Southern Utah Vacation (Capitol Reef)...

Sat, April 24
We left to travel with Dave and Laurene Gardner to southern Utah for a two-week vacation. Gene and Darwin Liljenquist and wives were ahead of us. All went well until a rest stop just south of Tremonton, Utah when Dave noticed a low back tire on our motor home. As it turned out it was flat and I had left our spare at home. About an hour later with help from Good Sam Club Emergency Road Service we had a new tire and were on our way. We arrived at the campground in Capitol Reef National Park in the area known as Fruita about 6 PM and got the last two camp sites available.
Sun, April 25
We relaxed most of the day and did a few little “down time” tasks. In the afternoon we took a hike up the Fremont River Trail to the lookout from the campground. It was easy to start and then climbed steeply to the lookout about 1 ½ miles up the trail. There were nice views of the Fremont river canyon and the canyon to the west where the scenic drive from the campground goes. In the evening we watched a movie and turned in.
Mon, April 26
Today we took a drive of about 110 miles, 70 miles of which was dirt road. The scenery is typical of much of southern Utah with some spectacular canyons and rock formations of many colors. Along the way we stopped at the visitors’ center, visited the historic Fruita school, viewed Indian petroglyphs and visited the tiny Behunin Cabin where a pioneer family of ten lived. We then left the main highway, forded the Fremont River and began our journey up the Hartnet Road. The main points of interest were the Lower and Upper South Desert Overlooks and the Upper Cathedral Valley Overlook. We then started back toward camp on the Cathedral Road and stopped at the Gypsum Sinkhole, the Temples of the Sun and Moon and the very unique Glass Mountain.
Tue April 27
Today’s drive of about 70 miles took us down the scenic drive south of the campground. We first stopped for a hike down Grand Wash. We then stopped for a look at Cougar Rock and lunch. After that was a hike down Capitol Gorge at the end of the paved road for a look at pioneer register engravings on the canyon walls. We then began a long (about 20 miles of mostly first gear), very rough road south through South Draw and eventually back to highway 12 at an elevation up over 9000 feet. There was still snow along the road and a huge pine tree was blown down across the road just yards from the highway. Luckily there was a way to drive around it. It has been quite cool and very windy all day and it was very chilly on the drive home. To take some of the fun of the day away we found that a prior fix on leaking brake fluid on our dune buggy had broken again and we had to make most of this very difficult and sometimes steep road as well as the drive back to camp with little or no brakes. We finished the day with a delicious pot luck dinner with some very long and delicious hot dogs supplied by Darwin and Pam.