Cathedral Valley

For the many visits made to Capitol Reef National Park over the years, we'd yet to make a drive into Cathedral Valley.  Having recently acquired a somewhat high clearance 4WD SUV in the form of a GMC Yukon XL for our family, we took the opportunity to spend a day driving the Cathedral Valley Loop as a family while on Spring Break.

Read More

Halls Creek

If you've been following me and my posts over time, you probably know how often I visit the Capitol Reef area.  With my in-laws now living in Torrey and my wife being a great-great-granddaughter of the man considered to be the father of Capitol Reef National Park, Ephraim Pectol, I've essentially married into the park.  With the many visits over the years, I've been trying to get familiar with as much of the park as reasonably possible.  Halls Creek and its narrows had been looming for a long time.  Thinking it might well be the best of the park, at least subjectively, I had been saving it for last, with some meager plan to progress southward through the park. Alas, after reviewing some older and newer trip reports by others on a forum I frequently participate in, I couldn't resist any longer and took the opportunity to make a trip to it sooner.

Read More

A Night on the Wedge

For March, I had penciled in a camping trip with all my kids "somewhere in Southern Utah".  As the date for it grew closer, I settled on a spot on my list of places I had yet to see that was still kid friendly...a place in Emery County out on the northern flanks of the San Rafael Swell known as The Wedge.

Read More