A full and memorable Mother’s Day!

We got a fairly early start to the day, and started with the Hickman Bridge trail, just a couple of miles from the Visitor Center. The trail was about 2 miles, with 300 ft elevation gain. The wind that had got up during the course of yesterday afternoon, had dropped this morning, and made for more pleasant hiking. As you can see from my blip, Hickman bridge is a huge natural arch, spanning 133 feet wide and 125 feet tall. It is named after Joseph Hickman, an early advocate for Capitol Reef’s protection and preservation. We had taken sandwiches with us, and sat and enjoyed them by the Fremont River at the end of our hike. Our second hike started from the other side of the road, the Cohab canyon trail. It climbed fairly steeply to begin with, but then flattened out. Part of the way along we accidentally took a spur trail, which involved a bit more climbing, to North and South overlooks, which were absolutely amazing, so it was a fortuitous accident! (See extra) The canyon itself was amazing with fascinating rock formations and erosion. Having done the detour, Roger and I didn’t quite finish the canyon - we still did 4 miles return - we let the girls continue without us! By this time we were all feeling pretty tired, and the wind was picking up again, but we still had some time, so we drove the 8 mile scenic drive and the dirt road at the end which continues into Capitol Gorge, which is accessible, with care, to all passenger cars.
It was a special Mother’s Day to be able to spend it with two of our three offspring, and my Mother’s Day wound up with a delicious dinner at a restaurant called Hunt and Gather, quite an upscale restaurant which seems quite out of place in a small town in the middle of the desert, but it has earned quite a reputation, and was obviously doing good business. The Hunt part of their name refers to their meat dishes, including duck, which I had, and elk, and the Gather refers to their vegetarian options. Dishes were very tastefully arranged as you can see in my extra collage. I have also added a collage from our Cohab canyon hike.
Total step count for the day: 22,268 steps, so I think I had earned my dinner!