South-Western US Road Trip: 12/31/21

 Day 15

Utah

Today, our lodging had an included breakfast buffet, and our morning was spent eating until everyone was full. Then we got the call that our car was fixed, so we packed up and left Bryce headed for some caves we had heard about. Both caves ended up not being plowed so we continued on to Capitol Reef National Park. On our way, we saw some snowy horses in a field and interesting rock formations. Once in the park, our first two stops were Panorama Point Overlook and Goosenecks Overlook. Both spots had incredible views and Goosenecks had an interesting way of magnifying sound. Kade and Kye were able to hear everyone else’s conversation from a distance away. Next, we drove to the visitor center where Kade, Kye, and Jolie listened to a ranger talk about the geology of the park. After that, we followed the scenic road to Capitol Gorge and saw a rocky ‘jaw’ along the road. While walking through Capitol Gorge, we noticed old writing on many walls and decided to ask some people we crossed paths with. They told us it was called the Pioneer Register, where pioneers, prospectors, and other early visitors signed their names while passing through. One of the two people was directly related an M. Larson, whose name is featured in a picture at this interesting link. The dates next to the names ranged from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century, and some of them were so high on the walls that we wondered how they got up there. Our destination in Capitol Gorge was a series of natural ‘tanks’ that water collected in. They were interesting to look at, and frozen into semi-waterfalls at the time. On our way back, we noticed a strong echo and messed around with it, before heading back to our car. We stayed in Moab and celebrated New Year’s with food from a local restaurant and watched the New York Ball Drop (two hours early because of the time zone difference).