Second day in Capital Reef National Park

  First thing in the morning, we walked over to the little store to buy coffee and a cinnamon roll. They sell local arts and crafts and baked goods from the nearby town of Torry in the style of the Mormon settlers that were first here. The orchard provides fruit for the baked goods. 

Eating apple, banana and cheese for breakfast. I think she is going through another growth spurt because she had been very hungry. 

Morning hike to Hickman Bridge 3 miles

Dome shaped mountains, like this one, gives this national park its first part of its name, Capital. The early explorers thought it resembled the capital building in Washington, D.C.  

Jason is taking a 360 photo

We hung out under the bridge in the shade. It's hot and dry! 

Ella says "Oooo" or "ewww" when she finds something new to touch and play with lately. It's really cute. 

Then she found these natural shelves in the rock work and began collecting things to put on them. She was having so much fun! 

It's beautiful here 

The hike back next to the Fremont River. 

The early natives here are refered too as the Fremont People. They drew different rock art, had different style homes, and different pottery and basket styles than the puebloen people (Anasazi) that we recently learned about in the other parks. Here they dug large but shallow pits for homes that they covered with juniper logs and leaves. (Instead of mud and rock buildings on the sides of cliffs) Their pots were plainly decorated and used for carrying seeds not water. They built baskets out of willow and lined it with a material that made it impermeable which they used to carry water. Small clay dolls have also been found in the area which is unique to the Fremont People. They also used an alata to kill animals until the bow and arrow was introduced. From the bones collected scientist believe that the Fremont people died of anemia. No one today is really sure what happened to them but they hypothesize that they killed all the prey in the area quickly when the bow and arrow was introduced. Today the bighorn sheep has been reintroduced and there are deer living in the park. 

After our walk to the school house and to the petroglyphs where we heard a ranger talk we walked back to the camper to let Ella play. After dinner we went to another talk to learn more about the area. Ella loved being around so many people. She talked and play hide and seek with the people behind us. Gordo slept in the stroller!