie. We ordered a sampler plate and tasted them all -- YUM! The pinto bean pie was probably my favorite (to me it tasted similar to pumpkin pie) closely followed by the lemon buttermilk. Even the pickle pie was good -- you can't even begin to tell there's pickles in it! And the oatmeal pie was topped with a delicious toasted coconut, which overpowered the oatmeal in my opinion, but all very good.