We traveled down to Southern Utah yesterday and spent the night in Capitol Reef National Park. I got up and went for a morning run. I left the campground and headed south toward the Cassidy Arch trail head. It is a narrow paved road with gorgeous red rock scenery all around. There was almost no traffic. I only had 2 vehicles go by the whole run. The first mile climbed almost 250 feet followed by a nearly 150 drop over the next mile. The next 2 1/2 miles climb another 450 feet. Most of it during the last 1 1/2 miles where the road winds through tight curves as it climbs through the cedar trees and red sand and rock. The turns are so tight that there is a 10 MPH speed limit posted. Fun stuff for running. The road also dips back down several times to go through a number of washes. It tops out at Slickrock Pass at around 6000 ft. I ran another mile down the back side of the pass that dropped over 200 ft before turning and running back. The route was mostly sunny on the way back after mostly being shaded from the huge red cliff walls on the way up. I figured I did over 1000 feet total climbing [and descending] on the run and averaged 7:56 pace for the 11 miles. Very enjoyable and beautiful morning and breakfast was on the table when I got back to camp. What could be better than that?
Later that day we went on a 4 mile hike from the camground over into Kohab Canyon.
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