Capital Reef and Backpacking the Lower Spring Canyon Trail

Since backpacking in Escalante was a bit of a bust given the impassable roads and crap weather, we decided to head 2 hours northeast to Capitol Reef National Park. With no reservation or camping permit, I was worried we wouldn't be able to stay there. 

However, this park is in the middle of absolute nowhere so crowds were thin (even in June). We walked right up to the permit desk at the visitor's center and got our free backcountry permit in like 10 seconds. 

Because the area had gotten so much unexpected rain, the dirt access roads to the northernmost and southernmost sections of the park were impassible. We had limited backcountry camping options given this road situation and given that we wanted to cover about 8 miles each day backpacking. At the advice of the friendly park ranger, we chose to backpack the Lower Spring Canyon Trail. The entire trail is about 10 miles long, so we could just backpack in as far as we wanted till we found a nice campsite. 

Done - we were off.

Yes, it is HOT out there.

But very cool stuff

We saw one other set of human footprints the entire trip down the canyon, they were Dan's (as evidenced by the "Dan was here" written in the sand halfway down the trail). Yup - we were ALL alone in that canyon except for Dan - oh and the lady we affectionately referred to as "The Doe". Whenever we weren't sure where or how to best get over an obstacle on the trail, we just said "which way did Dan and The Doe go".

After about 8 miles of walking down the dry canyon, which totally reminded me of something from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, we managed to find the only intermittent source of water on the trail. It was a tiny spring that percolated slowly out of the rocks, like magic in the desert. 

Then we found the perfect campsite on an elevated beach near the spring (NOTE - you are supposed to camp 100 feet from the trail but this was impossible pretty much anywhere in that canyon). Once established, we took off our packs and journeyed on a bit for fun and guess what??? We found The Doe.

Or rather The Bucks.....three of them. I think they were mule deer given their tails. I am quite sure one of my many biologist friends reading this will let me know exactly what these guys are.

They were skittish, sorry for the crap photo.....

Best campsite ever

Dave surprised me by packing in a bottle of wine. Hell yeah!

Trader Joe's Indian food packets, great for camping

After a night of listening to a very loud frog we named Franklin, we headed out early in the morning (well, it was 8:30 a.m. which is early since we don't have kids remember). Beating the heat was the name of the game that morning. Dave was on a mission and almost killed me with his speedy pace getting out of there.

Out of context photo, I had just never seen a hummingbird nest.

So it was out of Capitol Reef and on to Canyonlands National Park for our stay at a KICK ASS yurt in the adjacent Dead Horse State Park. I will let you know how it was in a few days.

I could live here, I could probably live happily in my car too - but that is beside the point.