You guys! Hugh is totally right! This National Park is stupendous! I see now why it is on the top of his favorites list. We are camping in Torrey, because I couldn’t score any nights at the Fruita Campground inside Capitol Reef! BUT we are just outside of it and the drive is gorgeous. So, Fruita got it’s name because its got like 186 different varieties of orchard fruit! That’s insane. The town was first called Eden of Wayne County. It’s kind of a protected from the harsh weather area where the canyons come together and the water (Fremont River) stays year round without freezing completely. I read a bunch of things about this place and what I thought was one of the best things was that the Great Depression didn’t really effect the people of Fruita. They didn’t see the dollar much before the depression and mostly bartered. When things got dicey within our country, the people of Fruita were fine because they continued their bartering. The fruit was like gold. It was a laborous life. It was difficult to get to the nearest towns of Richfield and Price to barter their food but it was essential for their survival. This area of our country, these Henry Mountains, were the very last chartered mountains and not mapped until the late-ish 1800’s!! The history of the women of the early white female setters of Fruita is typical. They did hordes of work, had a dozen children each, lots of them died as infants, they married older men often when they were like 17, and then remarried again in there 30s, because, you know, the first old guy is now dead. What a life! Anyway, so another thing that happened back then, early in the park system’s history park custodians usually got their jobs if they were married and had a wife. It was well known that the park wife played a significant role in developing and caring for the park. The women in this role were known as “Honorary Custodians Without Pay”. BAH! We, women, either had no pay or low pay and we are still fighting the fight! One good thing that happened for women out west back then was that they were allowed to vote really early compared to the rest of the country. I feel like women were valued way more a little sooner out here than the rest of our country. YAY!
Anyway, the place is gorgeous and amazing and here are some pictures of me walking along the trail that Joel took. The trail had some freaky drop offs and there was a big rock sticking out over part of the trail that you had to duck under right at a ledge!! Scary! I did it though! It was easier to do going up than coming down, but at least it was quick. I didn’t take my camera out of my fanny pack until we were at the top of the trail. It was an out and back trail and at the end you over like Fruita. I took a video at the end of the trail.
It was hot but the cooling sun protection clothing keeps you surprisingly cool even if it’s black or dark grey! We actually did have one couple stop us to ask if we weren’t dying from the heat. We weren’t. Now that I have to wear this kind of clothing, it isn’t that bad at all. It’s actually better than a tank and shorts because you actually aren’t hot. I mean I was sweating like crazy but surprisingly cool.
