[You may view a map of Capitol Reef National Park in PDF format.]

No Evidence Of A Mouse

We got up around our usual time and there was no evidence that we still had a mouse, or mice, in the RV — the two spring traps were intact and the glue trap was empty. :) There were nice broken clouds in the sky. I had my normal breakfast then we left in the Jeep around 8:45.

We went to the Hickman Bridge Trailhead around 8:55 and started up the 1-mile (1.6km) one-way hike to the natural bridge. The clouds kept breaking up, and were very nice by the time we reached Hickman Bridge. We photographed it for a quite a while, and J said it was one of the best arches that she has ever photographed. It's definitely a morning shoot, and mid morning is probably the best time so that the sun can illuminate the wash below the bridge. We started to head back after there was just clear blue sky behind the arch. On the way back, I stopped to photograph some of the interesting erosion patterns on the cliff wall (below right). We reached the trailhead around 11:05.


We went to the Visitor Center to use the facilities and load up our water bottles, then ...

We went down by the campground so J could photograph the old barn near the Gifford House, an historic house that's now a museum with a bakery and gift shop.

After J finished, we went to the Gifford House and bought some Blueberry Preserves and a small, approximately 6 in (15cm) in diameter, Mixed Berry Pie.

We returned to the RV around 12:30. I started to download the images I took then had lunch. I started to work up a blog entry, and light rain started by 1:00.

Evidence Of A Mouse

After I took a shower, I pulled down some clothes from an open bin over my desk and cracked corn spilled down onto my desk — eeew! The mouse had put a stash of cracked corn up among my clothes! I put on clothes that hadn't been up in the bin, then we turned on the generator around 1:40 so we could run the vacuum cleaner while I took apart the mouse lair. Running a vacuum cleaner is questionable when dealing with the potential of hantavirus, because the best way to catch the virus is through aerosolized mouse urine. The mouse probably didn't urinate right at his food stash, but we ran the vacuum cleaner to dust the whole office and then to vacuum all of our floors. Hopefully we didn't inhale too much aerosolized mouse urine or droppings. The rain got quite heavy at times. We finished cleaning up after the mouse around 2:25 and turned off the generator. Then I had half of the mixed berry pie from the Gifford House to make up for not having my regular fruit (a banana and an apple) for lunch, and it was most tasty. I worked on the blog entry and the rain stopped by 2:50. I finished the blog entry and left by myself in the Jeep around 3:15.

I went to the Chuckwagon General Store in Torrey to get some coffee. I had forgotten to get some when we went grocery shopping in Loa and also when I had come here before to get mouse trapping supplies. They had a large selection of whole-bean coffee: Starbucks French Roast or Starbucks French Roast. Yes, they had two bags of whole bean coffee on the shelf, and I bought one of them.

I went to a hotel parking lot in Torrey to go online through their fast Wi-Fi network to upload the blog entry and to do other things online.

I returned to the RV around 4:15. J had eaten the other half of the mixed berry pie while I was gone, and she said it was one of the best mixed berry pies she's ever had. I did a first-pass downselect of the images from this morning, then I left in the Jeep by myself around 4:55.

I drove west along UT-24 and stopped to photograph the red rock cliffs with the storm clouds in the background. My favorite image is of Chimney Rock from the southeast (left).

I returned to the RV around 6:05 to pick up J and we left around 6:10.

We stopped to photograph the sunset, but the color on the clouds didn't get very intense and only lasted a very short time.

We returned to the RV around 6:50.

We had dinner around 7:05 of Bertolli Chicken alla Vodka & Farfalle.

After dinner, I downselected the images from this afternoon then made a batch of coffee concentrate in the Toddy Cold Brew System. The Starbucks French Roast coffee was darker and had a smokier aroma than my regular LavAzza Gran Filtro Dark Roast coffee, and it flew all over the place as I took it out of the Capresso Infinity Conical Burr Grinder. I used some of my regular LavAzza Gran Filtro Dark Roast coffee to get a full pound (453g) of coffee because the Starbucks package was only 12 oz (340g). Then I processed three images for the blog.