Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
September 5, 2022
Capitol Reef National Park
Full Disclosure: This is a very long post. Despite the fact that we were only in Capitol Reef National Park for five days, we did and saw A LOT. We really enjoyed our stay here, and we hope you can trudge your way through the many photos without getting too bored!
After leaving Freemont Indian State Park early in the morning so that we could stop in Richfield in time for church (did we mention that we were in Mormon country and that Catholic churches were few and far between?) and then go to the local Walmart for provisions, we discovered that the Mass time had been changed (probably just that week). Nothing had been updated on their websites, and we arrived just as the only English Mass was ending. Luckily, they did have a Spanish Mass starting in the next half hour--so Spanish it was! This was our first 100% Spanish Mass, and it was an interesting cultural experience. We were able to follow along and read the readings in the English missal. The experience reminded Rick of his time in Germany with Mass in German - at least the parts in Latin are still the same!
Walmart was the normal Walmart experience - every Walmart is pretty much like every other one - for better or worse.
Our next stop at Fruita Campground in Captiol Reef National park was a remarkable location and provided amazing hiking, biking, and epic scenery opportunities. "Epic" is a much overused word these days, but it truly is an appropriate choice in this case.
Our first glimpse of the epic landscape.
The traffic cones made it appear to Julie that the park was "under construction". Many of the rock formations resembled giant, ornate buildings.
Found this sign at the dump station we used on the way in. Not sure why anyone would want to bathe at a dump station.
Fruita campground is located within the historic town of Fruita. It had previously been a Mormon settlement from the 1800's to as recently as the 1960's. Never having more than 10 families at any given time, the inhabitants had planted extensive orchards of apples, pears, peaches, apricots, cherries, and some nut trees. This part of Utah seemed an unlikely spot for such crops, but the river valley provided just enough water and shelter to make a go of it, albeit a difficult one for sure. The National Park Service continues to maintain the orchards, replacing dead trees as needed. When fruit is in season, you are free to enter the orchards and eat your fill (there is a small fee to take fruit out with you). Unfortunately, there was no ripe fruit when we were there.
Our campsite with fruit trees behind us.
A scenic location for an orchard!
No fruit for us 🙁
After we got setup and had dinner, we took a leisurely 1.5 mile stroll around the campground and surroundings. We walked along a pleasant path adjacent to the Fremont river that connected the campground with the visitor center and some of the historic buildings and orchards. We discovered a particularly high population of deer who did not have the slightest fear of people.
Deer were everywhere in the evening!
The park service was not subtle about wanting everyone to stay clear of the deer.
Ok, maybe Julie got a little close to this one. But, she didn't feed or harass it at least!
The sunset reflected beautifully off of the rock faces surrounding the campground.
The next morning, we took the Cohab Canyon hike right off the campground. Legend says that this canyon got the name "Cohab" because the early Mormon settlers would send their extra cohabitating wives there to hide when government officials came to root out polygamists. Many do not put much credence in this legend, but the name stuck. The hike was 4.5 miles and climbed 984 feet total, and we were rewarded with a lot of varied terrain and scenery. We were glad we had started fairly early in the morning as it got pretty hot by lunch time we returned to camp. As an added bonus, we stopped at the historic Gifford House on the way back to buy two small fresh baked pies (one cherry, the other mixed berry). They were yummy!
The first part of the trail had switchbacks all the way to the top, so it was nice to be doing this hike early in the morning when the trail was shaded!
Look around - Nice views of the campground and orchards on the way up the switchbacks.
That's our camper down there.
As we neared the top, we were above the rubble pile and finally up to the solid rock.
Look around - As we crested the top we could see the orchards far below behind us and the start of the canyon dropping below in front of us.
Look around - As we descended into the canyon we were walking on a mixture of sand and solid rock, with lots of interesting rock formations all around
Stops for pictures of wildflowers have been replaced with stops for pictures of rocks!
Sometimes you can't stop with just one picture of a rock grouping!
There weren't many wildflowers here, but Julie managed to find a few.
After descending into the canyon, we climbed up again.
Made it to the top! The view in the background shows the main road into the park with the orchards around it.
Look around - Same location as the selfie above - views all around!
We went back the way we came up, and on the way we stopped at a side slot canyon to check it out. Quite the squeeze getting all the way to the end!
We were glad that the last part of the hike was downhill, as it was starting to get hot.
Later that afternoon, we decided we would stroll over to the visitor center (3.3 miles roundtrip) to get some maps and information on the area. We also took advantage of the visitor center's free wifi and air conditioning, as there was not a lot of shade along the trail, and it was getting pretty hot.
We were hoping to see some marmots, but it wasn't to be.
Sulphur Creek, behind the visitor center
The next day was a bike riding day (24.3 miles) where we took the paved Scenic Drive from our campsite to its end. We continued a ways onto a dirt road which passed a research station and an abandoned ranch. The gravel road to the abandoned ranch was fun and we took it until it crossed a creek and became super sketchy.
Look around - Main paved road
We also took another side dirt road along the wash of Capitol Gorge. It was really nice to ride our bikes rather than drive this road so that we could go slow and gawk at the views without worrying about blocking the road. Not that there was much traffic. In fact, we did not encounter a whole lot of people at all at this park during our stay. Apparently, Capitol Reef is one of the least visited of the Utah national parks.
Look around - The road just wound down through the canyon. And what a nice road - they had just finished grading it hours ago!
It was difficult to capture the experience in photographs--especially with a camera phone. The scale of everything was so much larger and grand in reality.
Interesting vertical stripes on the rocks
Riding back to camp along the Scenic Drive
Egyptian Temple--aptly named rock formation
We were starting to get a routine to our days while at Capitol Reef. Each day was getting progressively hotter, so we would head out in the early morning and do something fun while it was reasonably cool. Then we would head back to the camper for lunch and to lounge around, recuperating (or doing something easy) until dinnertime. Evenings were spent enjoying the clear night skies out on the deck until it was time to go to bed. The next day, we would repeat the process. We are really enjoying the retired life!
On Wednesday morning, we hiked the Grand Wash trail which was a 6.6 mile out-and-back. As implied by its name, the trail followed a wash through a canyon. The good news about following a wash is that it is easy flat hiking with very little elevation change.
A very interesting niche--it looks like it needs a piece of art or a statue inside it.
Julie having more fun taking pictures of rocks 😉
The canyon provided new views around every corner. And each new view required a photo! 😉
This rock had a tuft of "hair" on top. If you look closely, you can see a faint smiley face that someone had drawn on it.
There really wasn't anything interesting here--but ya gotta check!
Looks like people had tossed small stones up into the holes in the rocks.
This rock grouping looks like a kiddie playground, complete with mini-arch! Rick's hiding a bit in the shadow of the arch.
The plant looks so special in its own niche.
Look around - The hike had a lot to look at from the beginning.
Look around - The "narrows" in this canyon were fun, but easy to pass through.
Back on the Scenic Drive heading back to camp.
This post has too many photospheres in it to work so you need to continue on to part two by clicking here:
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