The drive on Utah Route 12 through the Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument is half terrifying and half marvelous. This is a winding road with steep grades, large drop-offs, and open ranges (where cows are just chillin on the road) and has some of the best views of any drive I have ever taken. The red cliffs of Capital Reef rise up as you approach the park. We quickly learned that our 30ft rig couldn’t go to the Cassidy Arch hike we had planed so we had to audible. We did 3 miles on the Chimney Rock trail, which ironically, did not have good views of Chimney Rock. Instead, the views of the landscape were outstanding. Inside the park, there are a variety of fruit orchards, the Fruita Orchards, that are available for picking. Bryce had a blast picking and eating apples. Danielle had a blast making sure he didn’t eat the apples off the ground.
After I consumed more apple than could possibly be healthy, we picked a hike along a dried riverbed. For the first time, Danielle volunteered to carry Bryce in the pack… The 30-35 pounds was harder to carry now than 19 months ago. Not sure she is going to volunteer for that again anytime soon…
