Saturday, June 17th

You know what I learned today? My watch has the day and the date on it! I maybe knew that before, but wow am I having a hard time figuring out what day it is when I am not in a normal schedule.

Yesterday, June 16th

Gerty the GPS is officially fired! She has more special needs than I was aware of! I had double checked her settings earlier to ensure that she was set for fastest route, and she is. I looked online before leaving to ensure that I knew the general route to go. I knew I needed to get out to the interstate and then head west "for a while" and then go south. That didn't seem too hard. There didn't appear to be many other options (HA) so I thought that Gerty could handle the job. Oh dear.

I got on the interstate perfectly fine. I wasn't on for much more than an hour and she told me to exit. I felt like that seemed kind of early, but I decided to trust her. I didn't hit any major towns - EVER! I hardly saw another car for quite sometime and the landscape looked like something I have NEVER seen before. I felt like I had somehow landed on Mars and was no longer traversing the roads of Utah!

I had been told earlier about another National Park here in Utah, "Capital Reef". I had never heard of it before, nor did I have a whole lot of intention of going to see it, but after deciding that Gerty had me 100% in the wrong place I all of a sudden saw the sign that said Capital Reef National Park. Hmmm, well I guess I hit another national park!

I wasn't planning to stop and hike at all that day, so I was wearing flip flops and who know where my tennis shoes were burried. I found this major pull of (by the way, where were all these cars and people earlier? It was like they just appeared out of nowhere. I did learn, upon leaving the National Park that there is more civilization on the other side, however, so they must have come in from that direction.) I decided that since I still had some water in my backpack I would just hop out and hike a short mile in my flip flops and see where it took me. I can say I saw Capital Ridge now. I didn't make it to whatever arch I was supposed to get to, but I got up high enough to see some great views. Honest response, however, at this point I don't feel the need to return to Capital Ridge National Park.

I loaded back into my car and started praying that I could find a town SOMEWHERE to get gas. I hadn't seen a town with a gas station since I left Moab! I needed gas! Shortly out of the park, I saw where all those vehicles were coming from and got my gas. I think it might have been Petticoat Junction that I stopped in, but I managed to get gas and ice (ugh that dumb ice).

Around 4:30 PM I pulled into my new campground. I am staying at Ruby's Inn Campground. I didn't know that this was like a town on its own. It is crazy and there was some mega marathon going on today so there were cars parked everywhere. People roaming around every corner and basically any open spot of grass that people found was fair game to set up a tent. They told me that since I had reservations I surely could find SOMETHING. Ha! I drove all around once - no numbered spots or anything (but don't get me wrong, it is a nice place). I finally called and said that I would really like a little guidance on where I should find a place. A nice gal came out and helped me find a group camping spot. I'm about halfway between the bathrooms/showers/registration area and the pool area. I'm also about 30 steps from the highway, oh well.

It took me forever to unpack my car and then decide where I was supposed to put my tent. I didn't want to take someone else's spot, but I also wanted room to hang my hammock (I had not trees at the other campsite to try that with). I think around 8 PM I was finally done organizing and setting up!


Today, Saturday, June 17th

Because my campground is so close to the national park the shuttles into the park depart right from the main parking lot. I decided after fighting with Gerty and gas yesterday, and the joys of Arches' traffic I wanted to take the shuttle. My goal was to take Fairyland Loop Trail - 8 miles.

You know, at some point, I really should read about the trails I am taking before I do them. It is amazing how altitude does NOT show up on normal maps, or I conveniently pay no attention to that. I knew I could have driven into the park and taken the trail, pretty close here on my own, but if I was willing to walk just a bit further (about 1.5 miles total) I could just take the shuttle to a different overlook and take some different trails there. That is what I opted to do. I shuttled over to sunset point and then took the trail around.

It was amazing! I had no idea that I would be seeing things like that and then walking through the whole canyon. It ranks up there as one of my favorite hikes! It was great! However, the last 4 miles (Or more) were coming up out of the canyon and then following the "rim trail . .. which was even more UP) all the way back to sunset point (Yeah, in hindsite I could have caught the shuttle earlier, but by then it was a flatter trail anyway and I enjoyed it again. I did have to stop to breathe quite often coming up out of the canyon! I was so grateful for an amazing breeze.

I ate my lunch at the shuttle stop after finishing the hike and went to the visitor center to check out potential programs and better read a map.

I learned - no church offerings in the park. Waah. There is however a 3-hour astronomy deal that I am going to tonight. I also learned that an airconditioned theater with a movie about Bryce Canyon - yeah - it is a great place to fall asleep!

I then hopped on the shuttle and did all of the other overlooks and small hikes around to see everything. I was back at camp by about 3 to take a nap (yeah, right), hit the pool, shower, do this, grab dinner, and then get ready for the program tonight! That, my friends, is my day so far!