Capitol Reef IFTR Girl's Trip

A few of us IFTR ladies have talked about how fun it would be to take a girl's trip to one of the national parks in southern Utah for years. I finally decided that we needed to stop talking about it and just do it. I picked a park and a weekend, created an event, and we made it happen.  I'm pretty sure I was the only one who had ever been to Capitol Reef, so it was awesome to show these ladies some of my favorite trails there. We have the best ladies in our running group! They encourage, support, and cheer for each other, they are fun, adventurous, and have a genuine love of the outdoors, they are inclusive, happy, hilarious, and easy going. I love them all! We explored amazing places, ate yummy food, had great conversations, and were in awe everywhere we looked.

We started with a sunrise hike at Chimney Rock on Friday morning. It's one of my favorite trails in the park.

Amanda-Steph-Kelsey-Steph-Tammy-Joyce-Stacey-Becky-Tricia-Jenn-Ashley

This is one of my favorite pictures from the weekend.

This is such a great hike to see all the crazy layers in the park. We listened to a geology talk about how they all formed while we were there.

Steph is a photographer, and brought her nice camera on a lot of the hikes. I love this picture of her all ready for the perfect sunrise photo.

Chimney Rock

Such a fun crew!

Next we did a couple short hikes to the Gooseneck Overlook, and Sunset Point. Then we stopped at the old schoolhouse, and the petroglyph panel.

Sunset Point

I love the Castle, because you can see it from all over the park.

The old schoolhouse.

When enjoyed looking at all the petroglyphs. I think we found more than in the previous two times I've been there. It's good to have 11 set of eyes walking along the petroglyph wall.

Next we did the Hickman Bridge hike.

The Hickman Bridge

The bridge from the backside.

We stopped for lunch, and had pie at the Gifford House. The cherry pie is so good!

😋😋😋

Pie break!

Our final hike of the day was a great one. We hiked through the Grand Wash, and then continued on to Cassidy Arch. I love the trail leading to the arch.

Starting through the wash.

I remember taking this picture with Mark, so I was determined to find the rock again.

The wash makes you feel really small.

Heading up to Cassidy Arch.

The arch from a distance.

Ashley and Joyce
I love them!

We got to the arch right when another group of 9 women got there. We had them take our picture, and we took theirs. That worked out perfectly.

Jumping on the arch. 😆

That night we ate at the hotel steakhouse. It was quite tasty!

Saturday was equally awesome!

We stopped on the way in for a sign picture.

Our first trail of the day was the Fremont River Trail, another one of my favorites! The trail itself is fun, and the views in every direction are fantastic!

    Steph and Amanda
Two of the kindest, most down to earth women I will ever know.

Steph was a pro at setting up her camera to get group pictures. Her camera was balancing in a tree for this one! 😆

It is so fun to run down the Fremont River Trail!

Once we finished that hike, we found out the Gifford house had Cinnamon rolls, so we definitely took advantage of that.

I was super excited to take the ladies into Cohab Canyon. I remembered how cool it was from when I was there with Bailey, and then again with Mark. We spent a lot of time exploring the canyon, and then we went a little ways up the Frying Pan Trail. It was such a gorgeous day. The sky was amazing!

I love this selfie Joyce took!

Hiking up to the start of the canyon.

I love this picture so much! Watching everyone climb up and then try to figure out how to get back down was fantastic. 

There are a lot of side slots in Cohab Canyon.

This was one of the view points we detoured to off of Cohab Canyon.

This picture was taken from the Frying Pan Trail, across Cohab Canyon. So pretty!

What a great picture! Another one of my favorites from the trip.

No big deal, just holding up the clouds. 😄

Tammy-Steph-Tricia-Joyce

After that hike we had lunch, and then listened to a geology talk. The last thing we did was take the scenic drive. I'm glad we got to do it, because it will be closed for construction this summer. It is so pretty!

We left the park early that day because the other area we wanted to explore was closed. We had a great dinner at a pizza place, and then called it a night. On Sunday we all headed home with our buckets full. I hope this can be a yearly trip to other fun places. I loved spending time with the ladies I know and love, and I loved making a few new friends too.