As we approached Torrey, just east of Capital Reef, we were looking for a spot for lunch with a view. Once in the park, we quickly found a place next to the twin sisters, two gigantic rock formations. We stopped for a lunch of veggies with salsa and the tamales we’d picked up with our coffee. The tamales were great; the Escalante area is turning out to be quite the food place. We were excited to try the highly-rated restaurant later in the evening.
The terrain still the iconic Utah look everywhere you turn. A chimney rock stood tall in the sky; realizing there are many chimney rocks all over this country, we’d visited one in Colorado not a couple months ago.
After lunch, we stopped by an overlook above a long, tall gorge. I hopped out to check one of the trails. I walked down a third of a mile, but it wouldn’t be worth it for Amanda. I came back, grabbed her, and we went to the overlook. It was a little climb but not bad, and the views were incredible.
The Red would turn to round sandstone in warm earth tones, relics of when this was a sand dune desert. It was stunning the farther we drove. After we hit the visitor’s center, we turned south to traverse the scenic drive. The towering red cliffs we went by were terrific. Being heartiversary day, we brought “her” with us: an angel wing montage with “because of an organ donor” and Amanda’s transplant date on it. We began to take photos with her as we went.
We took our first side road trip; it was dirt but well-maintained, so not sure it could be called off-roading! The road was much better than many ranch roads I grew up driving. There would be many climbers toting their gear to and from the cliffs. We didn’t see any climbing, but my neck hurt from bending down to look up and down the tall cliffs!
From there, we went to the end of the scenic drive and continued on dirt through a narrow rock gorge winding its way around. The difference in the rock walls was striking from one to another in color and texture. We stopped to get more pictures with her. Passersby would gawk as they drove by, and Amanda would just wave! I also got a shot of the Subs, it deserved a pic too.
Once back at the visitors center, I neded to check on work with their WiFi, seeing when I’d need to take off. I’d been on a personal day but would need to start my union time soon. From there, we went east, and with dinner reservations, we didn’t go too far before turning around. On the way back, there were some petroglyphs along a stream with a boardwalk to access them. Amanda was too worn out to check these, so I went solo. At first, they were hard to see far up on the rock face. I finely spotted them, just not as quickly as Amanda would have; she has eagle eyes! There was another set closer down the wall, but it was passed where I parked. As I walked by, Amanda was laid out, napping hard. These paintings were much closer and more accessible to see. They were painted by the Fremont people, which little is known about.
Many of the beautiful yellow autumn-colored leaves would be from cottonwood trees, not aspen, as I’d thought from far away. There was a pleasant grove of them on a creek bank. We stopped and took a few more pictures with her here as well.
There was one more spot we’d passed at the park’s beginning after lunch. This would be our last stop on the way out. It was a large solid rock hill we were able to climb up. It has expansive views, and Amanda snapped a few pictures of me sitting, dangling my legs off.
Capital Reef was amazing. We both liked it the best out of the parks so far. It was the quintessential Utah landscape everywhere you looked. Don’t get me wrong Zion was absolutely amazing; the crowds take away, though. I want to return in the snow with fewer people and make the final decision.
It would be about an hour drive to our long-awaited dinner at the place that has had high reviews for years and was a James Beard semi-finalist for eight years running. They had been featured in Oprah’s magazine and Bon Appetit. We were excited to dine; however, our hiking clothes didn’t seem appropriate! I’d checked the website, and it said no dress code, mentioning many would dress up, but some would be in hiking attire. That would be correct; we weren’t the only ones coming straight off the trails to dine there. We both swapped some clothes around, though. I added a jean jacket but still wore my cap. Many would end up looking just like they walked right off the trails as well, so we fit in just fine.
This restaurant was in the middle of nowhere, but it had a captive, high-end audience to keep them going through the years. It was opened in the early 2000s by two Buddhist women, I assumed a couple. They reminded me of my mother, not their faith or lifestyle but their tenacity. The balls that had to have to open a fine dining establishment in the middle of nowhere Utah! Much like my mother when she opened a limited-menu fine dining restaurant on the back porch of my father’s ranch.
The meal would be underwhelming, to say the least. It was not bad, but for all the hype and touting of the James Beard semi-finalist status and magazine/newspaper articles on the wall, it fell far short of what we were expecting. It would have been considered good if we’d not known all the hype, but not deserving of all the praise or the very high price tag. Nor would I have driven the treacherous highway 12 in the dark again for it! We both agreed if that was in the running for the James Beard award, I should consider putting my chef hat back on!
The highlight of the meal was the pumpkin pinon enchiladas. The worst was our desserts. I honestly didn’t think you could make a dessert too sweet, but they could. To cut them some slack, the chef/owners recently stepped back and hired an executive chef. This is no excuse if they are still hands-on with the place, though.
After sloshing our let-down dinner around on all the twists and turns of the now pitch-black drive, we arrived safely back at the B&B. The owner would come up to greet us, thinking we were her next guest to check in from Bangkok. We hit it off with her right away, praising her new chef and how we’d enjoyed our dinner the night before. I explained we’d had a letdown for dinner, and she seemed shocked when I mentioned where we’d just eaten. Almost as shocked as her chef when I walked back to tip him the night before!