Capitol Reef National Park

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We arrived late in the evening to Capital Reef national park, battling the evening sun in our eyes and a strong and bitingly cold wind. As with most of the national parks, camping facilities are basic and there are no facilities such as grocery stores on site - hence a cold supper of leftover snacks before an extremely cold night. It was still cold in the morning, but the scenery and wildlife (including wild mule deer wandering freely in the campsite) took our minds off the cold for a while.

The parks are all very different - this one has an area called Fruita, which was planted with fruit orchards by the original settlers in this region in the 1800s. These small orchards are sheltered from the extremes of weather by tall cliffs, and visitors can pick the fruit. I have no idea what variety of apple it was that we picked, but I think they were the best apples I’ve ever tasted. The orchards are managed to preserve the authenticity of the variety, many of which are referred to as “antique”, rather than for commercial yield.

Leaving Capital Reef we headed towards Bryce Canyon, our next stop on the National Park run. The route was scenic but very high - we reached 10,000 feet at one point and were absolutely chilled to the bone when we happily came across a café called Hell’s Backbone Grill. Here we had an expensive (but organic) breakfast - and I topped my best apple experience with a best oatmeal experience!

The onward ride to Bryce was not long from here, and we arrived at the nearest town (ironically named Tropic) by early afternoon. We made an executive decision to stay in a motel, and were both very glad we did. The wind was bitingly cold all day, and camping would have been unbearable (for me anyway).To prove the point, when we arrived at Bryce the next morning, there was frost on the ground!

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Photos

thawing out at Hell's Backbone Grill
No sign of Gordon Ramsey though, thank goodness!