Our friend Mac told us that his favorite desert campground was at Capitol Reef NP because there were lots of fruit trees and if anything was ripe, you could pick it. I told him he had spent entirely too much time in the hot sun if he was telling me a story like that. Turned out, he wasn't kidding. This lush, tree-covered oasis along the Fremont River was settled by Mormon pioneers who planted trees like crazy, especially fruit-bearing varieties.The Park Service has maintained the orchards, replanting them as necessary over the years. The campground along the river is shaded and cool even though huge desert rocks tower over it. No wonder the Mormons stopped here. They must have thought they were getting close to the Promised Land.
The mule deer in the campground were so tame they came within twenty feet of our picnic table (left). They thought nothing of wandering over for some of the green grass thet grew around the bath house -- heck, this sure seemed like better pickings than eating cactus across the road in the desert!
We claimed the Purple Jersey (well, we DID ride from the campground on our bikes) next morning at the restored village where a couple of nice ladies served fresh-baked pie and coffee for breakfast. We had blackberry pie at 9 am -- Jeff, are you reading this???
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