Capitol Reef NP / My Birthday

Our campsite in the apricot orchard
see all photos »

Happy Birthday to me!  We didn't originally intend to stop in Capitol Reef, but it was on our way to Bryce and Zion so we stopped to check it out.  Once again, some of the best things are things we didn't have on our itinerary.

Capitol Reef is your typical Utah NP - dry, hot, lots of rocks and shrub.  However the campsite was a true oasis.  It was built in the middle of an old Morman settlement area (now ruins) called Fruita.  Why called Fruita, you ask?  Because the town was basically a huge orchard, which grew apples, apricots, pears, cherries, mulberries, grapes, and even walnuts and almonds.  I thought of it as a cross between Snow White's forest and the Garden of Eden (minus Show White, the Dwarfs, and Satan).  Huge groups of deer would eat the fruit off the ground and were very tame - even the bucks would let you come within a few feet of them.  Our campsite was right in the middle of an apricot orchard, and while camping there you can pick and eat as much fruit as you want for free.  We ended up staying 2 nights because it was so pretty.

a cross between Snow White's forest and the Garden of Eden (minus Show White, the Dwarfs, and Satan

Happy birthday to me
see all photos »

We celebrated my bday with a lovely spaghetti dinner, and had a bottle of wine which was smuggled in from Colorado (The strict Utah liquor laws were killing us).

While there we also went on a 9 mile hike from hell, to a place called Cassidy Arch.  It was named after Butch Cassidy who reportedly used the canyon as a hideout.  We also hiked/drove on a road that was used by Indians, outlaws, gypsies, and once even the devil himself, according to an early pioneer who chased him off by brandishing the Book Of Mormon.  Right.....

Brian and a German guy on Cassidy Arch
see all photos »

Anne