Vacation, Day 3 - Capitol Reef/Cedar Breaks

We were going to do the Cassidy Arch trail the day before, but with the rain in the area - we headed to Chimney Rock instead.  We had time in the morning to do one more, so we went back to the Cassidy Arch trailhead off the scenic drive.

I am glad we did.  While this hike was termed "difficult", we found it fairly easy.  We were also the first ones on the trail and had it to ourselves! 

In most of Southern Utah, you are told not to go on top of the arches.  Here, they encouraged you to!  It is hard to tell in this photo, but I am sitting on top of the arch.

It is maybe a little easier to see in this one with Rob.  When at the arch, another couple arrive and we talked a bit with them (they were on a three week trip originally from Seattle...can we say...JEALOUS!).  We then let them have the arch to themselves and headed back down.  After the arch, we decided to go back to the Gifford house where the day before we got $1 ice cream.  As it was still only 10:00 or so in the morning, we got a scone to eat immediately, and got a small pie "to-go" for later.  We then pondered the route we would take to get to Cedar Breaks and decided upon the scenic Route 12.

It may be slightly longer and curvy than 89 - but totally worth it.  We don't get excited about roads often, but 12 is one scenic drive!  Having visited the Great Staircase-Escalante National Monument the year before, we did travel along its boundary and stopped in at two visitor centers.  To our dismay, the second was closed due to "GOVERNMENT SEQUESTRATION"!  Don't even get me started...  There was another couple there the same time we were...foreign.  They were scratching their heads and told us that their government had an $8 billion dollar debt and had a plan to get rid of it in 10 or so years.  We told them nobody had any idea of what the US debt was - and there is no plan to get rid of it.  I think we all agreed that one-staff member at a visitor center and keeping the bathrooms open was NOT going to solve the debt...so JUST KEEP IT OPEN! 

Off we went to Cedar Breaks.  We quickly stopped in at Bryce Canyon to pick up a magnet for my brother, and then headed to Panguitch and up to Cedar Breaks.  We knew that the road through Cedar Breaks was still closed and that we were going to run into the same snow situation as Great Basin.

That didn't stop us.  We parked the car at the road closure, and started hiking in.  We did easily find the Winter Ranger Station - thought it was not staffed.  You can see by the snow poles on the stairs that they get LOTS of snow here.  We tried the alpine lake loop, but much like Great Basin, the drifts were still just too massive - and the snow shoes were useless as the snow was 100% moisture.

So it was walking down the road we went...we made it to the Chessmen Ridge Overlook and then headed back.

We had the monument absolutely to ourselves and enjoyed the view.

When getting back to the car, we stopped at the overlook on Rt. 143 and I enjoyed this sign.  It was here that we decided to open our heavenly morning apple pie purchase and ate every crumb of it.  If ever in Capitol Reef...the $1 ice cream and pies at the historic Gifford house are worth it. :)