It was the last day of our southwestern US photoshoot, and the visit to Capitol Reef National Park checked off the last of Utah’s “Big Five” national parks. I confess that until I went to AAA to get maps and information, I didn’t even know Utah had a Big Five and this park wasn’t high on my list. We were tired and had about decided to skip. A long drive from our place in Moab seemed too much, but we wanted the images for our National Parks notecard collection, and we did want to have a “perfect record” of visits to all the parks. I think the final pull was a friend’s Facebook comment, “You’ve GOT to visit Capitol Reef!” OK, that settled it, we went, and we were glad we did. Even before we finished our visit, we had already decided that this was our favorite of the five.
And my initial complaint about this being too far proved irrelevant. It was a lot of windshield time for sure, but the sheer joy of driving the flat, long stretches of Utah state roads in the San Rafael Desert on a day with nice skies and mild temperatures was exhilarating, and it was a time of good conversation with Marcy. First 70 miles up US 191 toward and along Interstate 70 (80 mph speed limit), then 40 miles down and across a long stretch of Utah-24, dotted with a few red buttes near Goblin Valley State Park, and to a little town called Hanksville. We had solved many of the world’s problems with 30 miles still before us.
My thoughts that we had pretty much reached the end of the earth when we arrived at Hanksville were confirmed when doing research for this post. We passed an unusually barren area, and I read that the Mars Desert Research Station is located just northwest of town, used by scientists to simulate Martian living conditions.
But soon after the barrenness of Hanksville, the landscape began to change. We wound around bluffs, and there was a river lined with the first trees we had seen in a while. The trees became greener and taller, and then we were surprised with a fruit orchard, and just before the park entrance, a one-room schoolhouse that invited a photo stop.
I’m sure that I heard of Capitol Reef, but the only thing I can recall thinking was that it was a strange name for a park.
A trip to the park visitor center told us that “Capitol” comes from a prominent white sandstone dome formation that reminded early travelers of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C. “Reef” refers to the long, rugged barrier of rock known as the Waterpocket Fold — a nearly 100-mile wrinkle in the earth’s crust. If you Google “Capitol Reef”, more than one reference says that early prospectors, some with nautical backgrounds, found Waterpocket Fold as difficult to cross as a reef at sea and named it such. I’m not so inclined to believe everything I read on the Internet, but that explanation seems good enough. Capitol Reef came late to the national park game. It has been a national monument since 1937 and a national park since 1971.
Near the park entrance is a historic district originally named “Junction”. The enterprising Mormon pioneers filled the valley in this area with orchards, and the place name became “Fruita.” The orchards are still there, supplemented with new trees that the park service planted to maintain the essence of the place, along with demonstration fields to show how the settlers made their living in the narrow strips of fertile land along the Fremont River. They had to irrigate. This is an area that receives only 6 or 7 inches of rain a year, sometimes almost all in the monsoon season of July, August and September. An occasional storm can cause devastating flooding in the area, but I see that somehow, the area around Fruita is typically spared the worst damage.
Armed with a park map marked with circles and arrows courtesy of a ranger, we began exploring. One moment, we were looking at fruit trees and old buildings that felt more like our Smoky Mountains National Park. Then, in a mile or so, we were staring up at red cliffs and driving along washes and slot canyons and enjoying broad vistas. Capitol Reef is the third largest of the five Utah parks, but the essence of the park is a very short 7.9-mile road aptly named “The Scenic Drive”, which is nicely paved and mostly easy-driving. Along the way, there are two dirt “spur roads”, Grand Wash and Capitol Gorge, where higher clearance is a good idea. These side roads enter beautiful canyons and lead to trailheads. We visited on a perfectly mild, dry day, but there are signs all along the way warning not to enter certain areas or leave your vehicle parked if storms are predicted – anywhere in the area. Grand Wash is not just a place name, but the actual roadbed along which you travel if you take the spur road. It can quickly fill with rushing flood waters.
It might have been the cloudy, dramatic skies, the very mild, pleasant day, or the most wonderful scenery we had seen, but regardless. This was the perfect ending to a great trip.
