Capitol Reef National Park
Trip Start
Nov 22, 2007
1
39
55
Trip End
Dec 01, 2008
Capitol Reef National Park,
Utah,
United States
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
We hadn't even heard of Capitol Reef National Park before hitting the road, but what a pleasant surprise this park turned out to be! We stayed outside the park in a nearby town called Torrey, at the Thousand Lakes RV Park. The national park entrance is about 10 miles or so from here. Each campsite has some view of the red cliffs that dominate this area of the country. The cliffs jut out of the earth along what is called the "waterpocket fold," a 100-mile geologic stretch where the earth's crust buckled over 65 million years ago. A waterpocket is exactly what it sounds like-an eroded depression in the rock that collects rainwater, like a bowl. The fold area looks like one long series of vast red cliffs, rising sharply on the cliff side, but easing up at about a 45-degree angle from other side. That is, if you were northeast of the cliffs, it looks like you could walk up a long slope to the edge on solid ground, but at the end you would be faced with a severe drop of thousands of feet to the earth below before continuing on your path
Carrie at the entrance
. If you approached from the southwest, you would have to climb the sheer cliff face to continue your journey. (No one knows why the waterpockets (which are less significant by comparison to the fold itself, named the park.) The park features the vast cliffs, slick-rock domes, twisting canyons and gorges and huge monoliths surrounding the fertile grounds of a valley made green by the flow of the Fremont River. Mormons settled in the valley in the 1800s and planted, among other things, orchards, which still stand today and are the genesis of the name of the small town of Fruita. In the summer and fall, you can pick your own fruit from the trees in this part of the park-cherries, apricots, peaches, pears and apples. We spent a good part of a day taking the scenic drive through the park then following the unpaved road at the end to hike Capitol Gorge. Along the narrow walls of the gorge, you can see petroglyphs left by ancient native peoples as well as the "pioneer register," which is essentially glorified graffiti! The Gorge was the route that Mormon settlers, pioneers, and miners took to get to the Freemont Valley. Many of the travelers were inclined to carve their names and the date of their travels into the canyon walls. Who knew that today's graffiti could become an historic landmark? Of course, I suppose that the petroglyphs really are the same thing, but somehow we view those specimens as having been intended to communicate something significant about culture and society in ancient times. Perhaps those pictures are just the result of ancient daycare activities on art day in a world that had no paper or finger paints. . . But I digress ☺
The panoramas along the scenic drive and the stretch of Route 24 in the park are stunning and different from what you will see at Zion and Bryce. The area around the valley seems more desolate and secluded, which may be the reason that fewer visitors come to this park-unless you enjoy hiking, there is less to keep you occupied that at some other parks. But we are glad we did not miss Capitol Reef!
