Capitol Reef & Escalante

The next stop in our tour of Utah was Capitol Reef National Park. To get there, we drove through Grand Staircase Escalante on a twisty road at the top of a mountain. Much of the drive looked like this:

5-26-15 - Awesome Views in Escalante

There was a great cafe in Boulder, Utah where we had lunch (Hell's Backbone Grill) and finally we arrived in a land filled with huge red mountains:

Capitol Reef National Park

"Twin Rocks"

Chimney Rock

"The Castle"

Capitol Reef also has petroglyphs from the Fremonts and Ancestral Puebloans, easily accessible from the main road.

Petroglyphs

We only had time for a short trail, so we did the popular 2-mile Hickman Bridge trail, which takes you out to a big arch. The scenery along the way is not bad either. We saw this baby sheep right at the beginning and then Nathan and I got separated ("I was looking at a bird") and never found each other again until we met in the parking lot.

Hickman Bridge

We spent the night in Torrey, Utah and left bright and early the next morning for Zion National Park. I thought nothing could top the drive through Escalante, but there were some incredible vistas on this road too, including more red rocks and a lush, green valley that we drove in by ourselves for what seemed like hours.

First view of the green valley

There is no place like Utah!