Capitol Reef National Park

Our first National Park of the trip

Evening Light

We arrived at the park in the early evening. The light and the scenery were incredible.

Capitol Reef

Capitol Reef National Park is in south-central Utah. The park is approximately 60 miles long on its north–south axis and just 6 miles wide on average.

Where Does the Name 'Capitol Reef' Come From?

The park was named for its whitish Navajo Sandstone cliffs with dome formations—similar to the white domes often placed on capitol buildings. Reef refers to any rocky barrier to land travel, just as ocean reefs are barriers to sea travel. So, a large rocky barrier with dome formations.

The Waterpocket Fold

The majority of the nearly 100 mile long up-thrust formation called the Waterpocket Fold — a rocky spine extending from Thousand Lake Mountain to Lake Powell — is preserved within the park.

Gnarly Old Trees

Fruita

Mormons established a settlement in 1880 that eventually was known as Fruita and was famed for its orchards. Fruita was eventually bought by the federal government to be included in the National Park.

The Waterpocket Fold

The Waterpocket Fold, a warp in the earth's crust that is 65 million years old, is the largest exposed monocline (a "step-up" in the rock layers) in North America. In this fold, newer and older layers of earth folded over each other in an S-shape. This warp, probably caused by the same colliding continental plates that created the Rocky Mountains, has weathered and eroded over millennia to expose layers of rock and fossils.

National Park Status

This area was designated a national monument on August 2, 1937, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, however, it was not until 1950 that the area officially opened to the public. Capitol Reef became a National Park in 1971 and includes more than a quarter million acres of desert landscape.

Wayne Wonderland

Partially in Wayne County, Utah, the area was originally named "Wayne Wonderland" in the 1920s by local boosters.

Wow. Just wow.

Another Amazing View

Morning View at the Boulder Mountain Lodge

We spent the night at the Boulder Mountain Lodge. That's Boulder Utah, not Colorado for anyone who was getting confused. It was a very pleasant place. This was the first night of several with our friends; Mark and Diane from Seattle and Karen and Michael from Lake Wenatchee. Karen and Diane are in a book group with Lauren and several other fabulous women.

Morning Fiddle

That's Michael 'Muskrat' Muscari on the fiddle

Aspen Grove

Highway 12 between Boulder and Capitol Reef is loaded with Aspens. We were too late in the season to capture the golden leaves, but the skeletal trees were very nice.

Marmot Crossing!

Don't run over the marmots!

Hiking in Capitol Reef

Our second day in Capitol Reef included several hikes. We had limited options, since dogs are not allowed on most of the trails in the National Park, but it was still amazing.

Waterpocket Fold

You can get a sense of the S-shape curves and the amazing layers of the Waterpocket Fold

Golden Tree

Fremont Culture Petroglyphs

The Fremont Culture lived in what is now Utah for about one thousand years, from 300-1300 Common Era (CE). Archeologists named these people the Fremont Culture, for the Fremont River canyon where they were first defined as a distinct culture.

Fremont Culture Petroglyphs

The Fremont culture or Fremont people is a pre-Columbian archaeological culture which inhabited sites in what is now Utah and parts of Nevada, Idaho and Colorado. It was adjacent to, roughly contemporaneous with, but distinctly different from the Ancestral Pueblo peoples located to their south.

Hickman Bridge

Just two miles east of the Capitol Reef visitor center, the trailhead to Hickman Bridge offers hikers an easy, spectacularly scenic trek up to a large natural arch.
One of the better known sites of Capitol Reef, this natural bridge sits over 300 feet above the Fremont River and Highway 24, though still below the heights of the surrounding Waterpocket Fold.

Is it a Bridge or an Arch?

The choice between bridge and arch is somewhat arbitrary. The Natural Arch and Bridge Society (who knew that there was such a society?) identifies a bridge as a sub-type of arch that is primarily water-formed. By contrast, the Dictionary of Geological Terms defines a natural bridge as a "natural arch that spans a valley of erosion."
Take your pick.

Hickman Bridge / Arch

This was a nice little hike with a reward. The arch is very impressive and, apparently, very Instagrammable (#hickmanbridge - go ahead, look it up). There were people posing and waiting to pose while we were there.

Hickman Bridge - Backside ;)

Looking Back at the Waterpocket Fold

After a full day of exploring the park, we left in the evening to meet our friends at their AirBnB in Escalante. The views looking back as the light softened and faded were impressive.

Sunset at Capitol Reef

Sunset Along Highway 12

Sunset Along Highway 12

The sunset just kept getting better and better and lasted for a long time. We just kept being amazed.