Left n back Again - A Continental Road Trip - Main Narrative - September 2004

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Near Capitol Reef National Park, in the south-central part of the state, we finally left the rain behind. Since the weather was nice again, we stopped and explored the wonderful quiet beauty of this park. One of Capitol Reef's points of attraction is the Fruita settlement, an old Mormon outpost that is now a historic area run by the park service.

Sunday, September 19

Entering Capitol Reef NP

Expansive Spectacular views

The fluted wall

The main centrepiece of the outpost is a multi-thousand tree strong Orchard, with all kinds of fruit-bearing trees. All of the fruit in the Orchard is available for picking by park visitors. It's free, if you are willing to eat it on site, and available for a small fee if you want to take the fruit out of the park. We happened to arrive while the Apples were ripe, and we wandered about, picking and eating very tasty apples with the local herd of deer that consider the orchard their personal grocery store.

The Fruita Orchard

Luke and Sophie at the Orchard

uncoordinated dumbkopf

Oasis in the desert

Hmm.... what's up?

Andrew at the Orchard

S2000 parked at the Orchard.

An old grinding device

Slickrock and Apple trees

Continuing east on Utah 24, we stop at the very neat 'hollow mountain' convenience store, which is a gas station/store hewn out of a sandstone cliff. They are apparently expanding backwards into the rock to open an underground mall of sorts. I wonder what the demand for such a thing is, out here in nowhere land in the desert.

Luke and Soph

Hollow Mountain store

Take 2 at Factory Butte

Between where Utah 24 ends and I-70 to the north is a broad flat area called the San Rafael Desert. on its western margin is a wondeful little park: Goblin Valley State Park. This park is home to an area of strange muddy colored round shaped hoodoos. We stopped in and had a ball wandering around, exploring, and hiding-and-seeking among these neat formations. There is also a very excellent campground in this park. Worth coming back and exploring again sometime.