Thursday, July 25th, 2024
Capitol Reef National Park, UT → Capitol Reef National Park, UT
0 miles, 0 ft elevation
I woke up in a pool of my own sweat, the scorching hot Utah sun searing through our tent and baking us alive. It was only 7 am, and I longed to sleep in longer since it was our rest day. But I couldn’t take the heat anymore and burst out of the tent.
With no cell service and none of the Spokes members awake yet (except for Amulya who had left for the visitor's center to take a meeting and Cleo who was off on her usual rest day adventures of independent wandering), I sat on the picnic bench. I started to go through my photos and organize them since I didn't have much storage left on my phone.
Eventually, the rest of the team arose (I have no clue how they were able to sleep through the heat) and we breakfasted. We made a plan to go into town to run much needed errands like grocery shopping, blogging, and route planning. I felt a little guilty that we were in a national park only just to be leaving it, but when you're outside 12 hours a day in the grueling sun, amenities like wifi and AC become too hard to resist.
We piled into the van, headed to the visitor's center for our obligatory sticker purchases, and drove 30 minutes to the nearest town for groceries.
It's the first time all 8 of us went grocery shopping together. You would think that grocery shopping with 8 people would be 8x as effective, but it actually took 8x longer than normal. We all perused the grocery aisles and ambled around, in awe of modern day luxuries like Oreo thins, tapioca pudding, and ice-cold seltzers.
Right after grocery shopping, we ate an odd lunch within the grocery store since there happened to be tables right next to the deli. We probably attracted a lot of strange looks since we took our cooler inside the building and ate straight from the grocery bags. But as Amulya says, it was bussin'!
There's never enough time during a rest day, and we realized that we were killing daylight and that we still needed to do laundry, blogs, and route planning. So we zoomed over to the general store in Torrey to do work. To no one's surprise, Amulya and I made a pit stop at a cafe and ice cream store, the Wild Rabbit and Color Ridge Farm & Creamery respectively. The cafe roasted their beans in-house!
I bought myself an apricot cobbler and espresso ice cream, and was blown away by its creamy texture, the brightness of the apricots, and smooth bitterness of the espresso. It was, without a doubt, one of the top ice creams of Spokes.
The rest of the afternoon was filled with calls and work.
Around 4 pm, we headed back to Capitol Reef. We had to start cooking in the rain, and Chrissy provided some much needed shelter for us until the rain subsided.
Amulya whipped up a delicious Indian-inspired dinner of tikka masala with mozzarella (no paneer oops), chicken, and vegan coconut curry. We continued talking and making our way through the 36 questions to love.
JD was turning 20 the next day, so to celebrate, Sophia kindly made him a rice pudding dessert with a pineapple and apricot topping, inspired by his dad's homemade recipe. We sang him a happy early birthday song, and asked about his birthday reflections.
The sky was now turning dark, and we had yet to go on a hike within Capitol Reef. Did you even visit a national park if you didn't hike there? We scrambled to clean up dinner and squished ourselves in the van to the trailhead, all while the sun was racing towards the horizon.
We had to hike 1.8 miles round trip to see the "iconic" bridge at Capitol Reef. Hank, Jess, and I made a beeline for the bridge. We bounded through the rocks and boulders, taking in the beautiful dusty red canyons of Capitol Reef. We couldn't believe how slow the others were! They were so slow, we couldn't see them! Hank, Jess, and I were astounded by our own speed.
Here are the others being slow-pokes on their hike, holding lizards and being slow and what-not:
Unfortunately, it was getting dark and Hank, Jess, and I decided to turn around and cut our losses. Funnily enough, we didn't see the others on the way down. How slow could they be? We walked down the trail and then a realization dawned on us where the trails forked.
We went up the Rim Overlook! In the completely opposite direction of Hickman Bridge! For some reason, Hank, Jess, and I happened to misread the sign. What was the probability of that happening? High actually, given that we were all clowns.
Disappointed, we trudged down to the parking lot to wait for the others. We talked about Hank's involvement in Battlecode in the meantime. When the others arrived, we acted like we saw the bridge. We were so fast, you couldn't see us! Amulya believed us, until I broke down in laughter because I'm a terrible liar.
On the car ride back, people raved about their hike. But honestly? Capitol Reef was mid, Jess, Hank, and I told ourselves. Who cared about some rock shaped like a bridge anyways?
"My jaw dropped and I fell to my knees in awe at the sight of the land bridge. Its majestic power brought me to a standstill, and I touched it reverently, scarcely understanding how it came to be. With ecstasy and passion Sophia and I screamed, reveling in the echoes off the delicate bridge and the still canyon below. I understood why human beings tend towards religion." - Rebecca
The photos don't even do it justice - Rebecca
rebecca's fake for that ngl