We were only about 1 1/2 hours from the park and we had the directions in the GPS. We were driving through the middle of huge piles of rocks with a small river flowing in between and some trees along the river. We were in the middle of nowhere. The lady on the phone kept telling us that we were almost there and we kept responding "Really?". Sure enough, we saw the park entrance sign. That was all there was, though. We got out and took a picture before going in search of the rest of the park. I'm sad to report that there was no picture post here.
We saw this one room stone cabin that was built by Elijah Behunin in 1882 for his family of 15. Talk about cramped.
There was also a viewing area for Native American petroglyphs.
There used to be more petroglyphs to the left of the existing ones, but a large chunk of the rock wall fell at some point, destroying them. The missing chunk is directly above Rodney in the picture below.
The canyon valley is home to a small town named Fruita that was originally settled by Mormon pioneers. The one room schoolhouse and town's only public building still stands. Morgan is giving school the thumbs down.
They have even set up the inside as it would have been for school. Any other public event such as church, meetings, and dances was also held in this building.
Eventually we found the visitor center and we grabbed some Junior Ranger books and checked out the park movie.
This national park is unique in that it has working orchards inside the park. It is especially interesting because this seems like the last place in the world you would find an orchard. It is a desolate place filled with giant piles of huge rocks, but the small river that runs through the valley is just enough to sustain farming.
The really fun thing about the orchards is that they allow park visitors to pick ripe fruit and eat it right in the orchard. Apricots were ready for harvest today so we headed to the orchard!
They had these neat little fruit picker tools you could use and a few ladders set up too. The apricots were yummy, but there weren't that many really good ripe ones and they were hard to reach. We had fun harvesting fruit, though, and we got enough to get develop a love of apricots.
We had a disagreement about the pronunciation of "apricot". Is it AY-pricot or APP-ricot?
Once we had a good appreciation for the work it takes to harvest fruit, we decided to enjoy the true purpose for all fruit - pie! The Gifford House is an actual farmhouse turned store and pie shop inside the park. They sell pies made with fruit from the orchards.
Caleb and I shared a cherry pie while Rodney and Morgan chose mixed berry pie. We added a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of each pie, of course.
Because we are on vacation, this pie was our lunch. As you can see, we didn't enjoy it at all. ;-)
The park also has an 18 mile round trip scenic drive through the Waterpocket Fold area.
These sandstone formations on top of the waterpocket fold are what gave the park its name because they look like capitol domes.
I think the black layer of rock is lava rock.
These canyon walls are tall!
After the scenic drive, we stopped back at the visitor center to turn in the junior ranger booklets.
Tonight we are staying in a tiny house in Escalante, Utah. Escalante is located in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument on Scenic Byway SR-12 about halfway between Capitol Reef NP and Bryce Canyon NP. SR-12 is an All American Road and it is breathtaking.
It is also an area of open range for cattle and we saw quite a few beside, and on, the road.
Part of SR-12 goes through the Dixie National Forest. It was beautiful.
Then, suddenly, the trees disappear and we feel like we're on the film set for Star Wars.
This part was a little scary. We were driving on the ridge of this mountain with steep cliffs on either side.
Finally, the tiny home! It was great! This one is a little different (and better) than the last. Currently, there are 3 of these houses, but more are in the works. They are all the same and they are great. Unlike the other tiny house, this one is a permanent building - not built on a trailer to be moved around. It is also larger - 400 square feet with an additional 170 square feet in the loft. It has a great deck with a gas grill and a little yard area with a fire pit. We felt like Goldilocks because this one was JUST right!
This place was so cute. There is a living room with couch and TV and the kitchen island doubles as a table for 4. Behind Rodney is the great little bathroom and also a bedroom.
The kids love their little loft. They soon broke out in a game of Go Fish.
Meanwhile, I started some laundry. That machine does both the washing and the drying. It worked well enough, but it takes several hours for a small load so I only washed what we would need for the rest of the trip. Also, check out that huge water heater! No need for quick showers in this tiny house!
I then took the laptop out to the deck to work on the blog. This is the life!
On a side note, that's a brand new laptop that I bought the week before this trip. Our old laptop had been dying a slow death and less than a week before we left, it stopped connecting to the internet. Shopping for a new laptop was not what I had planned for the week before a big trip, but I can't really blog without internet either. It was time for a new one so we bit the bullet and replaced it on the fly. It's working out great, though!!
The kids played together great. They played Lava outside and did lots of fun stuff in their loft. I just love it when they get along.
Rodney grilled some pork chops from Kanab, UT (one of our favorite places) that he found at the local gas station (the one grocery store was closed on Sunday). He assured me that this particular gas station was actually a fine place to buy meat.
He was right. They were delicious! This tiny house is also equipped with everything you need to cook and grill. Well done, tiny house!
After dinner, I read some of the blog to the kids.
We enjoyed the rest of the evening outside. It was so quiet and peaceful and the light looked beautiful on the mountains as the sun went down.
When it got dark, we made a campfire and had s'mores!
We thought we would see tons of stars since we are in a remote location, but the moon is close to full so it wasn't as many as we hoped. On a moonless night, you can see the Milky Way in this area. We did still see a lot more than we can see back home, though!
Soon the kids were back in their cute little loft and Morgan stayed up a while writing in her vacation journal. She's been writing all about this trip and adding in drawings and memorabilia. It's way better than this blog. You should really ask to see it next time you see Morgan.
Cozy and ready for bed!
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