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Big Rocks at Capitol Reef

We left the campground near Bryce National Park fairly early in the morning, heading north–northeast to another national park, Capitol Reef. The Utah state highway we took was a well-maintained road, but the landscape it traveled through made it quite a ride. Up and down, around hairpin curves, and my (least) favorite, over narrow saddles with treacherous drop-offs on either side. It was not for the faint of heart.

On the way to Capitol Reef, we passed Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and we could see the huge rock formations that do in fact give the appearance of a sort of staircase effect. However, I discovered that although escalante is a Spanish word for “ladder,” that is not how the monument, nor the nearby town or river, got its name. Instead, they were named for Padre Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, a Spanish Franciscan missionary who led an expedition through the region in 1776. He chronicled the expedition and eventually the river and town were named for him. And when the area south of Capitol Reef became a national monument, the name was used to refer to it, also.

Looking out toward Grand Staircase-Escalante Monument

After we passed Grand Staircase-Escalante, Capitol Reef loomed over the landscape like a great stone schooner. It is massive; we could see it for miles and miles. The road continued to be windy and steep, and at one point when I was driving, a long-held belief of mine gained vindication. When driving through the mountains, I make Mike a little crazy by braking when I go over a rise or around a bend and can’t see what is next. I have told him it’s because I don’t know if there is going to be a cow in the road. Well, what do you know—around that bend and over that rise, THERE WAS A COW IN THE ROAD. And I don’t mean a dairy cow, this was a big old MOOSE cow! So, yes, it does happen, and though I’m trying to brake less, I’m always going to remember that moose.

About ten miles before the turnoff for the park, we came to Singletree Campground, a Forest Service place that served us well as a place to nap, eat dinner, and then sleep some more before our visit to the national park the next morning. A nearby camper with a generator did disturb the nap portion of our day, but at least they didn’t run it all evening.

The next morning, we packed up quickly and headed to the park. When we arrived at the park entrance, where there is almost immediately a turnoff for “Panorama Point.” Well named.|


Panorama Point at Capitol Reef

We stopped at the Visitors’ Center next, and showed our National Parks pass to the ranger on duty. You have to show an ID also, and when he looked at Mike’s driver’s license, the ranger said, “Oh, Cincinnati! I’m from Cincinnati.” It turned out he was from Monfort Heights, and he’d gone to LaSalle High School. Small world.

The first part of the park is a series of orchards, referred to as the Fruita District. This was originally a Mormon settlement in the late 1870s along the Fremont River. Because there was plentiful water, the settlers could plant fruit trees, which thrived in the area. It was never a very big settlement; instead of a post office, there was a large cottonwood tree in center of the Fruita District where mail was delivered; it was called the Mail Tree. And amazingly, the tree is still there today. But the settlement was never incorporated, and there were never more than about ten families living there. The National Park Service has tended and even replanted some of the orchards there, and the campground is located among the fruit trees—it would be a delightful place to camp, but it is one of the most popular campgrounds in the entire park service, and you have to make reservations a year or more in advance. So we did not camp there.


The Fruita District, formerly a Mormon settlement
along the Fremont River, still has acres of
fruit trees, now within Capitol Reef National Park

However, we did continue on through the scenic drive through the park, seeing the huge rock formations given names such as “The Castle,” “The Egyptian Temple,” and “Eph Hank’s Tower.” So much red sandstone, so many rock formations!

The Egyptian Temple and the Castle at Capitol Reef

If we had not still been recovering from our tedious colds, it would have been nice to hike past the end of the scenic drive and see a bit more of the park, but maybe another time. Since there were no campsites available at Capitol Reef, we turned back and went through the town of Torrey, Utah, where we stopped for some mid-morning sustenance. Then it was on through western Utah, heading for the Nevada border.



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