It’s only a “rerun” if you saw it before, right? It’s back-to-school time and the start of soccer, cross-country and football seasons this week. The word “busy” doesn’t have enough syllables to be an adequate description, but it will have to do. Here’s one of the ways we had fun last summer…
Originally posted on November 14, 2008
Visiting Capitol Reef National Park felt a little like stepping right off the map. There were no crowds. In fact, when we first arrived in the late afternoon, the park office had already closed for the day. But there was a posted park map, so we filled out a permit form, dropped our envelope and park fee into a lockbox, double-checked that posted map and did our preliminary explorations along the main drive.
The Navajo aptly named the Capitol Reef area: “Land of the Sleeping Rainbow.” And the land does look as if someone got a little wild with the watercolors, splashing and spilling vibrant hues out to the next horizon…
Giant chunks of tinted earth look as though they were squeezed in the fist of an over-sized toddler and then casually dropped in the wilderness. The abrupt variations in color, texture and formation tell geologic stories of ancient rivers and swamps, forests, a Saharan-type desert, and a one-time shallow ocean.
Capitol Reef is the stand-out attraction of The Waterpocket Fold, a 100-mile long buckling of the Earth’s crust.
Domes, arches, cliffs and narrow canyons are the main draw, but Capitol Reef also includes the Fruita 
Historic District. This preserved Morman settlement is a splash of green within the rocky landscape and has a working pick-your-own orchard. A cold snap had prematurely ended the apricot harvest when we visited leaving no fruit to pick, but a park ranger –eager for us to sample Fruita’s fruits- readily gave to us from her own stash of early apricots.
The weather and season ultimately steer one’s hiking decisions at Capitol Reef. The intense summer 
sun and exposed trails made it essential to begin our hikes early in the day and to avoid some trails entirely: the hike to Cassidy (as in “Butch Cassidy”) Arch was tempting, but its access trail, the “Frying Pan,” sounded like a better choice for a cooler season.
Distant rainstorms were a factor as well when choosing slot canyon hikes.
While we didn’t get to Cassidy Arch, we were fortunate to see Hickman Natural Bridge. That hike will be “next up” in this Utah series…
I’ve heard of high areas in New Mexico where the ground is littered with shells from some ocean many millions of years ago. Fascinating.
You are the expert Utah tour guide!
Suzanne: It’s hard to fathom such dramatic differences. ~Similar to imagining a parent or grandparent as a newborn, I suppose…
Jean-Luc: I learned a lot during our week there last July. ~But would love to learn (travel!) more through that area…
The orangish red hues are magnificently splattered by nature , excellent pictures.
Thanks Sadia,
I like your use of those same colors in your fire series! Nice stuff!
The highway curls like a black snake.
Heather ~ I can’t believe it… we were very close to this park just a couple of weeks ago. We did Arches NP, Canyonland NP, Mesa Verde NP in three days and then went on to Four-Corners before heading off to Sante Fe on our way home through Texas and Oklahoma. ~ jb///
Rainfield: -An apt description of the road winding through the Waterpocket Fold. We drove a crest that was little more than the road itself at one point. I didn’t look to closely at the scenery for that portion of the drive!
LAZY: What an incredible bit of geology, yes? I hated turning back before Arches and Canyonland, but we had traveled from Vegas through Bryce, Zion etc -and I wanted the kids to spend more time hiking than riding. Next time! Mesa Verde and Four Corners… now there are some childhood trip memories -the cliff dwellings are quite impressive!
I like the way you travel; sounds like a great trip. I’ll look for more details on your site!
Thanks for the great reminder of another area in Utah that we’d like to explore.
Love the colour of the rocks and a Mormon oasis among it all sounds very refreshing. Too bad about the apricot picking but you were able to get some already picked. I miss apricots haven’t eaten any tasty fruit for ages.