Capitol Reef

During Easter weekend, we went with Thomas's family to Capitol Reef. I hadn't ever been so it was an awesome trip. The landscape down there is just amazing and so diverse! I would recommend it to anyone.

Our first activity entailed hiking to Cassidy Arch (in the background). It looks like a cave right now, but you can see it better in the next picture.

This is us on top of the arch. Poor Thomas almost had a heart attack everytime I was in proximity to an edge, let alone close enough to see it. It is hard to tell but he is holding my arm and wouldn't let me get a good look (but i guess that is better than him trying to push me off, ha ha). This angle makes us look a lot closer to the edge than we actually are.

It is a far away shot, but our friends the Reeds were with us on the trip and this is all of us on the arch. They were a blast and we hope we get to do something like this again with them.

After the arch, we hiked 6 miles back to camp (yeah, it took forever!) But along the way we got to see some awesome things and this was one of them. Just a bunch of holes in the rocks, but fun to climb!

Then we found this little slot canyon. It was very narrow at the bottom so Thomas wedged himself up higher and climed over it.

I, on the other hand, didn't have long enough legs to climb over, so I perched my feet (tiptoes) on some branches that were at the bottom, but then my neice Aubree wanted to come, so I had to lift her up and over my head (which was pretty interesting to manage, ha). This was taken before I lifted her over my head.

The next day we hiked to a natural land bridge of some sort and on the way we passed a place where the indians used to store wheat (I think) It was crazy to think how long this had been there.

This is us standing just below the wheat storage hole. By this time in the trip, Aubree had become a constant companion of mine. I have no idea why she decided to cling to me, but at times she wanted me over her mom. It was so funny! I guess everywhere she went, she would say "Hi! Where awissa?" which later became "Hi, where ma-awissa?" when they tried to teach her how to say my name correctly. It was fun having someone miss me like she did and there were times they literally had to pry her off of me if I couldn't go where she was going. (She would grab my backpack straps and wouldn't let go, he he) Such a sweet girl!

This is the bridge i mentioned and it was pretty cool to see, although it just looks like another arch to me. ?

This is us across from the arch (we tried but never figured out how to get on top, but this view was just as amazing.

This picture was probably the epitome of the trip: Sarah on one hand, me on the other of Aubree (with a huge smile on her face), and Thomas doing his own thing cause I had been claimed :)

Then we walked to a place called Capitol Gorge that has some natural water tank formations. The water pools in these rocks and you can hike down to them. For some reason Sarah wasn't looking, but she, Mary and I hiked down to the pools of water and sat under the arch. It was way cool! Poor Thomas had to hold Aubree while I hiked down and the whole time she just kind of wimpered for her mom and me. When we climbed back out, Mary was first so Aubree went to her, but as soon as I was out, she was out of Mary's arms and into mine. ha ha ha ha it made everyone laugh.

On our last night there, they issued a winter storm warning and the winds were blowing at a steady 20 mph (or at least it felt like it) so we took our tent down and slept in the back of his parents suburban and boy are we glad we did!

First the storm looked like this......

And then it did this......

And the next morning the skies were clear!

This is us saying goodbye (Still got Aubree!)

The last and final picture before we drove away. I hope we get to go back again soon!