National Park Tour ~ Capitol Reef

It's my last birthday that starts with a 5, and Mr. C has a surprise for me.   We're taking a road trip ~ top down in the Corvette ~ to some of our neighboring National Parks, with an ending destination of ? Well, it's a surprise!

He has washed and waxed and polished and buffed his baby till she is positively gleaming.   She gets a lot of attention on the road, and he doesn't want her to be embarrassed that she's not at her very best.

We're leaving from our place in Saint George, Utah; 

the first stop is Capitol Reef National Park.

The weather is perfect for top down, at least in the morning hours ~ and I'm always impressed with how much more scenery you can take in when you are "out in it".  You get the added sensations of the feel of the wind, the warmth of the sunshine, the smell of the junipers or fresh cut hay or sagebrush or ~ whatever!  Sensational, in the truest sense of the word.

We are doing a "drive through" here @ Capitol Reef; it's a very long park, stretching for a hundred miles north to south. So even though there are hikes to be had, we have to make tracks to get to Moab tonight (plus the temp is climbing to over 100 degrees!).  So we decide to stop at the sights and lookouts along the way, but we save the hiking for another day.

There's remnants here of an old Mormon settlement.

This little schoolhouse is remarkably well-preserved.  

I can (just barely) remember attending a little one-room school for a short time in rural Iowa; must have been kindergarten or first grade.  (Not in a setting like this, though!)  It's funny how these little desks with the groove to hold your pencil brings back such a rush of feeling and memory.  In this case it's for chalk -- but even I don't go back that far.

The area is known for it's fruit orchards, first planted by those early Mormon settlers.  Not sure what kind these are, but there are 18 orchards total here, with over 3,000 trees; so there is something "fruiting" here pretty much June (cherries) through mid-October (apples). We have our eye out for fruit stands or (more importantly) homemade pie stands, but, alas!  Not today.

Instead we find these petroglyphs, which are remarkable for their uniqueness among petroglyphs.  They have lots of personality, not so primitive, so stick-figure-ish as most I've seen.

There's a long boardwalk where we find more ~

Lots more, actually.  It's a fun version of "Where's Waldo".

Can you see the bird???

But we have to move along now, as we have a date with Arches National Park this afternoon.   And as the temperatures climb, as promised, to that 100 degrees, sadly, the top goes up in favor of A/C.

I'm impressed with how much the scenery changes 

as we hum along.

And changes again ~

And yet again ~

We pass through some little towns, which are always interesting.

If you're watching, you can usually see some things that you don't see back home in the city.

Like this - Evidently this is the place to buy your "Never Rip" Overalls.  Where they have plenty of "Room for the Big Deep Bend".  I'm fascinated, not so much that there is such a thing, or that they sell such a thing, but that they are proud enough of it to have devoted the entire side of their building to it's advertisement.

I didn't stop to buy any, though.  Sort of having non-buyer's regret.

We pass lots of campgrounds, this is pretty much RV heaven.

Sleepy Hollow might need a little sign painting sometime soon.

And finally the scenery changes yet again, 

as we are approaching Arches National Park.

I can't wait to see what lies ahead!