Cohab Canyon - Capital Reef National Park - Fruita, UT

We wanted to warm up ... best way is an early morning hike into the wilderness (or at least one way to warm up on a cold morning).

We hiked through Cohab Canyon ... a truly surreal experience in the early morning light as we had the canyon to ourselves and the shadows on the canyon walls were dark and revealing of the intricacies of the rock formations.

This was the view on the sun on an old Mormon settlement barn as we began the Cohab Canyon Trail ...

View of the Fruita Campground from the entrance to Cohab Canyon (yes, it was a steep initial climb up to the top of the mesa ... as I said, one way to warm up) ...

Inside of Cohab Canyon ...

And volcanic rocks strewn everywhere from some far distant volcanic explosion ...

Yes, Cohab Canyon is named for "cohabitation" ... the Mormon settlers in Fruita (no more than ten families at the largest) were polygamous ... and, when the law came to enforce monogamy, the "other wives" hid in the canyon to escape prosecution.

But wait, there's more ... we picked up the Frying Pan Trail and started a 960 foot climb up and down and through two more canyons to just before Cassidy Arch ... it was one of the eerily beautiful hikes that we have ever taken through high desert canyon terrain ... we practically had it to ourselves and enjoyed every minute of it ...

We don't know who Fern is, but this is her nipple (Fern's Nipple) ...

We ate lunch overlooking Grand Wash and decided not to go down to Cassidy Arch because "what goes down, must come up" in an out-and-back hike ...

One of the rare high desert hikes when it is actually cool enough to enjoy hikes, blue skies accented with puffy white clouds for context and "desert solitaire" ... and, as always, the hike ends with data (and a cold beer with potato chips) ...