Day 10

Today we toured the Capitol Reef area.

Capitol Reef is a giant, sinuous wrinkle in the Earth’s crust that stretches for 100 miles across south-central Utah. It was created 65 million years ago by the same forces that later uplifted the Colorado Plateau.

It has been inhabited as early as 700 AD by the people of the Fremont culture who grew corn, beans and squash in addition to hunting and gathering food. They departed the area around 1250 AD left few traces other then images on the walls of the cliffs.

Explorers, Mormons pioneers and others came into the valley of the Fremont River in the late 1800s. By 1917 the tiny Mormon community of Fruita was bustling on the banks of the Fremont.

Capitol Reef National Monument was established in 1937. The families of Fruita gradually moved away but their orchids still exist today and visitors may pick the fruit when it ripens.

Dinner tonight is Tacos and refried black beans desert is homemade chocolate candy from the store across the highway from the RV Park.