Capitol Reef National Park

Capitol Reef National Park

It is difficult to capture how impressive Capitol Reef is in a photograph, so I will include a few extra photos at the end of this post.

I drove there yesterday, about a two hour drive, and took the scenic drive through the park and an extra dirt road into the Capitol Gorge. The feel of the park is a bit like the Grand Canyon, only smaller: miles and miles of rock cliffs eroded by water and carved into intricate shapes, with different rock layers and different colors. Definitely worth a visit if you get the chance. I will take Jackie there and maybe get some better pictures before we go home.

 We are figuring out some of the ways that a vacation like this will work. I will not be taking the dog on any more long rides without Jackie; I think he will be more comfortable staying with her. I am not going to take long drives across the state every day; there is not that much to see, and it would be too much driving. Jackie is going to take at least a couple of weekdays off and we will spend nights in motels near some of the parks, because trying to drive there and back in one day will be too much, and weekends will be too crowded. That said, I am happy with the way things are going. It's going to be a fun vacation.

I checked my progress on my walk across America - I am at Clinton, Missouri, more than halfway across the state, but still 200 miles from Arkansas. Yesterday I broke my streak of 10,000-step days because I forgot to walk out the last 170 steps, but I am also finding that this trip is not so conducive to walking. I can walk around town easily enough, but we have yet to find any real trails around here, except at state parks that cost $10-$15 per day. Also, seemingly everyone with a dog in this town keeps it, or them, penned up outside, and they all bark at Arlo. I try to choose paths that avoid setting off any more dogs than necessary, because I don't want to be a nuisance, like all of the penned-up-outside dogs in this town are.