Thursday, April 17, 2008 On Our Way to Bryce..or Are We?

Thursday morning we broke camp and were headed for Bryce Canyon via Interstate 15 and Utah 20. The weather was windy and cold and Bryce is at much higher elevation than Zion. After stopping to see Kolob Canyon in the northwest corner of Zion, we decided to head toward Capitol Reef National Park instead. We continued north on Interstate 15, then turned east on Interstate 70.

As we traveled Interstate 70 toward our exit in Richfield we saw tractor trailers with 3 trailers! They looked extremely long and unsafe on this windy day. We were glad they were all headed west! We filled our propane tank because we had used quite a bit at Zion and we knew Capitol Reef didn't have hook-ups.

At Richfield we took Utah 24 toward Capitol Reef. Joyce called to check on campsites at Capitol Reef and was told there were 17 left. The campsites were first come, first serve.

The drive on Utah 24 was scenic! We climbed to an elevation of 8300 feet and descended again. The road took us through several small towns where we saw more sheep than we had ever seen in one area before.

We arrived at Capitol Reef to find that the campground was full. We drove all the way to the campground to find this out--someone failed to post the signs by the visitor center!

We turned around and drove back to the small town of Torrey which had 3 campgrounds. We chose the first one and checked in. We inquired about a place to eat and were told for the money (big money) El Diablo's food was fabulous. We didn't want to splurge so we went to the Wonderland Restaurant across the street from the campground. Well, it was crowded with a bus load of college students so we decided to splurge after all. We drove to the other end of town and found the restaurant. The crowd said it all (or so we thought). The parking lot was packed!

We went in and waited for the hostess to seat us. She asked us which party we were with and we said we were alone. Oops, sorry, no food for you tonight! Tonight is a special dinner for town merchants! Well, that meant no one else would be open for business either as it was a very small town!

We went back to the rv and had the house special--stir fried steak with a Mexican flair. Bob hooked up everything but the water hose as the temps were supposed to fall to freezing that night. We turned on the electric heater and spent a cozy evening plotting our move to Capitol Reef the next morning!

Our site in Torrey had a view of the mountains and of the cows nearby!

We liked the looks of the campground at Capitol Reef and the host told us many people were leaving Friday morning. We didn't want to take any chances, so we unhooked the car so we could drive to get a site first thing in the morning!