Capitol Reef National Park

Located in south-central Utah in the heart of red rock country, Capitol Reef National Park is my thirteenth national park since embarking on this adventure.

Capitol Reef’s defining geological feature is a 100-mile wrinkle in the Earth’s crust known as the Waterpocket Fold. Over hundreds of million years, it was created by three gradual yet powerful forces: deposition, uplift, and erosion. The area that is today Capitol Reef National Park has gone over vast changes the past 280 million years going from oceans, deserts, swamps, and riverbeds. As a result, there is nearly 10,000 feet of sedimentary rock made of limestone, sandstone, and shale. Between 50 and 70 million years ago, an ancient fault reactivated during a time of heavy tectonic activity on Earth. Layers to the west of the fault lifted over 7,000 feet higher than those to the east. Rather than cracking as they were lifted, the rock layers folded over the fault line. The sedimentary layers we see in the park are actually lying on their side. Finally, over the past six million years water along with gravity have sculpted the uplifted layers into the canyons, cliffs, domes, and bridges we see today.

The cliffs found in Capitol Reef National Park are like a palette of color. Areas that are gray tend to be sedimentation from swampy areas that were low in oxygen thus not giving you the vibrant red of oxidation. The vast majority of the color is the red, or Wingate, sandstone that comes from about 200 million years ago when the sedimentary layer were giant sand dunes. The lighter, or Navajo, sandstone seen throughout the park comes from deposits of sediment near the coast of that ancient inland sea. Finally, the black boulders that dot the hillsides and mesas in the park are large chunks of volcanic basalt and andesite from distant lava flows some 25 million years ago. Debris flows 150,000 to 5,000 years ago carried the volcanic rock to Capitol Reef from great distances away.

So where does the name, Capitol Reef, come from? Early explorers found the Waterpocket Fold difficult to traverse with wagons and livestock. They compared it to an ocean reef – an obstacle difficult to navigate – and that this where half the name comes from. Again, we have early explorer to thank for the second half of the name. Upon seeing the large white sandstone dome in the region, they likened it to the US Capitol’s rotunda dome and called it Capitol Dome. Originally a national monument in 1937, Capitol Reef become a national park in 1971 and welcomes over a million visitors a year to marvel at the majesty of the Colorado Plateau.  

Long before white settlers came to the area, Capitol Reef was home to the ancestors of today’s Hopi, Zuni, and Paiute people. The Hopi called these people Hisatsinom, “People of Long Ago”, and the Paiute called them Nengwoots, “People who Lived the Old Ways”. Today archeologists call them the Fremont people after the nearby river. The river was named after John C, Fremont who was surveying parts of Utah in the 1850s for possible transcontinental railroad routes. For the ancient people, the cliffs provided protection from the elements, the river a mode of transportation, and the land provided them with water and game. Along Utah Route 24 that runs through the park are petroglyphs (rock carvings) that depict maps, journeys, clan symbols, animals, and calendars of these first settlers who lived here for over a thousand years.

In the 1880s, Mormons established the small settlement of Fruita near the confluence of the Fremont River and Sulphur Creek. This was one of the most remote LDS communities and there were never more than ten families living here. Those pioneers were resourceful by taking advantage of the fertile flood plain to establish orchards irrigated with water from the year-round Fremont River. Their orchard crops of apples, pears, peaches, and apricots were so abundant that they were able to trade fruit for the things they could not produce or sold their crops for cash. Today, that pioneering spirit is preserved in the Fruita Historic District where there is a preserved one-room schoolhouse, farm buildings, blacksmith shop, and the Gifford House which sells fresh baked fruit pies and cinnamon rolls every day. You have to arrive early or they will be sold out by lunchtime. The last residents of Fruita left in the 1960s.

Orchards are still a big part of Capitol Reef National Park which maintains the largest group of historic orchards in the national park system. The park maintains roughly 2,000 fruit trees including apple, peach, apricot, cherry, and plum. Flowering typically occurs from March into May, and harvesting of fruit occurs June through October. When I visited in late-September, the only fruit left on the trees were red delicious apples. Visitors are welcome to pick fruit free of charge if consumed in the orchard, but if you want to collect fruit to take home there is a small fee per pound. My campsite in the Fruita Campground was adjacent to the orchards and I enjoyed fresh apples several times: they were juicy and delicious.

Herds of mule deer also make Fruita Campground and the orchards their home. The deer enjoy apples in the orchard, the tall orchard grass, and the lawn in the campground. I had deer right in my campsite daily including a six-point buck who came within six feet of me just grazing away on the lawn. The deer have no fear of humans in the campground and probably find protection among them. The canyons around the campground have frequent mountain lion sighting, but are unlikely to come to the campground with all the human activity.

There are numerous hiking trails in Capitol Reef National Park. A few like Fremont River and Cohab Canyon were adjacent to my campground which was good because parking at the trailheads in the park is limited. Unfortunately for me, the main scenic drive in the park was closed for repaving this summer. I enjoyed the Hickman Bridge trail which was a nice hike to a 133-foot natural arch and had great views including namesake Capitol Reef. The hike up to Goosenecks Point had some fantastic panoramic views of the park as well as Sulphur Creek cutting through the canyon. The Fremont River Trail follows along the river until it begins climbing up the gorge for spectacular panoramic views of the Fruita valley.