Cedars And Sagebrush

On our seventh day of exploring the Capitol Reef National Park area, our hike of the day was called the Chimney Rock Loop—3.6 miles round trip.  This time we arrived early when it was still cool.

The first .6 mile was a fairly flat path which led to the junction of our hike and the  Spring Canyon route.

We will gain the tip of that mesa,

but have to go around about to get there.  Chimney Rock is that pinnacle on the right.

Up and up we went almost 600’, eventually reaching the top of the mesa.  We had a nice cool breeze up here, and from the southern mesa edge, a beautiful view of the Sulpher Creek gorge,

Panorama Point (lower right), the road to Sunset Point (the Point is upper left), and the Fremont River Gorge.  We visited these spots on different days last week.  (See Down To The Bottom and Cramming blogs.)

After we wandered along the mesa edge for a while we continued along the rest of the loop.  From here we went down to the right, made a hairpin turn, continued left

made another hairpin turn, then continued around the next mesa.

As I neared the mesa edge, there was that Creepy Guy!

Our path continued down the adjacent mesa (on the path above).

At the bottom

we found a close-up view of these rocks knees that are very visible from the Scenic Road,

and to the left of the rocks we found Chimney Rock Canyon. Toward the east it connects to  Spring Canyon (not visible from the road.)

Our path led west through the Canyon,

then started up,

skirting the north side of Chimney Rock mesa and finished the loop.

Almost back to the parking lot,

Chimney Rock again

and done.

After lunch Duane got bored watching tv and took a ride on the bike.

I spent the afternoon and evening changing the cherries I picked yesterday into jelly.  I didn’t have a pot big enough for a hot water bath to seal the jars, but after bit of research I found that I could seal the jars without the bath.   I had to get creative with a couple of other things, too. I ran out of sugar, but I read somewhere that I could use powdered sugar.  I had no idea how much—I just guessed.  When I ran out of jars, I put the remaining juice into a plastic container and froze it. I was trying to make jelly without pectin.   When I put the juice into the jars, it was pretty runny. They all sealed, but I have to wait until tomorrow afternoon to find out if I have cherry jelly or cherry juice.  I figure it’s a win-win.  If I end up with  juice, then later I can get some pectin and make jelly, and a few containers of juice can be stored more easily and longer than 6 one-gallon bags of fresh cherries.

Next, the Eagle flies.

Louise and Duane