Captiol Reef

Ryan's job has had a bunch of pay-cuts this year, the pay-cuts have been rough, but I am just grateful he still has a job. Among the many pay-cuts all employs were forced to take a 1 week unpaid vacation. Ryan has taken a few days off here and there. He had about 3 days left he still needed to take off before the end of April. So with these last few days we decided to take a trip down to Capitol Reef. We went with our two Favorite Woodbury's in all the world, Weston and Nelsy.We left on a Wednesday night and in a Jam Packed Volvo. We had to leave some things behind in order to fit into the car. I can't believe how much stuff we took for 4 nights of camping. We hit the road around 8 o'clock and finally made it to the Fruita Campgrounds at Midnight. unfortunately all the campsites were full. We were so shocked because we certain that we would be able to find a campsite, mainly because a ranger whom we called ahead of time told us we would have NO PROBLEMS! It was no big deal because we headed back into the nearest town and stayed at a Best Western at a really great deal (good Job Wes). The next Morning I enjoyed the last shower I would get for a few more days and we headed back to Fruita campgrounds. Luckily there were three spots available so we snatched one up.

Each day we did a hike, I'll be the first to tell the world I am a really horrible hiker. I am so glad I had Ryan to push me along not to mention Weston and Nelsy's for being so patient with me. Each hike we did was amazing. The first hike we did was the Narrows. This was my kind of hike, nice and flat! After the first day of adventures we went back to our campsite for dinner. The first night we made campfire dinners. I usually really like campfire dinner but this meal was AWFUL! I don't think the pesky raccoons would even it this concoction. We made dutch oven peach cobbler for desert that night, it was much better than dinner but unfortunately I ruined my dutch oven.That night mother nature was furious (I don't know why?) The wind was so strong I could hear branches slapping around and things tossing around outside the tent. I thought that our tent might blow away, and I was certain that we would find our camp chairs invading someone Else's space in the morning. No one could sleep all night. Finally when the sun was coming up the winds calmed down and we got a little bit of sleep. But seriously, we did not sleep all night! The next morning the only thing that was missing was our hot dog buns and marshmallows. It was one of those pesky 'coons, they are clever little creatures.
The next hike that we did was Chimney Rock, this was much harder for me, but it was so beautiful. The terrain was awesome it would change from white sand to red rock instantly.
The next day we heard that there was a mountain lion spotting in that area on the day that we did the hike, yikes! Later that day we took a scenic drive which was AMAZING! We stopped to look at some petroglyfs, a pioneer registry and a heard of deer grazing in a picnic area, this was one of the best parts of the whole trip, the deer came so close to us. We also drove through the Grand Wash area, this was one of the highlights of the trip. After our drive, it was getting close to dinner time, Dutch oven Pizza was on the menu that night but since I had ruined the dutch oven the night before this meal plan didn't seem like it was going to work. We still had hot dogs we could have done but we would have to eat them without the buns. That did not sound very good to me. I heard about a really great Mexican restaurant in Torrey, so Nelsy and I did our very best to convince they guys to go out for dinner, they were very hard to convince (I'm not joking). Finally we were on our way to Cafe Diablo, this place was so fancy, we were very out of place. The nice hostess sat us at a table and gave us each a menu, we took one glance at that menu and we were so shocked by the prices, there was no way we were going to pay so much for a meal. We snuck out and ended up eating at a delicious restaurant called the Patio (I think). Their prices were more in our range and the food was delightful :).

The next Morning we headed out for Hickman's Bridge, this had to be the coolest natural bridge I have ever seen! When we reached the bridge it started to sprinkle so we quickly made out way back down the mountain. There wasn't much we could do with the rain so we went to the visitors center and The Gifford House to pick up a few souvenirs. We also stopped at the nature center to see what we could do in there. It was mainly a nature center for children, but Nelsy and I had a great time making postcards with cool petroglyph stamps. The rain started to let up when we got back to our campsite, there was more rain in store however. With that in mind we decided to pack up our things and go home a little bit early (we were planning on leaving the next morning). I was probably the most hesitant to leave, I was having so much fun. The only reason I was willing to go was the thought of seeing Micah. We left him with my family and this was the longest I have been away from him. Thanks Mom, Dad and Gabby for watching him, you guys are the best!