Capitol Reef National Park

Since we have no hook-ups here at Fruita Campground, I made coffee on the stove top with our Farberware percolator. 

It was almost 10:00 when we left the trailer and headed out on the Scenic Drive here in the park. On the way we passed by these mule deer resting in a field.

The Capitol Reef Scenic Drive is about 8 miles long and is paved, but there are a number of dirt roads off of the Scenic Drive that you can drive on. The first one we went on was the 1.5 mile long Capitol Gorge road that twists and winds through the canyon.

We took about an hour driving out and back on the Capitol Gorge road - pulling over several times for cars that were in a bigger hurry than we were. We continued out on the Scenic Drive

until we reached the 2.2 mile Grand Wash road. Not too far down the road we saw this sign for old uranium mines. There is a radiation warning on the sign saying that no one should stay longer than a day in the vicinity of the old mines. I spent about 15 minutes out near the mines taking photos of the old stone
cabin

and the mine entrances that have been gated over. 

Our next stop along the road was at the Cassidy Arch Viewpoint trail and I walked out on the trail to get a photo and couldn't see it. So I took photos of all the rock formations 

and it wasn't until I googled Cassidy Arch to see what it looked like, did I realize that I had gotten a photo of it in the above picture and enlarged it. It's just left of the center in the red rocks.

Mike took Tinker "hiking" for a little bit while I was trying to see Cassidy Arch.

We went on out to the end of Grand Wash road and drove back out to the Scenic Drive

and back to the campground to have lunch. After lunch we drove east of the Visitor Center to view the petroglyphs left by the Fremont and ancestral Puebloan people about 2,000 years ago.

Then we stopped by the Fruita Schoolhouse built in 1896 and last used in 1941.

Then we drove west on UT-24 to the town of Torrey checking on gas stations and passed by the Twin Rocks

and Chimney Rock.

Then we stopped by the Visitor Center and bought a couple of souvenirs before we returned to Fruita Campground and stopped to take a photo of the horses in the corral there.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our stay here and didn't get to see everything - cause for another trip sometime?