mohaus: Utah or Bust: Capitol Reef

Our next stop after Goblin Valley was Capitol Reef National Park. It was one of the places we didn't know a whole lot about, but it was on the way to Bryce National Park and it made sense to make a stop.

We had no idea what to expect and after a hot hike at Goblin Valley, followed by a quick lunch in the camper, Daniel and the boys passed out while I drove us on down the road to Capitol Reef.

I was really surprised when our desert landscape, that had looked more like the planet Mars than Earth, suddenly gave way to lush green orchards. And shortly after the earth was rising up around us as tall canyon walls and escarpments.

It all changed so quickly that I was shouting for Daniel and the kids to wake up so they wouldn't miss these majestic formations.

Before we knew it, we had reached the visitor center. On this trip, the visitor's center was a great first stop to grab Jr. Ranger packets, any relevants maps, and to ask about the best hikes for kids.

Since we were not camping here and we had Sophie and the camper with us, our choices were a bit limited. In the end we decided to attempt the 1.3-mile hike on the Narrows Trail in the Grand Wash. Since we missed out on the Narrows in Zion we were hoping this would make up for it.

The start of this ended up being a little complicated since the road back to the trail was a narrow dirt road with a sign that said "Max vehicle length: 27 feet." Our camper is 28ft. So we had to turn around and find a spot to drop the camper on a pull off.

We didn't have a whole lot of time until the Visitor Center closed at 5pm. We also had Sophie with us, and she was not allowed on trails in the National Parks. AND it was as hot as Hades.

We just did the best we could. We dropped the camper. We made it to the trail head. We locked Sophie in the air conditioned truck (we had a spare key), and then we set a timer to turn around in 20 minutes.

We did not make it back to the actual narrows, but we did have a beautiful (HOT) hike in a canyon with walls jutting up hundreds of feet around us. It was awe inspiring. I was bummed about not making it to the narrows, but it was so hot no one was wanting to keep walking beyond our 20-minute mark.

We had fun shouting and hearing our echoes off the canyon walls before heading back to Sophie and our air conditioned SUV.

Once we had picked up the camper and found a place to turn around, we were racing the clock to get back to the Visitor Center to get Jack's Jr. Ranger badge. We literally ran inside with a minute to spare! The ranger was sweet and swore Jack in and gave him his badge as we caught our breath!

After Capitol Reef, we drove on to small town of Torrey to grab dinner and try to decide what to do. There were two options for getting to Bryce National Park. One would have us driving down the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. The other was a little out of the way but not as scenic.

We consulted a local tourist center and Daniel also reached out to an old high school friend who lives in the area. The general consensus was to drive the Grand Staircase. However, it was getting dark and we wouldn't be able to do it that night.

So, we were told there were a couple of forest campgrounds in Dixie National Forest and that we should be able to find a spot. But there was no way to call ahead.

This seemed to be the M.O. for our trip: drive to a campground, hope to find a spot, and get lucky. So we drove to Dixie National Forest with no real idea of where we would camp that night.

We found the campground in question (we would later learn it was the only open one, there weren't three). We pulled in and decided to circle through the campground to see if any spots were open. We found ONE.

Daniel dropped me at the spot to stand guard while he circled back to pay at the camp hosts spot. Another family had come in while I staked our claim. We got the last site that wasn't overflow!

This turned about to be another fantastic campsite. We were at a higher elevation so it was cooler. We actually had to bust out sweatshirts this night. It was also really windy.

We were surprised that the campfire rings were really tall with vents on the sides. We thought this was odd until we tried to light a fire in the wind.

The tall campfire ring protected the flame and we actually had a perfect campfire that night. Also the elevation made all of the wood really dry and it burned really well.

We slept in the next morning and let the kids ride bikes and hang out in their hammocks while we enjoyed a slow morning before heading on to Bryce National Park (and another unreserved campsite!). We ended up really loving Dixie National Forest. It seemed that Utah never disappoints!