Crazy, Stormy Weather at Camp! + Hiking Capitol Reef Nat'l Park Utah | Truck Camper Life | Van Life

Coming up in this week's episode. I can see that front moving in, the wind is picking up, the clouds are moving in. Luckily I saw a little bit of sunshine this morning because there may not be any for the rest of the day. I'm here in beautiful Torrey, Utah just outside of Capitol Reef National Park. I'm going to take care of some to-do items before I get some breakfast going. This site had an amazing vibe and felt like home as soon as I arrived. Nothing says home like a home-cooked meal. I make this breakfast a lot. It's one of my go-to's. It's good and it's good for you. Bon appetit. They were actually calling for snow overnight and it did snow on the peaks surrounding the campsite. I was kind of hoping that I'd wake up to my little area here blanketed in snow. However, that did not happen. It is stormy though and it's supposed to be stormy all day today. I arrived here in Torrey, Utah yesterday and when I got to town I went and did some laundry and I also took a nice long shower. Oftentimes RV parks will allow non-guests to use the shower and laundry facilities for a fee and it was worth it to me just to take a long hot shower. I do have a shower and a toilet here in the camper. One of the things that was very important to me when selecting a rig was that it did have a bathroom and a shower and I do use obviously the toilet and the shower but when you know when I can or every once in a while I like to splurge on a nice long shower. The drive here was incredible. I left the Mexican Hat area of Utah and I took the Moki Dugway which tons of people have commented to me about. They say that I need to see that. I didn't realize I was even on it until I was on it and then I remembered this looks kind of familiar because I had checked it out before and it was incredible. You guys did not steer me wrong. Also, I connected to scenic highway 95 and I took that for about 90 some odd miles. There was no cell signal. It was very remote backcountry driving. Absolutely beautiful especially coming into the Glen Canyon recreational area and the height area. It really made me itch to get back in the backcountry backpacking. It's the closest I felt to backpacking while being in a car. Anyhow, the reason that I'm here is to visit the park. Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be much more favorable so I'm going to go into the park and do a hike. Maybe get some awesome pie that they're famous for inside the park and just enjoy my day. I have not been back to Capitol Reef since 2019. I was there or I visited right after I hit the road full time. I mean it was one of my first stops hitting the road full time so it's been way too long and I'm super excited to get in there tomorrow. Today is stormy as I mentioned so it's going to be a hanging around camp day just cooking chilling. Not sure what I'm going to have for dinner yet but I do have some ideas. I'm going to go ahead and set up this area for lounge mode. It's also my guest bed mode but it's lounge mode when I want to kick back and watch a movie. I can also lay in my bed and watch a movie but it's a little too early in the day for that. It's showtime! I set my computer up here on my utility drawer so that it's facing the lounge area and I stream from my phone using my phone as a hotspot. I have all the different streaming apps and you do have to have cell signal in order to do that and I do have cell signal at this campsite. I've got my fuzzy blanket. I'm all bundled up and ready to kick back and watch a movie on a rainy day. It's hailing! It's hailing here and the sun is shining over there. Looks like there's a little bit of a break in the storm so I'm going to take advantage of it and get outside. That didn't last very long. It is very cold. The wind is freezing. My face is frozen and it started raining again. So here's what I got going on for dinner tonight. Chicken tenders just seasoned with some salt and pepper and garlic powder and some sweet potatoes and broccoli. I think I'm going to go ahead and call it a night here. It's been a stormy day but a beautiful day and I enjoy a good storm when I can sit inside my cozy little home and look at it from inside out. I'm excited to get this hike started in the morning so I'm going to get to bed early, get up early, make myself a little lunch so I can have lunch on the trail and yeah it's it's beautiful. I'm really excited. I will see you all in the morning. Good night. It is a cold one this morning. There was some snow flurries, a little bit of rain and I see a little rainbow right in front of me but it is supposed to completely clear up. I think it's going to be a beautiful day for a hike. Capitol Reef National Park was designated a national monument on August 2nd 1937 by President Franklin D Roosevelt to protect the area's colorful canyons, ridges, buttes and monoliths. There's no one else parked here this morning so that's a good sign. It felt amazing being back in Utah hiking among these massive walls. Gets warm quick when you're hiking. I am currently on the Grand Wash Trail. It's a beautiful morning. Beautiful blue sky and white puffy clouds. Grand Wash is a famous gorge that cuts its way through the upper portion of Water Pocket Fold, a rocky spine extending from Thousand Lake Mountain to Lake Powell, is preserved within the park. I personally find this terrain and red rock landscape very beautiful. So I jumped on the Cassidy Arch Trail from the Grand Wash Trail. There's a closer trailhead to get to this area but I took the long way and there aren't too many people here. I'm going to stop and have some lunch. I made myself a sandwich, brought an orange. It's a time to refuel. Well that was a great hike. It was just under nine miles. I had to change because it was much warmer than I had anticipated. The Grand Wash portion of it is pretty easy. The only thing that makes it a little bit of a challenge is you're trudging through sand but it's flat and it's not too bad. The Cassidy Arch portion of the hike, there is some you know decent amount of climbing in a short period of time but it's not too not too difficult at all. It felt really good to get out on a nice hike and now I'm going to see if I can find some pie. I think I've earned it. There was just a marmot crossing sign. I had no idea there were marmots here. I didn't feel like it was high enough in elevation because they like high elevation. Interesting. The Capitol Reef Natural History Association in cooperation with the National Park Service has renovated and refurnished the Gifford Farmhouse as a cultural demonstration site to interpret the early Mormon settlement of the Fruita Valley. Today the historical homestead opens up to serve fresh baked goods to hungry travelers. The historic Gifford house is famous for its pie and apparently they sell out so I would recommend that you get there early. It's about 2 30 in the afternoon and they are sold out. They just sold out because a man in front of me had three pies in his hands and uh yeah I'm out of luck. I'm back here all tucked in at my awesome little campsite. I didn't leave anything to hold my space here. I took my chances and it was waiting for me when I got back which is awesome. I wasn't really too worried about it because I noticed that there were several spaces around so I just thought I'd grab another one if this one wasn't here. I hope you enjoyed hanging out with me the last couple of days. Yesterday here at camp with all the crazy weather which I feel like just added to the beauty and then today a little taste of Capitol Reef National Park. It is definitely one of the lesser visited national parks and the trail. This morning when I started out I only saw a couple other people. Once I got to the Cassidy Arch Trail there were more but still not that many. It was a really awesome day except for the fact that there was no pie. I'm still disappointed about that but I will live. I will definitely live. I always appreciate you guys coming along. I thank you so much. If you like this video please give it a thumbs up and if you haven't subscribed to the channel I'd really appreciate if you subscribed. Thank you in advance. As always I appreciate your support and I hope that you'll join me for the next adventure. I will see you soon. Thanks so much everyone. Bye bye. To subscribe go to the channel's main page and tap that red subscribe button. It's totally free and helps the channel immensely.