Capitol Reef (Rappelling & Camping) March 2-4, 2018

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Some cold spring weekends you just have to get out. This weekend wasn't particularly cold, but I was tired of the constant 50 degree weather and the brown and grey landscapes around Provo. I knew my Brother and Sister in law were free for the weekend, so at the beginning of the week I called them up and we set aside the weekend for an adventure. We settled on Capitol Reef NP. I hadn't been to the reef in about four years, so I was pretty excited. As a kid, we would spend every fall break there, so I had done just about everything a family can do down there. A Capitol Reef classic is Cassidy Arch. I remember watching people rappel it and I was always so jealous! Fast forward ten years. I'm an adult, I have all the equipment needed, I consider myself proficient in all things rope related. Finally!

Hickman Natural Bridge
We drive down Friday night and camped in the tent camping area in the park. The park was nearly empty, and was nice and quiet. We slept great that night and woke up refreshed and ready to live out my childhood dream. I had read up on the route on multiple sources. I found the RoadTripRyan website really helpful (link on my blog's main page). The hike up was great. The recent move of the anchors was really nice. We really enjoyed the route. 


                             


L to R: the first rappel, Isaac heading down, & the view from the bottom


The first, second, and third rappels were amazing. I combined the second and third rappel to make things easier. 


                              


Coming down the cleft in the rock on the 3rd rappel

The next few rappels were really small but too big and vertical to down climb. I had brough a 300 ft. canyoneering rope and a 150 ft. static rope, so the 300 footer worked great on the first few rappels as well as one larger one later on and the 150 footer was perfect for the smaller rappels.





Once we got back down to the car, we were so pumped. I was so happy to have been able to finally cross off the Cassidy Arch Rappel. It is definitely one of the best routes in middle Utah.


That evening, we hiked Hickman bridge so I could get a sunburst picture through the natural bridge. The shot turned out really nice (seen at the top of the post). We camped in the same spot that night but a rain storm moved through. The light rain froze on our ten flies over night and we woke up to some really cold weather. We decided to bad our plans for that day and just drove home to Provo for hot showers and a relaxing Sunday afternoon.

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