We were ALL sad to say goodbye to our friends.

The pic above was taken before we started crying. 😢

Our next destination after leaving Salt Lake City was pretty much a desert. We wanted to conquer Capitol Reef which my friend Mandy had suggested that we explore. It’s a hidden treasure for a National Park in Utah.

One million visitors a year visit this little place of a gem instead of 10 million that make it to see Bryce Canyon or Zion.

The most interesting part of this National Park is that in the middle of the dry land surrounding it, the Mormons planted many acres of orchards and set up an an irrigation system to help them flourish.

It eventually turned into a National Park in 1971. Visitors can pick all you want and eat while you are in the orchard that is ready for picking and then pay $1 a pound to take what you want for later.

We had a hard time choosing where to camp that night. It was about 97 degrees as we pulled into one of the options- they only had one camping spot left so we drove over to check it out.

After much debating we both agreed that this sort of packed in side by side camping ISN’T for us. We weren’t sure what else we would find so we sprung the $20 to secure it.

We took a drive up to the BLM (bureau of land management) in the area. It ended up being just what Blake had in mind. Land to roam and plenty of room to set up several tents. It’s always free to camp on BLM.

The only glitch for me was not having running water- I mean who needs water to cook dinner and maybe drinking water when your current water runs out? At least I had an island to prep dinner on!

We had an amazing dinner of Italian Sausage and Veggies over charcoals. To go with our main dish we had some incredible fresh baked bread.

We had stopped at a quaint farm on our way out of Salt Lake City where I got the loaf of bread baked that morning called, “Three Cheese Boulee.”

Yes, Three Cheese Boulee bread- we felt fancy in the middle of the “desert.”

The kids slept great. Blake and I wished we were kids and could sleep that good on top of rock.

The new day brought picking in the orchards for golden apples and peaches.

Afterward we found an ice cold stream to get clean and cool off in.

Our next stop was back to Colorado into Grand Junction to see my second cousin, once removed. Or something like that. 😂

Smokey was more like an uncle when I was small and always made me laugh – this visit was no exception. The kids had water bottles and popsicles as we visited.

We ended the day with a drive over to the Colorado mountains as I fought and LOST with a terrible migraine. Up, up we went to 11,000 feet – winding and winding. I am getting queasy just writing about it.

We stayed in an Air B and B and I was thankful to have a bed and a roof instead of a tent and sleeping bag that night. ❤️