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Typically we don’t venture out on memorial day weekend but this year we decided to tag along with Tyler and Alene to Capitol Reef.  Alene left early Thursday to get a site in Fruita but the campground was already full, we ended up meeting up with her just outside the park and set up camp near the Fremont river just after sunset.  We spent the rest of the night hanging out under the huge cottonwood tree at our campsite and I shot  a few long exposures.

Friday morning we left our camp and drove south past Notom to hike Sheets Gulch.  The wind was really blowing and there was a bit of flowing water and a giant mud bog where Sheets crossed the main road.   Looking at the tracks of the last vehicle that tried to drive up the wash it was obvious they only made it 20′ before getting extremely stuck in the mud.

Rather than hike the sandy wash to access the slot of Sheets we back tracked to the north to hike up Pleasant Creek.  The wind was still rocking away at the trail head but once we made it around a few bends of the creek we were sheltered by the canyon walls.  The kids loved splashing in and out of the creek as we made our way up canyon. We only came across two other groups of hikers as we leisurely made our way up the canyon  a few miles then headed back to the car.

Downtown Notom

We made our way back to Capitol Reef and had lunch in Fruita. We all sat back and relaxed for a few hours while the kids ran around the park  then headed down 24 to hike up Grand Wash.

Once we were a bend or two away from the choke point and my 3yo really started to meander around the wash. We gave him 2 or 3 minutes to get it out of this system before my sister, 6yo son, and I started hiking again. We were just a few dozen paces up the canyon when we heard a series of intense cracks,  I immediately scanned the skyline around us and saw a huge slab of rock just up canyon hit the wall about 150′+ above the floor and break up into 500 pieces. A cluster bomb of sandstone rocks ranging from baseball to basketball size pounded the canyon floor a little over a hundred feet away. After we gathered our thoughts and waited for the dust to settle we hiked up to view the aftermath.  A 75′ section of the canyon floor was pelted with little craters each with a small pile of sand in the center.  Had we been just 60 seconds further up the canyon I have a hard time believing we would have survived. I did manage to squeeze off a few shots of the dust after the initial impact but I was using my 11mm and did some back pedaling so it seems further away than it really was.

and back to hiking….

Magic hour at the Castle

Last hike on Friday was a quick trip up to Hickman Bridge,  Whitney and I lagged behind a bit and waited for the sunset and it was worth the wait. That night the  sky was filled with clouds again so again no star trails.

Saturday morning we drove back to Fruita to hike Cohab Canyon. The kids did great hiking up the switch backs and we spent about an hour exploring the short side  slot canyons before half our group hiked back to the cars to pick of the rest of the group on the other side of the canyon.

Next up was Sulphur Creek, I dropped Tyler and Alene off at the trailhead and pointed them in the right direction. While they did the five mile hike  we  ate a large lunch and let the kids play a bit in Fruita then started hiking up Sulphur Creek from the Visitor Center. 2.5 hours after they started we met back up with Tyler and Alene at the lowest waterfall.

Tyler then dropped Whitney, April, and I off at the upper trail head and we started our five mile hike . We worked our way down canyon in and out of the creek  scrambling over rocks and waterfalls.   I have to say the Sulphur Creek is one of the best hikes I have ever done, its really does not get much better than this.

awesome log jam at the first waterfall

second falls

Sulphur Creek was awesome and definitely the highlight of the weekend. We met up with everyone in Fruita then drove into Torrey to grab some food and Ice. We made it back to our camp next to the Fremont just after sunset and got all the kids settled down.   The skies cleared up just before the full moon came up and I was able to shoot what I think is my best star trail shot yet.

Awesome trip.

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.