19) Capitol Reef National Park, October 18 – October 23, 2009

Location: South-central Utah, N 38 17.460, W 111 15.685

If you look at the AAA map, Capitol Reef looks pretty close to Canyonlands, but we drove almost 230 miles getting there. That’s one of the things about this part of the country; if you want to avoid driving on dirt roads, you can’t get there from here, you have to go somewhere else, then go there. Even after that drive, there were still a lot of campsites available in a really nice campground, shaded by very old cottonwoods and bounded on one side by the Freemont River rushing by with a soothing sound. The campground filled to overflowing by the end of the day though, including the reserved, second campground host site and all of the handicap sites (the handicap sites are held until 6:00 p.m. and then released for one-night campers).

Capitol Dome in Background

(park's namesake)

Another advantage of this campground is that it is located right next to the Gifford House. The Gifford House is the old homestead of a family that settled in the Fruita Valey during the very early 1900s. The Giffords were the third owners of the homestead and were the last to leave during the park land acquisition in 1969. Their hosue has been turned into a museum and a country store featuring fresh pies, preserves, and homemade ice cream. Yummm.

Gifford House Homestead

(house nestled in trees to right of center)

There is one road (Utah 24) that goes east and west through the middle of the park and, off of that, a relatively short scenic drive goes south. These two drives, without hiking, will allow you to see just a fraction of the park. So, after setting up camp, we went to do our normal VC activities, asking especially about the two outer loop drives that are not for normal-clearance passenger cars, but which will allow us to see MUCH more of the park than only from the highway or the scenic drives as most tourists do. One of these loops fords the Freemont River and crosses a lot of washes. Both, we were told, were OK for our high-clearance vehicle—“The river’s only about 8 inches deep at that point.” This turned out to be a little optimistic, because the water came over our step-bars, which are about a foot off the ground. Sixteen-inch wheels with high-profile tires came in handy in this case.

To round out our first day at CRNP, we headed west out of the park to the big city (pop about 170) of Torrey, UT before doing part of the park. At Torrey, we bought a few groceries—as few as we could, because they know that the next grocery is about 20 or 30 miles further out, then headed back into the park. On the way back in, we stopped at Twin Rocks, hiked the short paths to Sunset Peak and to Goosenecks Overlook, and then stopped at Panorama Point. To finish the day, since we hadn’t really hiked that day, we strolled around the campground, enjoying the quiet and the nice weather.

Sunset Point Panorama

The next day, we embarked on one of our two outer loop adventures. The first one we did is known as “Loop the Fold Drive”, and most of it can be done in a normal passenger car, even though it’s largely unpaved. Pamphlets are available in the book store for both of our outer loops, and they provide some guidance as well as numbered stops at approximate mileages. This loop starts and ends with paved road, but the middle 30 miles were unpaved but suitable for passenger cars. It follows the main feature of the park down the east side, the Waterpocket Fold where the continental plates collided, causing one to subside. Then eons of erosion revealed the uplifted strata and a 100 mile stretch of the longest and best example of a monocline in the country (world?). After climbing the Burr Trail Switchbacks (part of the unpaved section of the loop), we took the Muley Twist Canyon spur road (not suitable for passenger cars) up to the trail head for the Muley Twist Trail and the Strike Valley Overlook Trail. We talked to a couple there who had just completed a part of the Muley Twist and said that they were sand-blasted most of the way. The wind was gusting to 30 or so with a steady 15 or 20, making it look like a car was coming down the road it kicked up so much dust and sand. We had read in our National Geographic book that the Strike Valley Overlook was the most spectacular view in the park (plus it’s much shorter than the Muley Twist), so we headed out that way. Our printed material has not always been really accurate, as we have mentioned in previous posts, but this time, if anything, they understated the view. Words can’t describe it, and our pictures fall short too. Really amazing.

Muley Twist Canyon Spur Road

View from Loop the Fold Drive

Waterpocket Fold Panorama

The loop hits pavement a couple of miles after this spur road and finishes by leaving the NP and going through the far north section of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and then going through part of the Dixie National Forrest, climbing up and over Boulder Mountain. Pretty neat, and even if you don’t have the high-clearance vehicle, we recommend getting as far as the passenger car parking for the Strike Valley Overlook and hiking in. It only adds about 5 miles round trip to your hike. (Or rent a 4x4, as many people seem to have done.)

The next day, there was a threat of rain, and the two loops and all of the hikes that we wanted to do required crossing some washes and going up side canyons on dirt roads—not recommended when they’re wet (even with 4x4). So we drove the scenic drive (paved) and went to two ranger talks; Geology and Petroglyphs. As we were finishing the Petroglyphs trail (where the ranger talk was held), it started to rain, so we finished our day at camp doing blog stuff—after stopping, again at Gifford House, in the park, for another fresh pie. We stopped there each day to get a different flavor of pie (they're six in all). Yummm!


We did some more hiking on the day after our "day off". We did the Rim Overview Trail and the Hickman Bridge Trail. The Overview trail provides some near-aerial views of the valley below, depending on how close to the sheer cliff face you are willing to go. The Hickman Bridge Trail took us to a natural bridge, through some interesting scenery. We finished this day of hiking by doing the Freemont River Trail, which started right in our campground. It starts very lazily along the river banks, following by some old, Mormon pioneer orchards (By the way, if you are there in-season, you can pick and eat the fruit for free in the various orchards. They charge you if you want to take some out.) and is very flat. Then, it starts very steeply up the talus and the face of the cliff, 770 feet up to a Freemont Valley overlook. Then, back down. Ouch. Great views, but…

Looking down on Fruita Orchards from Rim Overview Trail

(that's 2000 feet folks)

Hickman Bridge

View from Fremont River Trail

After a restful night in the camper, we took another trail that starts just outside the campground entrance called Cohab Canyon Trail. This one starts out strenuously, climbing switchbacks up the face of the mountain, but then follows a relatively flat wash for a long way through Cohab Canyon. There were a few, relatively short but steep, side trails that we took to some amazing vista points. This trail takes you one-way from the campground to its other trailhead on UT highway 24. We had the choice of hiking back through the canyon or heading back by road. The trail is steep at both ends, and the road is flat, so, even though it’s much further, we opted for the road. After about 2 miles, we spotted what appeared to be a shortcut through an orchard and the picnic area to the campground. It turned out to be a good move, because this saved us about a mile and a half on the road. It also had the added advantage of passing right by the Gifford house; oh boy pie time. For our last adventure of the day, we drove the scenic drive to Capitol Gorge, then the dirt road to the trailhead. From there, we hiked the gorge (pretty flat, mostly in the wash itself) to Pioneer Register (where some of the early Mormon settlers had carved names, initials, and dates into the sandstone), then on to The Tanks. The Tanks are natural, very large “potholes” in the sandstone waterways, and they hold water for a long time after a rain, making them important places during the early days. This side hike was very steep and required some rock scrambling. After walking through the gorge, with some very large rocks and some deep sand in the wash, it was hard to think about this being the only "road" in and out of Fruita, the Mormon settlement, in the early days (until the early 60s).

Cohab Canyon Trail

We saved our major adventure for our last day at Capitol Reef. We held our breath, and headed out on the Cathedral Valley Loop. The ranger at the VC had slipped us a small piece of paper with typed directions and hand drawn “maps” of how to ford the river. This loop is 58 miles of rough dirt road after fording the Freemont River outside the east entrance of the NP. This trail took us through a variety of terrains, none of which resemble anything else in the park. There is the South Desert overlook, mammoth rock formations, huge hills of bentonite (a really weird, clay that becomes grease when even slightly wet), spur roads to various features, the Lower Cathedral Valley (awesome), an old ranching cabin, a glass “mountain”, Temples of the Sun and Moon, and much more. Well worth the trip, and we only saw one other person during the entire trip. He was doing the loop backwards (or avoiding the fording). They warn you to take extra food and water and be prepared to spend a night or two if you break down. The road is very sparsely traveled.

Fording the Fremont River

(exit down river at green bushes on opposite bank)

Upper South Desert

Catheral Valley Panorama

The next morning, we got up and headed for Bryce Canyon to continue our adventures, but we would miss the fresh fruit pies from the Gifford House.