We may finally getting the hang of this traveling thing. Get up in the morning, have a tasty breakfast, go for a walk, have lunch, relax, have dinner. Repeat. Of course, it helps to be ensconced in an orchard next to a river with red cliffs in the background and a blue sky.
We started the day with fresh peach scones for breakfast. The Gifford Farmhouse opens at 8am and I was on their doorstep at about 8:01. The baker was still there delivering fresh pies, bread and scones. She'd been up since 3am. They are baked at the Diablo Restaurant in Torrey, the nearest town, and brought out every morning. By most evenings, they are all gone. The peach scones were delicious, made with local peaches from the park's Fruita orchards. I suspect that the park staff get an early crack at harvesting enough peaches to preserve for pies for the rest of the season.
After breakfast, it was time for a hike. The Cohab Canyon trail starts just across from the campground, quickly goes up 320 feet, then crosses through the hidden Cohab Canyon, finally dropping 440 feet to the Fremont river on the other side. There are also side trails going up to a set of high overlooks at the top of the canyon, looking out over the campground area to south and the higher rock formations to the north. If you follow the trail to its east end at the river, you can cross over to the trailhead leading up to the Hickman Bridge, a natural rock bridge. That is the route we took.
It was still fairly cool when we left and we were still in jackets. That only lasted through the initial climb and a little way into the canyon. It warmed quickly and, although we were not always in the sun, it was too warm for the jackets. The canyon has its narrow parts, slickrock, and high stone walls, but it wouldn't be called a slot canyon. There are small slot canyons running off of it, but they dead end fairly quickly. It was a fairly quick walk through the canyon and it came out on a high slope overlooking the trailhead parking lot and a moderate slope down to the river.
On the walk over the canyon, it was early enough that we only saw a couple of other hikers, but there was more traffic on the other side. The trail leads up to the natural bridge, about a mile up, and also to a longer higher rim trail. We took the trail to the bridge. It climbed another 400 feet from the river and through more canyon scenery to the base of the natural bridge, a 133 foot arch. The trail lead us under the arch, a great vie from either side and around a point to loop back o the main trail.
It was time to head back down to the river, over the road bridge and back up into the canyon. When we got back up to the canyon, we took the side trail up to the overlooks. On our last visit here, we had walked up from the campground to the overlook, but it was blowing so hard that we couldn't even stand at the top, so we'd retreated quickly. Not so this time, the day was crystal clear and there was only a slight, pleasant breeze. While it was sunny and warm, we walked to the edge of northernmost overlook and found a spot for lunch. After a leisurely lunch of sausages, cheese and tomatoes, we continued back into the canyon and down to the campground.
Like I wrote earlier, we seem to be getting the hang of this. The afternoon was spent sitting in the shade readimg, with a brief stroll in the orchard next to the campground to pick a few pears. I also took part of the afternoon to update four days of the Speedy Journal.
Before long, it was dinner time—grilled pizza with a fresh tomato sauce and fresh mozzarella, but no pie tonight. Ellen wants to save me from myself. Maybe more scones in the morning, though.
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