[John Morrow]

I must have been tired from Zion because my energy was low here at Capitol Reef. It was bitter cold, too! Lowest temp at the visitor center was 14 degrees! So I did a few dayhikes, one of which was an interesting crosscountry route up the low angle inclination of the reef from east to west on wonderful sandstone parklands. April 16: Chimney Rock Trail After a morning lounge in camp with a couple new friends, I went to the 3 mile Chimney Rock Trail loop to the top of the Mummy Cliffs with a detour of a side joint canyon for a further exploration on another occasion.

Chimney Trail view

The Reef, Capitol Reef National Park UT

Top of Mummy Cliff

Fisure canyon scouting leaving the Chimney Rock Loop trail

Could be fun

Chimney Rock

April 17: Capitol Gorge to its south rim up to the top of the Navajo Formation at Point 6700'. I awoke to an inch of snow on the tent and temps in the teens! This was a fun exploration. First I failed up a side canyon of Capitol Gorge so I then hiked the easy Gorge 1.5 miles to its east mouth. Here I turned southwest to the rim of the canyon and followed a long sloping ridge between canyons back up to the top of the reef on Gorgeous Navajo Sandstone slabs! The finish to the 6700 foot highpoint had a strange pinnacle with a great 15 feet of solid class 3 or 4 chickenheads to climb to gain it.

Woke up to this!

Unnamed Capitol Gorge spur

Capitol Gorge, Capitol Reef National Park

Above Capitol Gorge. Neat in the Navajo formation

Paradise ahead

Crosscountry between Capitol gorge and Pleasant Creek

Upper Pleasant Creek

Chickenhead pinnacle finish

From the top northward

The pinnacle

Paradise

Such neat slickrock terrain on top of Reef

Water!

Down on Capitol Gorge

Capitol Gorge narrows

Capitol Gorge

Faded Fremont, Capitol Gorge.

Cold camp evening

sunset

April 18: Cohab Canyon Trail-rim walk-Fryingpan Trail Loop After a lazy morning I left the car in the campsite and went out of camp to the Cohab Canyon Trail. I wanted an interesting variation of the maintained trails so I gained the rim of the reef above the vertical Wingate sandstone and enjoyed a view filled rim walk on slickrock (mostly) south to the highpoint between Cohab Canyon and Grand Wash: Point 6520'.

Cohab Canyon, Capitol Reef National Park

the rim above the Fryingpan trail

Rim highpoint 6520'; Capitol Reef National Park

South

North

canyon circumnavigation

Cohab to camp

I enjoyed a nice campfire evening with my new friends Nancy and Celine from Humboldt, CA. Two new friends and contacts to meet up with on another southern Utah sojourn! Time to head for Natural Bridges.

[Barefoot Jake]

Nice photos. Love the fresh snow on camp.

[silence]

nice way to stick it out and make the best of it .. love all your pix john .. we would have run into each other ... but at the 11th hour due to the forecast (after all ..this was to be a sunny and warm vacation ... we were fleeing the snow and cold here in wa) we switched plans and headed for warmer parts .. DV ... where unfortunately it ended up being 99 degrees and 50-mph winds .. did a little canyoneering and then fled for the Sierras where is was supposed to be nicer .. not .. snowed there a bit, plus gusts with wind chills of -7 at night ... so here we are home again in gray and rainy Seattle .. ahhh ... and back to work .. at least we salvaged some vacation time for another day ..

[John Morrow]

One thing is certain, silence, no matter how much time we are afforded here in the high desert, there will always be another new place to roam on another day! Thanks for appreciating the pics. I would have loved to have run into you folks! Maybe next spring, perhaps. John

[Schroder]

We arrived at Fruita for the tail-end of that cold weather just after you left. We may pass you at some point heading the opposite direction - we're in Moab now, Needles next, then Natural Bridges. It looks like some good weather for the next few days at least.

[doublemom]

Wonderful!!! Thanks for sharing the pix... I'm going to be spending the entire month of October floating through south Utah, it's great to see what I can be looking forward to

[John Morrow]

Hey Schroder, I am in Moab too! I head to Needles to start a few nights backpacking. I will look for you. Enjoy Bridges, Cedar Mesa is one of my favorite places in the world! John