Arrival and Capitol Reef National Park

9.10. Flagstaff is the starting point for the Grand Canyon. Since we saw it last time, we leave it out this time and head towards Page. Before that, we admire the Horseshoe Bend, which now costs $10 admission. 300m below us, the Colorado River flows past us in a huge meander, quite impressive!

Swimming in memories, we drive to Page to have lunch at our favorite restaurant. As planned, it opens just as we arrive and we enjoy the wonderful meat selection of the converted gas station: ribs, brisket, pulled pork with potato salad and coleslaw. We were not disappointed! Since today is a 7-hour trip, we have to hurry and continue driving. At the Escalante Visitor Center, we learn that the Cottonwood Canyon Road is impassable due to heavy rainfall. That means driving about an hour detour. Arriving in Torrey, we spontaneously find a cidery run by a former neuroscientist and his wife. Etta Place, an outlaw who ran around the town with Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid, is the namesake of the apple brewery. The tasting is of high quality and we buy a t-shirt and a cider before preparing our dinner at the Sunglow Camping. It is now so cold that the pasta is cold after a third of a plate. Even the night is at the comfort limit, our windows freeze on the inside...

10.10 Erik has replied but forgotten that we can't make phone calls. So we probably won't see him again... The bakery in Torrey has the best croissants we've had in the States so far! The coffee, on the other hand, leaves something to be desired. At 8:00, we pick up our Jeep to drive to Cathedral Valley. 200 dollars plus self-cleaning are no walk in the park... To get the corresponding maps of the backroads, we drive to the Visitor Center of Capitol Reef National Park. Guess who is parked right next to us? Erik! He is fully committed and we take him on our nearly 240km round trip through the park! What an incredibly beautiful coincidence! We are all very happy to be on the road together again. Amelia manages the drive through the river and the desert with ease. Along the way, there are beautiful views and a lunch stop. We provide the main course, Erik provides dessert and soda. After great conversations and many curves, we take a detour to a special place that I saw about 1.5 years ago on the website of a German photographer. I already knew the layers of rock from my visits, and it didn't take long for me to find the place on Google Maps. The popularity of the place has already increased and the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) has closed the direct access with jeeps. 1 mile on foot has never hurt anyone and shortly afterwards, we stand in front of this beautiful rock pinnacle in the middle of an amphitheater of gray-yellow stone. It was really worth coming here!

Afterwards, we drive back to Torrey and want to wash the Jeep. But no luck: the car wash is closed, we have used up our included kilometers, and time is running out. We say goodbye to Erik and his offered beer (the next reunion is already half planned :)) and drive to the next little village to clean the Jeep. In the end, we are 6 minutes late and the owners don't even blink an eye and charge for every single kilometer. Well then.

The chosen restaurant is unfortunately fully booked, so we continue driving and have dinner at a completely quirky restaurant. (Half Asian cuisine, mixed with Italian, any restaurant critic would enjoy it). Strengthened, we drive almost another hour to find a quiet spot at Otter Creek State Park.