Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Capital Reef National Park

Yesterday we spent the day exploring Capital Reef National Park.  It is located on the way from Arches/Canyonlands NPs to Bryce Canyon NP.  It has some very interesting rock formations and some petroglyphs from the early Fremont people.


This rock formation is named 'The Capital Dome' because it resembles the Capital Dome in Washington DC.  It is also the name sake for the park.  The Reef comes from some of the early explorers who were seafaring men and when the rocks presented a barrier to them crossing they call the rocks a 'reef' and the name stuck and Capital Reef was born.






We were also able to observe some early petroglyphs from the Fremont People who lived in the area from 800 to 1300 AD.





Steve thought maybe these drawings were done by some teenagers just like those today who do spray paint drawings.  I do hope that some of those spray paintings are not around 1000 years from now.



Just as last year, we had to climb our mountain.  Last year it was Whistler's Mountain, this year it was Hickman Natural Bridge.  It was a 2 mile hike to see the bridge and most of it seemed to be up hill. 








It was in a very remote area by was really something to see.  It is awesome what water can do over time.


These are a few photos from the mountain.








It will be interesting to see what our 'mountain' looks like next year.




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