A Reef in the Middle of the Desert

The next stop for the WINs was Capital Reef National Park.

One of my favorite things to do here is the Cathedral Valley loop. It's a long drive on dirt, and you have to cross through the river to get to it, so it's best to have 4-wheel drive. I hooked a ride with Maynard and Nancy.

Our first big stop was to see this gorgeous view, and to find the Indian couple that Maynard found last year. Can you see them?

There they are! He looks pretty happy, even though his wife is pretty ugly...

At another one of our stops, we found some great rusty stuff!

We stopped at Glass Mountain -

Which is a large mound of selenite crystals, a kind of gypsum.

The big attraction in this area is the Temple of the Sun and the Temple of the Moon.

On another day, Sally and I walked in Grand Wash. It's a beautiful, easy hike.

This guy was a little scary -

But we continued on, and I found some pretty flowers to photograph.

We also stopped along the main road to see the petroglyphs. Capital Reef is probably the least popular of Utah's Big Five National Parks, but it is one of my favorites!