Road-trip Day 23 – Picking Apricots and Eating Pie at Capitol Reef National Park, and the drive to Bryce Canyon National Park

After muffins and breakfast to get the day started we packed up and headed over to the the Capitol Reef U-Pick Fruit fields to…pick (and eat) fruit!  It’s part of Fruita, a historic small settlement of pioneers.  It’s awesome that this is a feature of the park – https://www.nationalparks.org/connect/blog/capitol-reef-national-park-fruit-pickers-paradise.  Apricots were the only fruit in season, which wouldn’t have been my preference but hey, we didn’t let that slow us down.  You can eat as many as you want while in the fields and then pay for what you take out.  We had an awesome time!…although ate too many apricots in the field and got really dirty walking around the field.  After paying we went over to the Gifford House, an old farmouse that was part of the Fruita settlement. (https://www.nps.gov/care/learn/historyculture/giffordhomestead.htm)  The super exciting part of the house now is that they sell local products and homemade food, including what we bought – yummy pie, ice cream, and salsa. At that point it was time to say goodbye to Capitol Reef (sad)!  It was very good to us…absolutely beautiful views, great weather, perfect temperatures, an awesome hike, and fun activities.  This was one of our favorite parks! 

Next up…Bryce Canyon National Park, yay (after a 2 1/2 hour drive).  We stopped for groceries along the way (not going to lie, we do miss the ease and simplicity of Trader Joe’s).  We’re staying at the Cannonville / Bryce Valley KOA (https://koa.com/campgrounds/cannonville/) which is another campground with a beautiful backdrop!