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Saturday, May 28, 2022
We took the day off from the National Parks to rest and do some errands. In the morning Deborah did laundry and then we went out to lunch at a long time Cedar City spot: Hermie’s Drive In. We availed ourself of the indoor seating.
The problem with paper thin burgers is that it is really easy to overcook them and that is exactly what happened. The fries were just ordinary frozen fries. We also ordered a chocolate malt. It came with a spoon because it was too thick to drink. We searched in vain for the malt (for which we paid extra) and the ice cream was about the same quality as a Wendy’s frosty. It wasn’t a very satisfying meal.
Just across the street we spotted a bakery. They had some lovely looking items. We brought a vanilla and a carrot cake cupcake back to the hotel for later. Both had custard in the middle and butter cream frosting. The custard had little flavor and the butter cream had some other fat in it so that it was impossible to eat too much of it without feeling awful.
Sunday, May 29, 2022
Happy Anniversary to Us! I don’t know how it’s possible we could have been married for 36 years when we’re still in our 20s. I’ll tell you about our time machine later 😉.
This morning we drove from Cedar City, UT to Capitol Reef National Park. Along the way we drove past Butch Cassidy’s boyhood home. It was a tiny shack that resembled an outhouse. No wonder he turned to crime.
As we turned North on route 62 we were stopped in our tracks. A large mama cow was standing in the middle of the road. On one side of the road was a young calf and on the other side of the road was another. She must have been beside herself trying to figure out what to do. We approached slowly and drove around her. I hope she managed to work something out. There are open ranges in that area so we were careful to watch for other cows.
Just past the Capitol Reef visitor center we drove into the historic town of Fruita (pronounced fruit-a). It was once a small Mormon village. We stopped by the old, one room school house. The building is closed but we were able to peer inside and see the old desks and chalkboard. Next to and all around the school house are fruit orchards. The National Park Service maintains these orchards and offers a U-Pick service when in season. None of the fruits were ripe when we were there.
A little further down the road we stopped to see the Freemont Petroglyphs. The Freemonts were ancestors of the Hopi Native Americans that inhabited the area between 300 and 1300 CE. Petroglyphs were inscribed on the face of what once had been a very long and flat rock face. Today, because of erosion, only a few of the glyphs remain to be seen. We were fascinated by them. In some places it was easy to see that they had drawn pictographs of important people and animals. According to the Park Ranger the glyphs were well over 1,000 years old.
We continued down the road and eventually found The Grand Wash Trail which we intended to hike. The path is along a narrow stream bed that winds its way through some very high canyon walls. There were lots of signs warning hikers to avoid the trail when it might rain because of possible flash flooding. Initially the footing was rather sandy but as we walked the ground became firmer.
It was easy to imagine how the canyon came into being. The signs of how running water had eroded the sheer walls was quite evident. Eventually we came to a sign indicating that we were on another trail – a much more strenuous trail that had a very significant rise in elevation. At that point we turned around. On our way back the wind kicked up and starting blowing dust and sand everywhere. By the time we reached the car we were covered head to foot. We were in desperate need of a shower.
When we had left the Freemont Petroglyphs in the morning we had noticed another path that paralleled the road where more glyphs were visible. We returned to this spot and found more writings interspersed sporatically on the wall. It was clear that portions of the wall, where writings were likely to have been, had broken off. Still, it was fun tracking them down and trying to decipher them.
Just outside the visitor’s center we stopped at a place called Panorama Point. We climbed a small hill that provided us with a great view of the surrounding cliffs. It was the perfect place to take some more photos.
Monday, May 30, 2022
Our plan for the morning was to hike the Hickman Natural Bridge trail. This is one of the more challenging trails with a very significant rise in elevation. We were told that the beautiful scenery along the way and the magnificent arch at the end of the trail would be worth the effort.
We arrived before 10:00 am and the parking lot was already full. We parked alongside the road, got out the hiking poles, girded our loins and made our way to the trailhead. The path was very rocky with slippery sand covering most surfaces. We took it rather slowly.
The path was rather steep for a while and then it turned to sand as it leveled off. Just as we were feeling good about things it went abruptly down. That’s not too bad until you consider that you’re going to have to climb that much back up – and more. When we finally got to the arch we took some pictures. There was a loop that went down to the arch, through and around, but by then we’d had enough.
Afterwards we drove back to the visitor’s center and took the other fork in the road. It lead to the main part of the old town. We stopped at the old Blacksmith shop but there was really nothing to see, so we continued on down the ten mile scenic drive to the far end of the park.
The drive is quite beautiful. There are lots of high cliffs and colored sedimentary layers to admire. There was evidence of large boulders cleaving off the cliffs everywhere. When we got to the end there was another trail we intended to take but it meant driving a couple of miles over a dirt road. We started down the road. It was much more uneven and rocky than we thought so we went back. Our little Corolla was not meant for off-roading.
There is a dearth of restaurants in Richfield, where our hotel is. If you want fast food you are in luck but if you are in the mood for anything else there are slim pickings. For dinner we tried a local hangout called Sandi’s Drive In. We ordered a couple of patty melts, some fries and a sundae of vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce. The burgers were ok, the fries were nothing special and the ice cream was completely average. There was nothing particularly interesting about any of it. This trip to Utah has been a bust as far as gastronomy is concerned.
Tuesday, May 31, 2022
We decided to take the day off. We need to do some planning. We have two parks left in Utah and for one of them, Arches, we need to have reservations to enter the park. Of course, Arches and Canyonlands are both in the middle of nowhere so finding a suitable hotel will also be a challenge.
We found a sports bar near our hotel. We called to see if they were showing matches from the French Open. They had no idea what channel that would be on and had no idea if they carried anything having to do with tennis. We decided to go over there around lunch time and suss things out. Sure enough, unknown to any of the people who work there, they had a subscription to the Tennis Channel. We ordered lunch and for the next 4.5 hours watched Djokovic and Nadal beat the crap out of each other. It was an exciting match: Nadal won in a fourth set tie-breaker.
For lunch I had fish and chips and Deborah had fish tacos. Both of our meals contained the same, pre-packed, previously frozen, fish nuggets that had been deep fried. We were just glad to have the tennis to watch.
It was actually dinner time when the match ended. We decided to have ice cream at The Ideal Dairy. The restaurant serves some food but its staples are soft serve and a variety of hard ice creams. I had a malt with hot fudge and marshmallow. Deborah had a cup of chocolate peanut butter. Both were excellent.
We found out that we need a reservation for a timed entry to Arches National Park. Entries for the next two weeks can only be reserved the night before starting at 6:00 pm at a cost of $2.00 each. What a freaking pain! We raced from the dairy back to our hotel so we could be sitting in front of the computer at the stroke of 6. We got the entry we wanted. We have to be there between 11:00 am and noon.