Day 18 Apples!

The drive from Archview Campground, outside Arches NP by about 6 miles, to Capitol Reef National Park is a distance of about 150 miles or about 3 hours. The drive was mostly through desert. Along the way, we passed a house that had no neighbors for 25 miles in any direction. The funny thing is that the homeowner had a trash can on the curb for pick-up! We don't have trash pick-up in Woodland Township, NJ and the houses aren't that remote form each other.

Capitol Reef NP has some intriguing geological features, but that's not what stuck out in my mind when we entered it. Most impressive to me was the fact that it appears to be an Oasis in the desert. It has a stream, grass, and trees, including orchards of peaches, pears and four or five varieties of apples. Visitors are encouraged to pick the fruit which you can eat on the spot. Picking tools and fruit tree ladders are available for visitors to use. Should one desire to take fruit out of the orchard, an honor system stand is set up complete with a supply of plastic bags and a scale. You pay $1.00 for each pound you take out.

The afternoon Ranger Talk was a special treat. Ranger Rick certainly knows his geology and was fluent in describing the current scientific thinking about the geological forces that shaped the area as well as those forces at work now.

We also attended a Ranger Talk on petroglyphs in the park. It was really interesting to see drawings made by "the ancients."

The Fruita Campground in Capitol Reef NP was a real treat. Luckily we arrived when there were a few openings. It didn't take long for it to fill up. Later in the afternoon and throughout the early evening many RVs and tenters were turned away.

Sites were big, paved with areas of lush grass. At this time of the year, they have sprinklers running 24 hours a day.

Adjacent to the campground is an historic house that now serves as a museum and store that sells jellies, a variety of fruit butters, jams and othe country specialities including fresh baked pies. We sample the Blackberry Pie while Marje and Ed tried the Cherry and Apple Pies. The grounds include old fame wagons and farming implements. Three horses were penned in a pasture adjacent to the house.

Deer roamed the campground and seemed pretty tame. There weren't skittish of people or their dogs for the most part.

We met one camper who welcomed us to this "unknown jewell in the national park system." we liked it just fine!

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