Anne on the Cohab Trail in Capital Reef

We’ve left Moab behind and continued heading west. We did a drive-by or more correctly, a drive through of Capital Reef, our fourth national park so far. It is a long skinny park and was so named by early Mormon settlers, because it impeded their progress, like an ocean reef does, as they sailed westward in their prairie schooners. We hiked part of the Cohab Trail, so named, because early polygamists would take to it, to hide from raiding Feds. It was steep and rugged. Anne can be seen standing on Navaho sandstone, the red rock and below black balsault boulders that came from an ancient volcano some 30 miles away. We also stopped to view ancient petroglyphs. A nine-year-old girl there was not very impressed though, “These drawings are ridiculous.” I guess she thought that she could do better, but it would have been a $300 fine for her to try. After lunch, we pressed on to Zion, our fifth national park. On the way from Moab, at a scenic turnout, we met a young German couple. Anne’s been playing the license plate game. She only has three left (CT, RI, SC). The couple had Louisiana plates, but it was a rental. We talked with them for a while, answering their questions, before parting ways and telling each other about our travels.