Natural Bridges and Capitol Reef

Utah has five national parks, but we also have several national monuments.  The difference is that a national monument is "intended to preserve at least one nationally significant resource," whereas a national park is intended to preserve a variety of nationally significant natural resources.  Natural Bridges National Monument covers over 7 thousand acres, so it's not just a statue or something.  The "one" nationally significant resource are the three natural bridges, which you can see by driving a loop that takes under an hour if you're taking your sweet time and stopping at each one.  The visitors center was manned by an extremely enthusiastic ranger who probably hadn't had a whole lot of human contact this winter.  We saw maybe two dozen other people ALL DAY LONG, counting both national parks and the state park.  And Mexican Hat.  Literally, the whole landscape was devoid of humans.

Anyway, Ted gave each kid a junior ranger booklet to fill out, and man did they work on those pages!  We had a picnic at the first bridge, and at the third bridge, Ptolemy and Xanthe went off on a path by themselves.  What could happen, right?  Nobody was around, and all the animals were probably hibernating.  We hadn't seen many of the animals, or the tracks, that were listed in the junior ranger booklet.  After awhile, Tolly and Xanthe came rushing back up the trail screaming about cougar tracks.  Tizzy was already feeling wary about all the animals in the booklet, and also about possible ghosts and/or dinosaurs, because anything is possible in that prehistoric landscape, so she started running too.  Not fast enough for Tolly, however.  Sprinting toward the car, he turned and screamed over his shoulder, "RUN, TIZZY!  YOU'RE NOT EVEN TRYING!!"  He was out of his mind with real fear that an animal was close on their heels.

Nobody got eaten by a wild animal, and Ted, after carefully looking over the booklets, awarded each kid a badge and a certificate.  Sheesh, it was tougher than I thought to become a junior ranger, and a bigger deal.  Is it any surprise that I almost got choked up as the kids were awarded their badges?

The drive from Natural Bridges was the most stunning drive I have ever been on.  We were in complete awe the entire time.

Crossing the Colorado River, I laid (lied?  I never got this one) in the road and took some pics.  Did I tell you that NOBODY ELSE was in this part of the world, 4 hours away from Salt Lake, on a three-day weekend, when the Salt Lake Valley was under a heavy inversion?  Unbelievable!

We just stopped by the side of the road and the kids climbed stuff while Scott and Tizzy walked across the bridge and I took a nap in the road.

bonsai!

I kinda love this pic.

Stopped for shakes and fries at Stan's, right outside the road to Lake Powell.  

It was a day that we never wanted to end, but the sun was dropping and we still had Capitol Reef National Park to see.

(This is a pic from Scott's phone that I added, from the Moki Dugway drive.)

The kids just wanted to climb and hike, but there wasn't much to hike on at these petroglyphs.

A French couple took our picture.

Last stop, as the sun went down, at a turnoff that said something about goosenecks.  It was a short hike up to a rim that overlooked a deep canyon.  Serious payoff for like a 5 minute hike.  And lots of stuff to climb.

Ptolemy's enthusiasm must have made the photo go crazy!

I know I say this all the time, but we did not have enough time at this place.  Capitol Reef is high on our list of things to go back and do again, immediately.  Actually, Scott had a trip planned there for tomorrow, but he changed it to Arches.  For this time, it was time to get on the road.  We figured we'd get to Orem and drop off Golda by 9 and head up to the Ranch to eke out one more night from our weekend.  The drive was a tad slower on the state roads than the interstate would have been, due ot all the wildlife and livestock.  There were numerous deer crossing signs, and actually, numerous deer, too!  We could see them in the dark, just off the road.  I did NOT want to hit a deer.  It was dusk outside of Torrey, and an oncoming car slashed its brights.  A moment later, we discovered why.  A herd of sheep meandering across the road.  Between sheep, free-range cattle the whole way, deer and even house cats, I was on the defensive.  We made it home in good time, though, dropped off Golda and cozied up in front of the fire in Park City to talk about our trip.  Our kids are growing up heartbreakingly fast, and I'm thankful for every moment a sheep steps in front of the car and slows down time to hand us a memory we can take with us into the future.