Our home away from home is serving us well. It is large enough that everyone has adequate space and small enough that it is not a chore to drive. It is equipped with air conditioning and furnace, an electrical generator, bathroom and shower, table with booth seating, a kitchen with sink, range, microwave and refrigerator and sleeping areas for five. It served as a great mobile base of operations and we rarely spent the night in the same place twice.
The one-room schoolhouse, constructed by residents in 1896, also served as a community center. The desks were movable and the community enjoyed dances and socials in the little building. Nico and Kyle, not great fans of historical sights, remained in the RV playing chess while Maya, Jeanine and I met up with a park ranger inside who shared details about the history of the building and community.
The Mormon settled town of Fruita at the junction of the Freemont River and Sulpher Creek is our first stop. Regretably, we are a few days late to sample peaches direct from the orchards which sustain this small enclave nestled at one end of the Waterpocket Fold which defines Capitol Reef National Park. A nearly 100-mile long warp in the Earth’s crust, the Waterpocket Fold is a classic monocline: a regional fold with one very steep side in an area of otherwise nearly horizontal layers. A monocline is a “step-up” in the rock layers.
Today’s travel begins in Capitol Reef National Park which is known for having the most intensely colored sandstone.
Each morning, Jeanine takes time to have some hot tea and write in her journal. I must remember to inquire what she wrote about on our vacation.
While en route to our campground in Torrey, UT we stop for a short climb to get a close look at ancient pictographs know as the Hundred Handprints. If you click on the image for a higher resolution view you will see the handprints about 50 feet above where Kyle is sitting which is a good 30 feet above the base of this cliff wall. One has to wonder how the creators of this montage were able to reach such heights.
I believe this area should be renamed from the Devil’s Garden to the Devil’s Playground. If not for the need to begin travelling to our next campground the kids would have been happy to spend the entire day here. Some rather brief but intense rain made us happy we had completed our slot canyon hike earlier in the day.
Monkey see, monkey do. Maya will not be out done by her brothers.
For a kid with one leg, Nicolai hasn’t the slightest difficulty or least bit of fear in leaping from one stone perch to another.
Our afternoon destination is the Devil’s Garden where the kids, now quite well versed in scaling sandstone walls, find a playground made of stone.
The boys who are often reluctant to pose for me, were quite happy to let me capture this moment. I do believe this would make a nice poster.
This feels a lot like our holiday card photo for the year and for those of our friends and family who follow this blog you now know the story behind it.
By now you might be wondering what would possess a sane person to make this journey across the desert, through foul water, over a dead cow, and up and down the walls of a 30 foot deep slot canyon. If you enjoy venturing to the most beautiful natural places in the world this photograph should begin to help you understand.
Even Maya was not skinny enough to avoid having to climb up the walls to move forward. Kyle once again looks after the safety of his little sister. All of us had to help each other at various times and I was inspired by the teamwork the family demonstrated in order to get everyone in and out of the canyon.