Day 2 features Capitol Reef National Park. This was my first visit here, and it was pretty cool. We did two hikes in the park, the Hickman Bridge Trail and the Grand Wash.

Capitol Reef has a great mix of different rock formation and colors. As you drive in you see a lot of red rock, like on the fluted wall below.

The first hike was a short trip to Hickman Bridge. The bridge itself is the highlight of the hike.

There are also a lot of “washes” in the park. Washes are full of water during snow melt and after flash-floods, but are often empty during the dry season. That makes for interesting hikes through what would often be a river.

We hiked a few miles in the wash and then turned around to return to the car. The amazing thing about the hike was he massive, sheer cliffs rising straight up from the valley floor. There were clear debris piles from past floods scattered here and there. There were also some massive, dump truck-sized boulders high atop of the cliffs that looked prime to fall in the next few years.

After the Grand Wash hike, we pulled off and snapped some more pictures of the part. This panorama is one of my favorites.

With that, we called it a day on Capitol Reef. We heard on the trail that there were some cool slot canyons in the Grand Staircase Escalante Wilderness a few hours away. Since that was on our route back south, we decided to go by.

The slot canyons are called Peak-a-boo and Spooky, and we were able to check out both. To get to the trailhead, we had to drive 26.2 miles down a dirt road. There were signs at the beginning that said the road is impassible in the rain and that 4WD is recommended. We had a compact car and there were clouds in the distance, so I was little uneasy. However, we did make it to the trailhead without any excitement.

The last mile was definitely 4WD only, so we parked and hiked up. Once you reach the official trailhead, you go right back down towards the canyon floor. There wasn’t anything marking the canyons, so we sort of had to figure out where to go on our own. Unfortunately the combination of the remaining daylight and threat of rain made us rush around and we didn’t get to enjoy the canyons as much as we would have liked, but they were really cool.

With Peak-a-boo, it was a bit of a scramble in and out. About 20 yards in, it was clear that some kind of water shoes/gear would be necessary to get very far. I climbed in as far as possible and then turned around. Cooper was waiting below and we decided to pass on peak-a-boo and see what else we could find.

We found Spooky next and spent 20 minutes exploring. Slot canyons are really cool. They seem to get narrower as you go, and you never know what kinds of interesting formations you will see.

While this is no place to get caught in a flash flood, its a cool place to explore when you have the time. I would definitely make a return trip out here and spend a few more hours.

From here, we made the drive back to Zion, where we were planning to spend the night. We took the same route along “treacherous” UT-12. Seeing it in the daylight, it was quite narrow at times with huge drop-offs. Not for the weak. However, the scenery was fantastic. I was driving so I don’t have pictures, but I would rank it in my top 5 or 10 scenic drives of all time.

We stayed the night at an awesome hotel called Flannigans in Springdale, right outside the park. I’m sure its expensive during the peak season, but I would definitely return.