Thursday, May 2nd – Friday, May 3rd, 2013
I slept very little since our neighbor ran his generator all night long. We made some coffee to warm us up on such a cold morning before leaving Bryce Canyon National Park. We saw Pronghorn Antelope resting on the hillside as we exited, and the last of the hoodoos as we re-entered Grand Staircase-Escalante.
The road took us up and down some big hills and along narrow ridge lines before we made a stop at Kiva Koffeehouse to use their WiFi so we could plan out the days ahead.
We traveled back into Dixie National Forest passed lakes and snow-covered peaks, then made a stop in Torrey, UT to grab some food before entering Capitol Reef National Park. Their campground was full, so the ranger directed us towards Fishlake National Forest, which lacked forests and lakes, where we could camp for free. We headed to Fishlake, found a nice site to stay at, and as we were relaxing outside of our van, we were approached by a couple.
Their names were Chris and Andrea, and they invited us over to their site to eat pizza quesadillas. They noticed the Maryland state flag decal on the side of the van as they passed by, and mentioned that they currently had a place in Baltimore. Andrea’s a doctor and was recently working on an Indian Reservation. Like us, they had been doing their share of traveling across the U.S., but they’ve been driving around in a Mini Cooper. Also like us, they had been experiencing some power steering issues. They shared funny stories about pitching tents in Walmart parking lot medians barricaded by shopping carts, the chickens they raised at home, and a retired lady they met who talked through a dragon hand puppet. We exchanged information, and didn’t know it at the time, but we would become good friends with them after the trip was through. We would later invite them to our wedding.
We woke up to a horrible discovery! We were all out of coffee! We tried to make the best of our morning and headed to Chimney Rock Loop Trail.
After our hike, we walked along the short Sunset Trail and checked out Gooseneck Overlook.
We entered Capitol Reef National Park and drove the 8 mile scenic route which went through the Fruita Historic area, their campground, and passed some unremarkable rock formations (Zion and Bryce had spoiled us).
Unimpressed and in need of caffeine, we left the park and headed into Torrey to restock on some instant coffee and grab some grub. We made a short visit to Twin Rocks, then returned to Fishlake to see it had been overtaken by more people than the night before. We still managed to reclaim our spot and threw the disc back and forth for a while before the sun went down.
Jump Back to Part 23: Grumpy Old Men, Freud & Hot Hands
Jump Ahead to Part 25: Construction, Rancid Meat & Arches
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Start Over at Part 01: The Blue Bubble, Freebies & A Rude Awakening
Stubbs Rambles On 