Flash Flood!

We only had one stop scheduled for today, so we slept a little later and took a little longer to eat breakfast and load up before we were on our way out of Moab. We backtracked north on US-191 to I-70 west. Not too far past Green River we turned south onto Utah Route 24. Spectacular scenery, though hardly any signs of civilization and no cell service -- that's usually when I start thinking about how long it would take to get help if we had car trouble...

Our friend told us about Goblin Valley State Park (the location where they shot parts of Galaxy Quest), which is a little ways off of UT-24, but we decided not to take a detour there this time. Sorry, Rod-zilla!

We arrived at Capitol Reef National Park around 11:30AM and made our way to the visitor center.

Navajo Dome

Fremont Culture petroglyphs



Fruita Schoolhouse

In more recent history, the area was settled by Mormons in the late 1800s, who planted orchards here. I'm not sure if the trees we saw were the original ones, but there were lots of them still bearing fruit (hence why it's named "Fruita"). 



By the time we reached the visitor center, it had started to pour! My dear husband stood under the open hatch of the minivan to make us lunch to eat in the car. We were warned by the ranger not to drive on any unpaved roads, so we took the scenic drive to view the waterpocket fold only as far as the dirt road to Capitol Gorge.

As we headed back towards the visitor center, we had to stop at a wash where there was a flash flood!

The boys were quite excited about it, until they realized that we were going to be stuck there for awhile until the waters receded.

They were repairing the road in several places inside the park, including this one. What a good opportunity to check out the quality of their workmanship! One of the men said that some of their building materials were washed away before they could move them to higher ground.

This picture was taken about 10 minutes after the one above.
See how far the water has receded, but it's still not done yet!

About 45 minutes later, the water had stopped flowing and the ranger let us proceed. On the way back out, we crossed several other washes that must have also had water because of all the red mud left behind. The minivan looks like we've been off-roading!

Before we left Capitol Reef, we stopped by the Historic Gifford Homestead, which is now a museum and gift shop. They had homemade ice cream, pies made with fruit picked straight from the orchards, and freshly baked bread for sale. R and I shared a slice of yummy peach pie!

Our final destination for the day was Bryce Canyon. We took the scenic route, UT-12, through Dixie National Forest and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. (I'm not sure why the latter is not part of the National Park System and is administered by the Bureau of Land Management instead.)

When we arrived, we went straight to the visitor center to map out our day tomorrow...

...and then back to check-in at our hotel, Ruby's Inn, which is located just outside the entrance to the park. We ate dinner in the restaurant there, ribeye steak for R and prime rib for me!

Moo!