Saturday, November 17, 2012

Day 91 (Wednesday 9/19/12)- Natural Bridges & Capitol Reef Parks, UT

After carefully escaping the sinking clutches of the Canyonlands campground and avoiding a permanent parking spot we were undeserving cocky, enough that we tried racing a tour bus to our next destination. We were beat to the stop, but the elderly travelers had another stop in mind. We, with our robust bladders, scurried first to the petrogylphs at Newspaper Rock and got off a few pictures before the hoard of tourists, light and free and reeking of national park hand sanitizer, descended.

Natural Bridges park fittingly holds the world's largest collection of natural bridges. Though that entails a grand total of three. We saw two-the oldest and newest. The newest wasn't as impressive and the middle bridge required a hike that time did not allow for. The park Rangers here were excessively friendly but the total experience was a bit of a disappointment, perhaps only because it was bookended by Canyonlands and Capitol Reef. As was the first, the latter is also certainly worth seeing. Get enough sleep though. I was lacking in it and my body kept trying to fall asleep on me, so Isaiah took the wheel.

A highlight of the park was its pick able fruit orchards. Since every other park has strict rules about removing things from the landscape the u-pick was surprising. Sadly we came out of season so our tour of the orchard was fruitless.

In the shadows of the colored buttes lie remnants of the region's early inhabitants. Petrogylphs adorn a rock near the park's entrance and depict scenes of the Native experience who lived in between the rock cliffs. Also remaining are several buildings from Mormon settlers, including a quaint house that now functions as a museum. The rooms are furnished in the style of the period and make for a cheap if modest time machine, only to be jolted back to the present by the hungry cash register from the attached gift store.

After sucking down some of the Good Stuff (Our magic tonic, Mt. Dew. You might be surprised how few coffee options there are in middle of nowhere Utah) I was back in action and we were back on the road, on the way to Walmart for the night.



Capitol Reef Park
 
Newspaper Rock
 
Natural Bridges Park

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