Ockey Family Adventures: Capitol Reef Day 2

We woke up pretty early and found that the day was much colder. We didn't want to do a frigid hike, so we settled on a scenic drive. Just a few blocks from our hotel is the beginning of the Cedar Wash Road. It runs a long the northern border of the park for about 50 miles. We had no intention of going that far, though. We wanted to drive 17 miles out to two features in the park that most people never see: The Temple of the Sun and the Temple of the Moon.

We'd read that a high-clearance vehicle was necessary to make this drive, but we weren't too worried. The road was windy and rocky, but the drive was fine. It was just the washboards that shook the fillings out of our teeth that made it rough. It took almost an hour to get to the junction, but it was only a mile from there to the temples.

We started at a low hill called Glass Mountain. It only stood about twelve or fifteen feet high with a small diameter, but it was shiny and sparkly in the morning light. It looked like thousands of pieces of glass all heaped into one solid pile. We climbed to the top and watched it glitter and gleam as we scaled it.

Glass Mountain was really sparkly, just not in pictures.

The Temple of the Sun is behind us. Temple of the Moon is on Dad's right shoulder.

We couldn't capture the sparkle.

Next we drove over to the Temple of the Moon. It is a huge rock feature that rises into the crystal blue sky. The boys had fun climbing up the lowest part, while Mom and Dad walked back further and further trying to get the entire thing in a photograph. It looks much smaller than it is in the pictures because of the way we were standing.

It was nice to be all by ourselves.

The Temple is really massive. See the boys on the bottom left?

They came skiing down and luckily survived.

The Temple of the Sun is really massive! That didn't stop the boys from trying to scale it, though. They made it up the soft sandy part, but there was no way they were climbing the sheer face of it. Since it rises hundreds of feet into the air, they didn't even try. Instead, they came surfing down on the seat of their pants. They were dirty, but giggling, when they got to the bottom. Later, they declared this the best part of the day.

We took a bunch of pictures because the day was so crisp and pretty.

The ride back was much better and the washboards didn't seem so bad. It had warmed up a bit, too. We stopped for a hike around ten o'clock called Grand Wash. This is one of the main hikes in Capitol Reef. It is a high-walled canyon, but it is not very narrow. This disappointed the boys, but they still enjoyed climbing in little crevices and scaling the steep walls whenever they could. We walked a little over a mile into the wash before we turned around and headed back.

The Grand Wash hike was nice and easy.

The boys like to hide in cubby holes throughout the park.

Dax found a cool spot.

There are even holes big enough for Dad!

We loved the easy hikes in Capitol Reef.

The boys like to look like they are holding up rocks.

Here they are selling the pose.

Dad's feet are dangling through this small hole.
These nooks were everywhere.

Seth had to climb up everywhere the boys did.
Sometimes getting him down was the hard part.

Next we had lunch at the picnic area just past the Visitor Center. Mom made sandwiches, and we ate on a picnic table. Then we walked over to the bridge to play pooh sticks, but the water wasn't really deep enough. So we stopped at the Visitor Center to turn in the boys Junior Ranger booklets.

The large grassy area has this cool bridge over the river.

The water wasn't deep enough to play pooh sticks, though.

Dax loves the time we spend exploring, and not hiking!

When did Seth start looking like a big kid? This makes me a little sad!

Our big hike of the day was Hickman Bridge. This is the most popular hike in Capitol Reef, and we've never been able to do it before due to a rockfall last time we were here. The hike is only about two miles roundtrip, but it is uphill most of the way. This trail was much more crowded, but we found a neat little arch along the way, and the boys enjoyed scrambling around the rocks. The bridge itself was crowded, but still beautiful.

Mom and her boys on the Hickman Bridge trail.

This cool natural bridge was fun to climb on.

Here's a different view of the same bridge.

It's difficult to see Hickman Bridge over Mom's left shoulder.

We really enjoyed walking through the bridge.

This is the view on the other side of Hickman Bridge.

We have a million pictures of the boys in some sort of hole on every hike in Capitol Reef.

I love moments like these where Dax and Seth are friends and not enemies.

We stopped at the petroglyph wall on the way back to the Gifford Farm, where we were hoping to buy some peach pie. We shouldn't have stopped, though, because they sold the last pie as we walked up. So we played a little game of tag, and the boys ate ice-cream.

We spent a few minutes looking at the petroglyphs, but the boys were starting to wear out.

The boys liked their ice cream cups.

Mom tried to smile when they told us they were sold out of pie.

Dad played tag with the boys.

The boys can't catch Dad in tag. They just wait until he collapses.

We just had one more hike to do before dinner. We drove to Sunset Point and the Goosenecks Overlook. This hike is only a third of a mile, but it proved to be too much. Everyone was tired and surly, and though we made it to the end, we probably should have skipped it. We decided that we'd pushed pretty hard for the day and we were going back to the hotel early after a quick dinner. We ate at Slackers again in Torrey, and the food was even better. This time Mom ordered deep-fried cheesecake with cinnamon ice cream. She even let Dad have a bite or two! It was nice to be back and get the boys in the shower by 7 o'clock, too.