Labor Day 2018

This year for labor day we went to Capitol Reef National Park. Alison was traveling for work during the week leading up to labor day weekend. She did not get back until late Friday night. The rest of her family went down on Friday, but we opted to come down Saturday morning. Her siblings went on a canyoneering adventure early Saturday morning. Since they would not be done until the afternoon we were not in a hurry and took our time getting to the campground.

We arrived in time to eat some lunch. Alison’s siblings were tired after their early morning adventures so some of them napped while we played games. We played Dan-o-grams and Risk. A few hours later the game of risk was mostly complete (it came down to Dan and Jake). It was decided that Dan was the winner because he controlled more countries when Alison’s army was wiped out. With the game of Risk complete, we were ready for our first adventure of the trip. We went on a short hike to see some petroglyphs and a small waterfall. The hike was not on national park land so we were able to take the dogs. It was a fun little hike. The petroglyphs were fascinating and the waterfall was in this mini slot canyon.

On Sunday we woke up. We had planned to go hiking first thing in the morning, but Jake got sick during the night. Since we were no longer rushing to get out the door I made sourdough biscuits in the Dutch oven. This was, I think, the third year I have made sourdough biscuits on labor day. Each year they get a little bit better. Usually mid-summer I get the itch to begin a sourdough start. I grow it until labor day and then I am done. This year I also made some sourdough bread. It was pretty good for my first attempt.

After breakfast, we drove into Capitol Reef and hiked Hickman bridge. This was a relatively short hike to a beautiful natural bridge. It was a little warm during the hike, but it was not too long and we all survived. We did have a little incident where a couple members of our group got separated. Fortunately, we were able to find everyone and get back together with only a little bit of worry. Alison and I had never been to Capitol Reef before. We loved it. The vistas formations were beautiful. It was really the perfect place to go for labor day. It was not nearly as crowded as many other national parks we have visited over the labor day holiday. After the hike, we stopped by the historic Gifford house. We got pictures by the barn and Kristin wanted to buy a cinnamon roll. They had already sold all of their cinnamon rolls so we opted for ice cream instead.

We returned to camp and ate some delicious grilled cheese sandwiches. Then Dan, Kristin, Alison, me, Jake, Meg, and Bret went back into the park and hiked Sulphur Springs. This is an approximately 6-mile hike. It starts off in a wash. We followed the wash for the first couple of miles before reaching the water. The remainder of the hike was in and out of water. It was a great hike to do on a hot day. There were a couple of small waterfalls along the way. We would have to climb down on the rocks nearby (or in the case of the last waterfall some of the group just slid down the fall). It was the perfect hike for this kind of day. We were surrounded by beautiful cliffs and landscapes. We talked, enjoyed the beauty around us, and hiked. Blake, Debbie, and Skylee (and the dogs) met us at the end. We grabbed dinner at a local restaurant in Torrey before calling it a night.

On Monday we woke up, broke camp, and drove home. We all got together again in the evening for a cousin’s party at Alison’s grandmother’s house. It was very kind of her to host her grandkids (and their spouses).

This was one of the best labor day weekends we have had in a while. It was fun to explore new places and to be with family. It honestly was not enough time to explore Capitol Reef. We would love to go back and explore even more.