Red Rocks | Friday, October 16th, 2009 Thanks for joining me for one last day in Utah. Ready for a road trip? Today we're headed to southern Utah to see Capitol Reef, Zion, Arches, and Canyonlands National Parks. (In real life, I'd advise at least two days if not five per park!) And we're off... Capitol Reef is new to me. My husband and I went there for our first time this past May, and after only being there for a day and a half, we fell in love and can't wait to return. The park is full of the red rocks that make Southern Utah famous, but the part I loved the most was Fruita, a small historic settlement along the Fremont River inside the park. It's filled with apple, peach and cherry orchards planted by early residents in the late 1870s. The orchards are still maintained today by the Park Service and in the fall, you can pick to your heart's content and make a fresh Dutch oven fruit cobbler at your campsite just feet from where you picked the bounty. Our next stop is a place very close to my heart, Zion National Park. This place has a spirit about it, an ethereal feeling that is intoxicating. When you stand on the canyon floor beneath the giant stone sentinels guarding resolutely over the river, the cottonwoods, the wild turkeys, the California kingsnakes, the sagebrush, and you, you'll feel it. When you hike to the rocky base of The Watchman, through the chilly air in Refrigerator Canyon, over smooth river rocks buffed by thousands of years of the Virgin River's passage, and to an alcove oasis bordered by a 100-foot waterfall, you'll feel it. I can't explain it, but it's Zion. Go there. Now. Now off to Canyonlands and Arches. One of my favorite authors, Edward Abbey, loved these places deeply and protected them fiercely. I can't say anything about either place that he didn't say much more eloquently, so I'm suggesting you pick up a copy of Desert Solitaire, The Monkey Wrench Gang, or The Journey Home. You'll fall in love with these places as I have, and you'll want to stay there forever. Well friends, that's it for me, Steph Parke. Thanks for spending a week with me in Utah, and thanks again to Jen for asking me to participate!

PREVIOUS | MAIN | COMMENT (2)