Utah Hiking, Part II

More glorious pictures as we made our way to Capitol Reef National Park and the fruit orchards planted by Mormon settlers that later became a part of the park.  We started the day by visiting the historic Gifford house where we bought cinnamon rolls and coffee, which we enjoyed in the warm sunshine, all the while appreciating the view of one of the huge reefs.
We then took a walk along the Fremont River, alongside the orchards, and watched a family of deer enjoying the fruit that had fallen on the ground.  Visitors are encouraged to pick fruit and we certainly found our share of wonderful apples and a few pears.

We did enjoy our hike through the Capitol Gorge, noticing names carved into the rock at various points, mostly farmers using the great wash as the way to peddle the hay in a small town, Loa, at the end of the wash.  A volunteer guide told us the name carvers were standing on ladders on top of the hay wagons.  I imagine it took a long time to carve a name into the sandstone.  

I like this photo of Ann with the new hat she bought at the Gifford House gift shop.

Sunday morning we hiked to the Hickman Bridge, a natural rock formation.  It's a famous site in this park and we had lots of opportunities for photos.

We met, Don, the volunteer guide again on this trail.  He gave us all kinds of information about the park, where to eat, his job as a Parole Officer, and how best to hike along Sulphur Creek.  

We had to ford the creek seven times!  My shoes were really wet, but the water was surprisingly warm.

At the end of the hike we saw a small waterfall, quite unusual for this time of the year.

Utah Hiking Trip

I often took a deep breath and whispered prayers of gratitude while hiking or admiring God's glorious creation throughout the two week trip I was privileged to take with my sister, Karen, and our friends, Christine and Ann.  Those three people planned the trip, researched the hikes and assigned people to make night time reservations.   We put 2500 miles on Christine's van, hiked over 60 miles and took 150,000 steps in several state and national parks in Utah.  We stayed in small towns - a manufactured home in Hanksville, a two story cabin in Torrey, a cabin near horses, sheep, and llamas in Tropic, and a cottage in an orchard in Virgin, Utah.  All delightful owner-owned spaces with friendly hosts and far away from the maddening crowds!

How blessed I am to have a younger sister willing to have me tag along on these great adventures!  Notice that we are not wearing our hiking shoes in this picture.  She had a brilliant idea to spray our hiking shoes with some water repellant spray our first night in Salt Lake City.  Then she stored them under the kitchen sink and neither of us remembered to retrieve them so it was quite an ordeal to get our AirBnb host to have her cleaning person overnight them to our next stop in Torrey, Utah!  I hiked for 5 days in my new Clarks walking shoes and she in her Keens!  Our hiking shoes finally made it, not to Torrey, but to Tropic because no overnight delivery on the weekend.  

We visited Goblin Valley State park and took our pictures among the HooDoos!

Our first big day of hiking in Little Wild Horse Canyon turned out to be our favorite for the whole trip.  We loved the challenge and the way the light shown throughout our trip on the canyon walls.

Lots of challenges over and under the boulders

This woman worked for AARP, now retired, she volunteers to take trash out of Lake Powell every year.  She and her husband spend a week on a houseboat and clean up all around the lake.  We liked her shirt, Trash Trackers!

Karen managed to capture a rainbow in this picture of rest!  I think it was near this stop that a young couple from Belguim showed us a little video on their phone of a rattlesnake! 

We loved the wildlife!