Capitol Reef Again

It can't be a good sign when the maintainer of this blog forgets about it. Yes, it's true, I forgot I ran this little space. But hopefully we can get back on track for now. Based upon our last post, we like Capitol Reef. If it weren't completely obvious, now it should be because we just returned from our second trip there this year. Our first night there, we quickly set up camp then met our neighbors (from home) at their house in Torrey for a rousing game of Uno Attack. The next day, I had a little work to do in Dixie National Forest, so while I did that, Travis hiked Navajo Knobs. I'd share some of his photos with you but he hasn't imported them from his phone yet. We met up in the park later that day, then were joined by our friends Wendy and Troy that night. We had a great time hiking, laughing, eating, making fun of our camp neighbors, and playing Frisbee in the park. Here are some photos from the weekend.

Barker Reservoir, Dixie National Forest

Dust from the road to Barker Recreation Area (you should have seen it on the way out!)

Posey Lake, Dixie National Forest

Nakedstem - great name for a flower

Fruita

Globemallow, Capitol Gorge

Imperial Walker!

Pectol's Pyramid

Hickman Bridge

Hickman Bridge

Hickman Bridge trail


Butterfly on Firecracker Penstemon in Grand Wash

Capitol Reef

We got to spend New Years Eve and Day in Capitol Reef this year. After an out-of-our-element stop at the mall in Orem for Chick-fil-A, we headed south. We had a nice New Years Eve dinner at the Sunglow Cafe in Bicknell and were the only non-locals there with the only foreign car in the dirt parking lot. On New Years Day, we had to drive 20 miles west to Loa to get Trav his coffee and to find something for breakfast. We ate bagels with peanut butter in the grocery store parking lot, and then drove back to Capitol Reef. We checked out all the petroglyphs, then hiked to Hickman Bridge. On our way back, we hiked about a half mile of the Canyon Rim trail and then turned back because I wasn't feeling all that great. I caught a cold right before we left home. We then drove through the park and down Notom Road near Caineville until it turned into the dirt Burr Trail. Torrey, Utah, the town just outside Capitol Reef, closes down for the winter and even the gas stations were closed on New Years Day. We ended up making soup in our room for dinner. Thank goodness for microwaves. The next morning, I wasn't feeling any better, so we had breakfast at the coffee shop that was finally open, then headed home. It was a short trip but oh so fun, and the weather was perfect. Here are most of our digital pics. I shot these with my iPhone, which has a pretty decent little camera...

San Francisco!

We finally took a real vacation in 2009, and right at the last possible second. We flew to Vegas Dec. 12 to see Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds at Planet Hollywood, then flew to San Francisco on the 13th for five days of fun. Here are some of our photos...

Park(e) City Redux

Waiting in line to get on the Alpine Slide

Cons!

Ready to tear it up!

Perhaps the greatest thing about buying a waterproof and shockproof camera is that we can hand it off to the kids... Emma shot this one of Mia and the next two...

Notice the sign over Max's noggin.



Underwater Emma

Jackson shot this one of himself.

Videos! Our favorite is probably the last one, but they're all worth a few seconds of your time.




Thanks for a great weekend in Park City, Parkes! Happy Birthday Emma!

Flaming Gorge and the Green

Over the Fourth of July, we had to (got to) go to Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area so I could do some Forest Service work. We camped at Red Canyon and Mustang Ridge, kayaked from Sunny Cove, toured the reservoir in style in a State Park Ranger boat with John the State Park Ranger and Ali the Forest Service Ranger, and the highlight of the trip was a trip down the beautiful Green River in a Forest Service dory with Shaun the BLM river guide and his girl Becky. It was a great but short trip to a place we never would have thought to go.

Buckboard Crossing


Greens Lake


Red Canyon sunrise


Antelope Flat (left)/Mustang Ridge (right)

Little Hole, the put-in for the Green River trip

The bow of the dory and the Green

First boat-in campsite on the Green. Look at that crystal-clear water!

Near Trail's End campsite, above Red Creek Rapid

Heading into Red Creek Rapid


Bad video of our first rapid. Although it was only a Class II (or maybe even a 1+), it was exhilarating!

Our dory at the take-out, near John Jarvie Ranch.