As soon as we landed in our campsite at Capitol Reef, Ally went to work on her Junior Ranger workbook. She wanted to get most of it completed before she went to a Junior Geologist ranger program later in the day.
The campground at Capitol Reef (in Fruita - that's a clue) sits in the shade of giant cottonwood trees. There is not a bad site in the entire campground. That's a lot more than I can say for Bryce Canyon's campgrounds. This is a place where you could settle in for a few days and just enjoy the surroundings. It has a really good feel about it. Ahhhhh!
The campground is surrounded by orchards. By the early 1900s this Mormon community was known far and wide for its orchards. Now for the best part...campers are welcome to walk in any unlocked orchard and consume the ripe fruit while there. If you are taking the fruit out of the orchard there is a self pay station, with scales.
Note to Sandy and Dave: Apricots are being harvested until July 22nd and peaches come in August 4th. I'm guessing the weather may have a bit to say about the timing but those are averages. Apples are ripe for picking from Sept 4 to Oct. 17. This might be a stop for us when we leave the Tetons in October.
And then there is another best part...at the Gifford House homestead you can purchase locally made fresh fruit pies and walk them home to your campsite or just sit at one of the picnic tables in the beautiful shaded picnic area and enjoy.
Ally picked out a nice cherry pie for our dessert tonight.
We hiked a short distance to the Ripple Rock Nature Center, the site of Ally's Junior Geologist program. Before the program started Ally got to learn about the way of life of children who lived here in the early 1900s.
That's my kind of cow. No cleanup.
Getting that red ball in that yellow cup is not as easy as it looks. That could occupy a kid for a long time and is more fun than sitting on a couch watching TV.
I always say that one of the best things about camping is that you meet the nicest people from all over our country and the world. Today, it was Ally's turn to meet someone special, Bowen. She and Bowen hit it off immediately and found out they had a lot in common (Ally's phrase). He's an only child, as is she, and they both are working on Junior Ranger badges. He has traveled across the country from Florida with his Mom and Grandma. They have been stopping at national parks and monuments so he can learn about and explore the parks through the Junior Ranger programs. They met while exploring the nature center before the geology program.
Ally and Bowen volunteered to be the story tellers in the telling of a Native American tale passed down by way of mouth over time.
Their instructor for the program was a geology major who was working as a volunteer in the park. She involved the kids in a great demonstration of the geologic processes that created what we see today in the parks of the Grand Circle: Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, and Arches. When Ally earned her Junior Ranger badge at Grand Canyon two years ago she learned to think of and remember the processes by saying, "That's a big hole down there, DUDE." D for deposition; U for uplift; D for downcutting; E for erosion. Simple...that explains how they were formed over billions of years. Keep that handy. You'll be the star of your next party. Their instructor here showed them how the processes worked by first taking them to the banks of the Fremont River that runs by the nature center. They learned how sands and silt were deposited over time when this part of the west was covered by water.
The sands were packed hard in layers over time as the waters receded...the beginning of sedementary rock. She showed and involved them in the processes of downcutting and erosion. Ally was rain; another boy was flash flood; another was wind.
You could see how the forces of downcutting and erosion work. What kid doesn't want to play with dirt and water. It was a great learning demonstration.
After the kids earned their Junior Geologist patches a Ranger showed them how to throw the Atlatl, an ancient spearlike hunting tool used for thousands of years. The early peoples who lived in this area could bring down a wooly mammouth with an Atlatl.
Both Ally and Bowen seem to have a natural ability to throw it and come near or hit the poor cardboard bighorn sheep target. They had a grand time throwing after most of the class had gone.
Ron kept watching (the physicist in him) and finally the kids showed him how to throw. You could see his mind analyzing the leverage of the Atlatl. Wouldn't you know he hit the target on his first throw!
We all had a grand afternoon. Ally made a new friend. Ron and I made new friends with Bowen's Mom and Grandma. And....best of all we found out they were headed to Arches National Park the next day. We were also headed there so Ally could once again climb Double Arch, her favorite memory from her first year (2009) with us on her national parks of the west appetizer tour. More fun to come.
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