On our way to Thanksgiving in Provo, we stopped in Capitol Reef for a few days (pictured above--I'm standing on Cassidy Arch). It was so beautiful!! My dad met us there with my niece Evelyn and nephew Caleb; it was so fun to have them along with us.
We bought this van with 8 miles on it in 2020 and we've since put about 85k miles on it. Faithful friend.
The cottonwoods were brilliantly yellow and looked SO gorgeous against the rock (this is from the night we drove in during a rainstorm).
And even more beautiful with blue skies after the rain cleared!
It was such a pretty hike and had incredible views for being so short!
We checked out the petroglyph panels, then headed into town for dinner (some yummy Mexican food) and then collapsed into bed--we were pretty exhausted after driving all night the previous night!
The next morning we woke up to a blanket of snow outside our hotel, but in the park it was about ten degrees warmer and so all of the washes along the scenic drive looked like this:
This was such a gorgeous hike and legitimately one of the most scenic ones I've ever done--higly recommend it! The colors were so intense after all the rain and snow that had soaked into the rock.
On the other side of the arch, you can look out over the valley below--I think that's Juliet up on the cliff with the boys walking toward her.
And here's the view from that point after Matty and I walked out onto the promontory.
Then we hiked back up the Grand Wash...
Which was very muddy and very fun! The mud was either so smooth that it looked just like chocolate (we legit had to talk Juliet out of licking it after Evelyn dared her) or it was covered in this weird chocolately foam that the kids loved smacking with their trekking poles. Needless to say we were all absolutely coated in red mud after this hike.
After a mile or so Neil ran back to the cars to grab cranberry bread, since it had become apparent that we were not going to turn around any time soon--we meandered a little further and then the kids wanted to climb for awhile.
Eventually Neil & Dad turned around with Matty and Caleb to head back to the cars, and I continued on through the wash to the other end with Juliet, Isaac, Luke, Evelyn, and Nathan. (Our distance was just about equal to either end, so we gave all the kids the choice of deciding which way they wanted to go.)
Later that afternoon we drove out to the Goosenecks, Panorama, and Sunset Points overlooks.
Pretty darn spectacular. We watched the sun go down and light up the flanks of the Henry Mountains.
The next day we checked out of our hotel in Torrey and headed out for a quick hike before driving to Provo. We hiked up the Cohab Canyon trail, which leads to a hanging canyon overlooking Fruita. This hike was SO SO cool. Look at that rock surrounding Nathan and Caleb!
Lots of teeny little slot canyons and we explored every single one!
Here's Isaac
And Juliet (we took this photo to send to her Outdoor Exploration teacher since she was missing an orienteering lecture)
And Neil!
Gosh this whole canyon was so gorgeous. So many fun places to explore and climb and try to wriggle through!
I wish we had been able to spend the whole day hiking there--there's a connector loop that I really would have loved to do if we'd had the time.
Then it was back to the cars, scraping off as much mud as we could, and hopping in the car to head to Provo! The scenery changed to icy wind and snow-covered everything just a few miles out of the park--so interesting how it's this little temperate pocket.
This is not the greatest photo, but we took it staring into the sun while the kids were all grabbing a snack. I was so glad my dad was able to join us. The last few years have been really hard with some things in our extended family and I have been so grateful that he has been able to join us on so many fun adventures.
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