Capitol Reef National Park near Torrey, Utah

Capitol Reef National Park.
August, 2019

On our Utah National Park tour the next park to visit was Capitol Reef National Park near Torrey, Utah. Capitol Reef NP was established in 1937 and became a park in 1971.  The name of the park was derived from the landscape which is called the Waterpocket Fold (a 100 mile long barrier of rock that obstructed early travelers like a barrier "reef") and a sandstone feature that resembled the US Capitol. - hence Capitol Reef. This area was so remote and unknown that it was the last area to be mapped in the United States in 1870 by John Wesley Powell after rafting through the Grand Canyon.

The 'Capitol' part of Capitol Reef

The Waterpocket Fold (uplifted sandstone barrier) 'Reef'

There is a variety of things to do at Capitol Reef from exploring the historical town of Fruita, taking a 8 mile scenic drive within the park or hike to arches and admire petroglyphs.

 We first explored the historic town of Fruita where we bought a couple of world famous fresh baked pies and cinnamon rolls at the Gifford House.  You can see where our priorities are!  The historic Gifford House now consist of a small store and museum. The exhibits describe the Mormon pioneer history of the area. The Mormons settled here in the 1880's because the land was fertile with access to water from the Fremont River.  After the 1920's Fruita was abandoned and years later the Park Service would refurbish some of the old building and take care of existing orchards and replant others. Now there are almost 3,000 trees including apple, peach, pear, apricot cherry and plum. During our visit the peaches were so close to being picked but we had to move on. (But the pies and cinnamon rolls were delish)

The Gifford House as it stands today

The 8 mile Scenic Drive offers a mostly paved route through the heart of the park where it displays red rock views, sandstone cliffs that are in every color that have been formed in every kind of shape making it a very pretty drive.  Once the pavement ends you can take a couple of dirt roads to popular trailheads, arches and the Grand Wash road which was the pioneer's wagon trail through the 'reef' down a narrow canyon as evidenced by pioneers signing their names as they passed by at the turn of the century. (Some of the cowboy signatures were uniquely displayed by bullet holes from gun shots.)

Entrance into Grand Wash

The narrow Grand Wash which was the pioneer wagon trail

In the Grand Wash Narrows, early travelers signed the walls

Cassidy Arch

We did a short hike to Hickman Bridge. This 1.8 mile RT hike began at the Fremont River and quickly meandered up a rocky and scrubby mountain before it leveled off and descended into a sandy ravine to the bridge.  The loop trail ran underneath the bridge offering views from both sides plus view of the canyon/ravine we just walked through.

Hickman Bridge casting a shadow below it

The bottom side of Hickman Bridge as we walked under

The fertile valleys of Capitol Reef like many of the canyon lands of the Southwest were inhabited by the native peoples many years earlier (500 to 1300 AD) and left their images and stories for us to view hundreds of years later in the form of petroglyphs.   When traveling in the Southwest, we've learned to keep an eye open when looking up the canyons and rock cliff faces and you might find a hidden house or granary among the rocks that is a 1000 years old.
  

Granary found hidden in a sandstone ledge

We had read about a 64 mile dirt road through an area called Cathedral Valley where 4WD was recommended  with a bonus of a river crossing (sounds like this road is made for us and the Jeep!). This road had a diverse change of landscape with a number of overlooks the view the  colorful cliffs, towers, red rock formations and some very unique finds along the way. 

Gypsum Sinkhole 100 feet across and over 200 feet deep

Hoodoos watching us

Glass Mountain gypsum crystals (selenite).  The crystals were actually very shiny and glassy .

Glass Mountain pushed up through the desert floor

Temple of the Sun and Temple of the Moon (to the left)

As we cruised along down the lonely dirt road taking in all the scenery we came upon this mirage in the middle of nowhere (actually a cattle watering trough) and by it was an antique truck and well drilling rig.  It had drilled it's last well many years ago and now it stands as a monument to its past.  It was so neat and part of the 'West' history for the area.

We enjoyed this area but it was time to move on to Cedar Mesa in search for a little cooler weather and more of the ancient ones.

Thanks for joining our adventure.  Until next time - Happy Traveling