Day 8

We said goodbye to Moab and headed for the next National Park - Capitol Reef. Our campground is just outside the park close to the town of Torrey. The drive involves going north and getting on Interstate 70. We went past the town of Green River, where I have fond memories of my Dad taking my two brothers and me on a 6-day river rafting adventure when I was 15.

As we have now visited several National Parks as part of this trip, we have noticed that they attract many international travelers. We often hear the many of the park visitors conversing in their native tongue as they enjoy the parks beauty and attractions. We also noticed how the National Park Service needs to take extra steps to accommodate these international visitors, including offering different types of toilet facilities...

We weren't on I-70 for very long as we headed south to the small town of Hanksville and then on to Torrey and our campsite.

We checked out Capitol Reef the next morning. Why is the park called Capitol Reef you may ask?

Afterward we headed over to the adjacent town of Fruita. This town was established as a Mormon settlement in 1880 where they planted fruit trees orchards and sold/traded their fruit and fruit pies with locals and travelers to support themselves. It was eventually abandoned and is now classified as a ghost town. But it was subsequently included in the park boundary of Capitol Reef, and a few of the buildings were restored. It is still surrounded by numerous fruit orchards and they have resumed selling their famous fruit pies. We had to partake. (John, who is not especially fond of fruit pies, got a cinnamon roll instead. Yum!)

... and posting signs to help clarify their proper use.

Tomorrow we travel a bit further west to Utah's Kodachrome Basin State Park .