Day 29 (Iceland in Utah?)

Day 29
July 20, 2006
Capitol Reef

The dawn was clear, breezy and very cool at Thousand Lakes Campground in Torrey, UT. We slept well in Site #13 which was in a rear corner of the campground, and, it appeared, on the cusp of development in Torrey. Except for a seasoned barbwire fence, there was no sign of human presence for miles just beyond our site. The morning sun on the red sandstone plateaus to the north and west was close to magical. We liked this place. So we walked down to the office and extended our stay by one night.

It was in the campground office that we met the proprietor, Valgerđur “Vally” Alexandersdottir. We couldn’t believe it. In Torrey, which can’t be too far from the center of the Utah desert, of all places, we met an Icelandic woman running a campground (and doing a great job of it). We also met her husband, John Reilly—both were extremely nice. Sessy and Vally conversed for several minutes about their shared ethnicity and then we stepped outside and posed for a photo with them.

Even before we met Vally and John, Sessy and Frank had commented on how Utah’s high desert country resembles Iceland in many ways. In fact, the interior of Iceland is a desert, albeit a colder one. Both Iceland and Utah have lava boulders strewn throughout the landscape, very few trees, perpetual breezes, clean, clear air and mountains visible regardless of which way you’re facing. And the sky seems similar, too. We mentioned our observation that Utah and Iceland shared some characteristics with John and Vally and they agreed, noting, of course, that Utah is a LOT farther away from the ocean!

After signing up for another night’s stay in Thousand Lakes, Sessy, Elliot, Sylvia and Norman went in Norm and Sylvia’s car to the orchard to pick fruit while Frank and Emily took the minivan to go scrambling. If you’re not sure what "scrambling" is, don’t feel bad; we learned on this trip that climbing rocks without gear is now known as scrambling, and it’s the fastest growing activity in western U.S. National Parks.

Emily had expressed a keen interest in climbing rocks ever since Grand Canyon, but we had put off her requests there and at Zion and Bryce mostly because those parks discourage having visitors leave the designated park trails. Capitol Reef is quite different. We were told at the visitor center that there are no restricted areas within the park and that we were welcome to scramble anywhere we wanted. So…Frank and Emily got to it this morning. They ended up scrambling in three different areas until their appetites for crawling over rocks of various sizes, shapes, colors and types were fully sated. They returned to the campsite at 2 PM with stories of adventure that rang with a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment. During their escapades, Frank and Emily picked up about a dozen small rocks and brought them back with them. The variety of colors and component minerals that the rocks they readily found just lying around gave an understanding of why Capitol Reef is a National Park.

The other party found the orchards to be a little disappointing. No peaches were ripe, and the apples and pears were not the best we’ve ever seen. Nonetheless, we picked a pound of fruit for which we paid a dollar. We also bought two fruit pies (peach and blackberry) at the Gifford House, an historic landmark that is now a gift shop inside the park.

We spent the afternoon lazing about the trailer. It was great to spend time reading, working on summer “case books” that the children received from their schools to keep their skills up while school is out and writing post cards.

Before dinner Emily swam in the campground’s pool while Frank watched her and read So Others Might Live, which documents the complete history of the New York City fire department. Dinner included pancakes, Canadian bacon, and refried bean dip followed by pie for dessert. Food never tasted so good. We snapped some remarkable pictures of the sunset as it appear from the screen door of the trailer, and the stars after sundown were pretty impressive.