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This past weekend April and I were able to make a trip down to Capitol Reef National Park, she had never visited this park before and my only visit was about 17 years ago. I had a hard time finding good camping and hiking information online so we just decided to camp at the Frutia Campground and do the touristy thing. We don’t typically camp without the kids but were able to make other arrangements for them this weekend (thanks Mom and Grandma). We claimed our campsite then were off to hike Hickman Bridge by Friday afternoon.

Cool little double pothole arch on the way to Hickman Bridge

Hickman Bridge was hard to photograph I was really wishing for a wide angle lens.

After Hickman bridge we drove down Highway 24 to the waterfall on the Fremont River. The falls would have been pretty fun to shoot had there not been people all over…

We still had plenty of daylight left so we drove back up 24 and hiked up Grand Wash. Nice huge walls, not very narrow but a pretty sweet canyon.

A few miles later we were back at the car making some food trying to figure out what next. We drove up the road and bit a took some photos of the Navajo Dome and the old Frutia School House.

We then drove beyond Fruita on the “scenic drive” to the heads of Grand Wash and Capitol Gorge. At this point the clouds and light were really popping so we rushed out to Panorama point to shoot the sunset.

After sunset we ate some dinner and did a bit of light panint around camp. The clouds were not working out so I did not take any star trails photos but we did make a few orbs before we called it a night.

In the morning we ate our breakfest and got out of the campground and started hiking up the Cohab Canyon trail at 9:30am. Switchbacks were fairly steep but we managed to pass the large group that was also making their way up into Cohab. April and I wandered alone though Cohab Canyon towards the Frying Pan Trail.

Looking back on Cohab Canyon and we hiked south on the Frying Pan Trail, The views from the trail were remarkable.

We ran into our first people on the trail just before we arrived at the fork to Cassidy Arch. We took a long break at Cassidy Arch to eat lunch and take photos.

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We really enjoyed the Frying Pan trail so we abandoned our plan to hike down into Grand Wash and hicthhike back to camp and decided to return the same way we hiked in.

On our return we took the time to hike up the unnamed canyon about half way along the Frying Pan Trail. We hiked up a short ways until the canyon brushed up and then headed back toward Cohab. We also spent a bit of time searching out Cohab Arch, it’s pretty close to the trail but not worth the effort.

Cohab Arch is in the center of this photo.

Back in Cohab Canyon

Six hours and 10miles after we started our hike we were back on top the switchbacks leading back down to the Frutia Campground.

A few hours later, cooler full of ice, two showers, and one of the best pizzas I have ever had later we were back at Fruita killing time before sunset.

When the light was right we drove back up to Panorama Point and the Gooseneck overlook to enjoy the sunset.

Post sunset we headed back to the Fruita campground hung out around the world weakest campfire and did some long expoure shots of the Stars.

60min stacked exposure w/ shooting start. Some small clouds floated in and caused a few little gaps.

First thing on Sunday morning we packed up camped and headed back home.  Just over three hours later we were pulling into our driveway in Orem.  I absolutely loved Capitol Reef, next trip I going to spend more time exploring the east side of the park.

Clint and I did our best to get out on the Great Salt Lake to take photos before the weather got nasty. We drove out beyond the Temple of the Birds to the end of the old jetty, put on the rubber boots and started trucking towards the waters edge. The clouds provided a perfect back drop and made for some great images.

This guy got stuck in the wrong place and the wrong time … Strange to see a fish around the GSL.

I love this old truck, pretty awesome to see what you car woud look like if you left it out here for a 40 years.

As seen in the photos the skies were a bit threatening so we hiked back across the mud to the truck, the 30mph head wind really made this a real treat. We then drove west to the Great Salt Lake Marina to kill some time before sunset.

Sunset was not going to work out due to the dense clouds in the west. We played around in the water around the Black Rock then headed home.

Rubber Boots FTW!