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Its was snowing as we packed the car early Friday morning and the weather was iffy for most of our drive down to Capitol Reef.  We lucked out and the weather broke just as we were driving through Loa, we topped off the tank in Torrey and drove though Capitol Reef to the Fremont river crossing at the start of the Cathedral valley loop.  We crossed the river with no issues and made our way north, our first stop was at an old well and water trough to check out an old broken down truck.

Bentonite Hills

The road was in excellent condition and we made it to the Cathedral Valley Campground around 2pm. The wind was blowing hard while we checked out the upper south desert and Cathedral overlooks,  we walked around with the kids then drove down to lower Cathedral Valley.

The wind and sand was still rocking away when we arrived in lower Cathedral Valley.  We took a few photos at the Glass Mountain then drove to the Temple of the Sun and Temple of the Moon.   We got a little break from the wind and spent a little over an hour walking around before driving out towards Cainsville Wash.

Bentonite Hills near Cainsville Wash

We made our way back towards Capitol Reef and found a campsite along the river just out side the park.  After we set up camp and ate dinner we drove back into the park to see the Fremont river falls and the Sunset from Panorama Point.  We listened to the Jazz game on the radio while we sat around the camp fire  and I set up some star trails.

Fremont River Falls

Next morning we packed up camp and were on the road headed towards Little Egypt.  We stopped to check out an old cement truck rusting away just off highway 24 before topping off the tank in Hanksville and driving south to Little Egypt.

The kids instantly fell in love with Little Egypt….

After a few hours of running around Little Egypt we made lunch and headed north to Moonshine.  Tyler and I had  hiked moonshine wash just a few weeks ago and I was excited to hike the canyon with the boys who just love slot canyons. We hiked about 80% of the slot and turned around just before the sheep bridge.

With plenty of daylight left we drove south to the end of the Keg Knoll road to hike Colonnade Arch.  The views as we hiked out the arch were some of the best I have ever seen, We made the short hike to the arch and took a few photos while the kids played.  The views from Colonnade Arch have to be some of the most incredible in all of southern Utah.

By the time we wrapped up our hike the wind was blowing hard.  We drove to our normal campsite in the area but there was already someone there (who ended up being Craig Childs).  We figured that whoever was camped there drove to this spot to get way from people so rather than take the only other sheltered spot right next to them we headed out of the area.

We drove to the Chaffin Ranch Geyser which was erupting was we pulled up,  we made dinner for the kids and decided not to deal with the wind and just drive home.