28. Capitol Reef National Park and Arches National Park, Utah

Dates: December 24-26, 2015

We started off in Panguitch, Utah on December 24, and took the stunning Scenic Route 12 towards Capitol Reef National Park. We drove through hoodoos, canyons and mountains, which meant Will was pulling over often for pictures! 

 

  

We had not planned on going through Capitol Reef at all, but after reading about it, we decided to spend some time exploring this park. 

  

We parked along Grand Wash Road and hiked to Cassidy Arch first. The trail was a beautiful red rock trail covered with snow in many spots. Near the top, we weren’t sure where to go, but after some searching, we found our way over to the amazing arch. We both went out onto the arch and enjoyed the view from up there! 

 

After hiking down, we went over to the Hickman Bridge loop trail, which was really icy. This natural bridge was 133 feet across and looked amazing from underneath! 

  

The rest of the drive towards Moab was so scenic, with a huge mountain range and many hoodoos along the way. In Moab, we were lucky to find a place open on Christmas Eve for a yummy dinner before settling into our adorable cozy cabin we rented for two nights. We had an amazing finish to this night- a soak in the hot tub under the light of the full moon and so many stars sparkling! 

 

We woke up Christmas morning to lots of fresh snow, and headed off for a day in Arches National Park. We drove the scenic road through the park, stopping off to do a great hike to Delicate Arch. We were surprised how many people we saw along this trail! 

After this hike, we drove to the end of the scenic road and headed out to explore the Devil’s Garden trails. Despite the very chilly wind and snow blowing around, we managed to get to Pine Tree Arch, Tunnel Arch and Landscape Arch without a problem. 

 

However, within the first half hour on the primitive trail towards Double O Arch, I was slipping all over place, so we turned back. We tried going from the other way instead, and got a lot further on the trail. We saw some really neat fin-like rocks and walked through a deep gully before being faced with a rock wall. The only signs of a trail along this way were random rock cairns, and the rock wall had a few rock cairns up the side. Will tried his best to get up the snow covered wall as I stood back, but after many attempts, decided it was not going to happen. We searched around the area for a place where the trail picked up again, but couldn’t find a way to continue on the trail. Will was frustrated about not finishing, but we both realized it wasn’t safe to continue on that trail. 

We turned back and hiked out, stopping next at the North and South “Windows”, the Turret Arch, the Cove of Caves and the Double Arch. After this, we headed back to our cozy cabin for the evening. Now, we knew in advance that nothing would be open on Christmas Day, so we brought food with us. Knowing that we were limited to a dinner that could be made using a microwave made for an interesting grocery store trip! Will had big ideas about meals we could make (most of which I couldn’t stomach), but we settled on Asian noodle bowls, followed by nachos and cheese, and salted caramel cookies for dessert! We ended the day with phone calls to family, another hot tub soak, local beers and Christmas movies!