#thousand lakes mountains

[thedaveandkimmershow]

Our Capitol Reef National Park day, Saturday, June 4, was a bit of an experiential sandwich. It starts right out front of the Thousand Lakes Mountains and ends in Cathedral Valley.

That morning, with the sun fully out, I was able to grab a bunch of photographs of those mountains. In the evening, I didn’t get any of Cathedral Valley (’cause we were racing to Moab by that point).

And inbetween?

Yeah. We went to town on Capitol Reef.

We started with a quick stop at Twin Rocks because, well, Twin Rocks. A quick stop ‘cause I was wondering if I somehow missed the entrance to the park. Which I didn’t.

At some point, you’re just in the park.

And by Twin Rocks... you’re definitely in the park.

After that, we gazed in horror at an actual fault line then made our way to the Goosenecks overlook.

Now the story there is that we drove a gravel road a ways until a parking circle. The couple in the car ahead of us were already up the trail to the lookout point. And by the time we were almost there as well... we kind of lost our way. Oh... we could see the couple ahead of us along the rail on the other side of some rocks. But we couldn’t figure out how they got there.

Eventually, we were above them and called down to them for directions. At which point the woman pointed out we could simply climb down from where we were. Which we did... after a touch of anxiety.

The other story from the park happens after the visitors center and the school house. 

We actually had it in our minds that we could hike the mile ‘n back it would take to see Hickman Bridge, a natural rock formation. And, while we did end up walking a mile, we basically walked a half-mile up and a half-mile back.

Yeah. Never made it to Hickman Bridge.

However, we still did see Hickman Bridge because, on our way up, we ran across a couple from Europe who were on their way down from seeing it. And they were kind enough to show us the pictures they took with their cell phones.

So...

Pretty much we hiked to Hickman Bridge...

And saw it anyway. 

🤨

In the meantime, the Capitol Reef National Park photo album and maps are here.

And my quick take the day after our time in  Capitol Reef National Park is here.

Enjoy!

😊  

[thedaveandkimmershow]

Our third day of national parks was definitely a departure from the first two. 

Instead of civilization and shuttles and lots of tourists everywhere, Capitol Reef National Park was remote. Felt more like the middle of nowhere.

Even the Thousand Lakes RV Park where we spent the previous night was like that. A campground in the middle of nowhere.

It's a beautiful location, though, that RV park. It faces a distinctive mountain range and features an actual park at its center giving the location the vibe of a perpetual Sunday afternoon. There's a small town feel here with swimming and soccer and tossing football. Kids running. Families. Picnics. And simply being.

It's here I noticed a lot of "safe travels" wishes as we came across various fellow travelers. So that became my wish to fellow travelers going forward.

Now, technically, our parking spot was in the back of the property. In reality, we had front row seats to the Thousand Lakes Mountains, so-called, according to local lore, because of a cartography error wherein the mountains with all the lakes to the south was labeled "Boulder Mountains"... and the mountains opposite those that were all rock from one end to the other was labeled "Thousand Lakes Mountains". 

Yup.

Cartographer’s error sounds about right.

Our neighbors directly to the east came quickly to our attention because of the snazzy ATV they were using to drive, not only between their rig and their friend's rig elsewhere on the property... they were using it to joyride the terrain between the RV park and Thousand Lakes Mountains.

Fellow empty nesters, they have kids in Idaho, Virginia, and Utah. The "kid" who's traveling with them, though, is a Yorkie named "Dasher"... which completely made me wanna see an entire team of Yorkies, each one named after those famous reindeer, pulling a Christmas themed ATV. 😉

"Dasher", of course, is the name bestowed by their daughter because they gave her the dog around Christmas... and that's what she came up with.

The Thousand Lakes RV Park is also where we met the first person on our trip to mention and agree how odd it is there seems to be no recycling effort in Utah.

All these beautiful national parks, all this wonderful Nature...

And somehow no recycling.

This was one of the women in the front office who checked us in upon our arrival. She's from Delaware where recycling's a daily habit.

Not sure why...

I can't even imagine they have trees there.  😉

Her partner in crime, the other woman working the front office who set us up with an adapter for our extension cord first thing... as well as hot chocolates the next morning... she was the person to whom I finally had to admit not knowing what day it was. Neither the day nor the date.

I had to think hard about it whenever the need arose. And most of the time an answer in which I had any kind of confidence was not forthcoming.

"Me too," said the woman in the front office. "It's good you don't know what day it is."

And you know what?

When you’re on vacationi...

It kind of is.

😁