We stopped at the Valley of Goblins State park. They have a lot of nature sculpted goblins in mud and sandstone.
We checked to see if they and any campsites available but they didn't so we took a walk through the goblins then had lunch with them and said our goodbyes and were back on the road heading Further South (West) on highway 24.
We intended to stay in the Fruita Campground in the Capitol Reef NP but the campground was full so we continued down to Torrey where We filled our gas tank and stopped in the Visitor Center and learned of a nice Forest Service campground about 7 miles West of town near the town of Bicknell. We settled in to the Sunglow Campground in a nice site. Tomorrow we can return to Capitol Reef NP. We understand campsites there usually fill up by noon but we probably will not attempt to move there rather we will remain here in Sunglow and commute back to the park as needed. We're signed up for two days here but may extend if the hiking is good there. Leftover hot and sour soup for lunch. Chorizo tacos for dinner.
(GPS: 38.34195, -111.5196)
Monday: (05/06) Chorizo scrambled eggs for breakfast. This morning it was overcast and started raining pretty good. We hung around camp because of the rain. Lunch was leftover hot and sour soup. We decided to go out anyway. We drove over to Bicknell, less than a mile from our camp. Nice little town. We found propane there at a better price than we found anywhere in Moab. We'll fill up before we leave. Their gas is also 20 cents cheaper in Bicknell then in Torrey 6 miles away. We visited a general store in Torrey and then headed on to Capitol Reef Park figuring we'd just take a drive through.
Some flowers by the Visitor Center and a view of the old Gifford farm area.
Scenic Road into Capitol Reef. On right is the Capitol Gorge entrance.
We took the Scenic Drive and ended up at the Cassidy Trailhead. It was only lightly sprinkling so I decided to take the short 3 mile RT hike out the the Cassidy Arch. It's a pretty steep hike up out of the wash along the edge of the cliff. It was raining with occasional thunder but not really stormy.
The trail up is along the side of the cliff. The photo looking down at the parking area is only about a forth of the total climb.
The scenery along the trail is nice and you do get a better view of the arch from above than you do from below. Closer as well.
Cassidy Arch Trail
EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking in Utah
Lou busied herself at the trailhead while I was gone. We had a second lunch, the one I packed for the day, our olive loaf and cheese sandwiches. We continued our tour out Capitol Gorge to the end of the road then returned. We then drove out onto the East side of the park along part of Notom Road before returning toward home. On a future visit we'll take the Burr Trail Jeep Road which returns via the Notom Road. We decided to have dinner out. We checked the menus at several restaurants and finally decide on the Sunglow Cafe in Bicknell. Lou had her sirloin steak and I had chicken fried steak. The dinner is served with fresh baked scones and honey butter. Too bad Lou doesn't eat wheat, I had to eat hers as well and they were excellent. We noticed a sign on the window when we entered that said they had pinto bean or pickle pie. Their pies looked really good. We talked with our neighboring diners, local residents, and they said the pies were excellent and that they had a sampler. We shared a sampler which included small pieces of four pies. Buttermilk, pinto bean, pickle and oatmeal. Other than the buttermilk pie, none of them tasted like their main ingredient. They were all some of the best pies we've ever had. The Sunglow cafe is now on our list of restaurants to return to. As we drove up the hill to our camp the rain turned to hail. Good thing we've decide to move on tomorrow morning. We're the sole occupants of our campground tonight.
No comments:
Post a Comment