Hike to Hickman Bridge

As love affairs often go, intense but brief, our South Central Utah trip was winding down. Capitol Reef was calling to us. None of us having ever been there, we weren't sure what to expect. Like the rest of this trip, it was another wonderful surprise. It started with a chat with a very lonely ranger in the visitor's center. The perk of the weekend we picked, was the total and complete lack of crowds. A very small scattering of Austrian, and German tourists, a few other Salt Lake-ers, and that was all we saw. She told us some tips of cool things to look for on our chosen hike and we set out. First stop, looking at the petroglyphs along the sides of the mountain. We jumped out and oh-ed and ah-ed briefly. The weather was a crisp 45 degrees (according to our car) and it was a bit chilly in the shade.

A bit more goofing off and running up and down the boardwalk that ran along side the mountain for all of our petroglyph viewing pleasure, and we figured we should start our 2 mile hike. We had left it to the last minute, thinking it would be nice to end with a hike before turning into stiffs on the long car ride home.

The hike was only a mile in and a mile out, but rangers had listed it as "moderate" in all the guides. Saying there was a lot of quick elevation gain right at first and then it "leveled" out. I am not sure what they were talking about. Sure, it was "uphill" for a while at first, but a pretty gentle grade. But then it leveled out for a very short time with a lot of up and down through a sandy wash. Lots of places for the kids to boulder and play around. Bill found some ancient hand prints and a Fremont grainery just off the trail (the Ranger had told us where to look, so we felt no guilt.)


Hickman bridge is a natural bridge at the end of this particular trail. All of us had fun running around the rocks surrounding it and climbing on everything we could.

Romney, being our resident monkey, couldn't resist climbing and hanging, asking to be lifted into every possible crevice, and holding on until we worried his arms may become separated from the rest of his body.





Most of this hike was a lonely proposition, but the Austrians caught us right at the end. It was fortuitous timing, as it meant we could get a photo with all 4 of us in it. Although, the Austrian who offered was a bit taken aback by my funny phone/camera/ap.




When you are in the middle of a love affair, of course you think the object of your affection is the most amazing, but scenery like this just isn't found every where and is truly special and unique. When the love you feel is equally returned it is even better. Southern Utah seems to love us as much as we love it. As soon as we climbed out of our car to start the hike, the sun shone through the clouds, the sky changed to a clear bright blue and the temperature rose 17 degrees. It could not have been more perfect. The sun kept shining for us until the moment we all climbed back into the car to leave, sad to see us go, the sun hid away and the clouds returned, cooling it back down to the 45 degrees it had been at the visitor's center.