Wilderness Wandering

Park #8

October 4-6

Capitol Reef NP is a very unique park. I hadn’t heard of it until we began trip planning. 

There are 2 parts to the park – The Waterpocket Fold and Fruita. 

The Waterpocket Fold is an extremely unique geological feature, a 100 mile long fold in the Earth’s crust. As the Scenic Drive winds through the park, it’s like two different places on the left and the right. On the left, gorgeous colored soaring cliffs and on the right, lots of lower red rocks dotted with some green shrubs.

Fruita is a historic Mormon community. From the 1880s until 1930s, these industrious pioneers planted and irrigated fruit orchards from the arid desert. Due to the presence of the beautiful orchards, there is a little shop in the park thatsells delicious fruit pies! Trust me, we were regulars! You can also pick the fruit that is in season. There are cherries, plums, apricots, pears, and apples. We are here during apple season. The apples are fabulous! Whatever you eat in the orchard is free. If you pick fruit to take with you, there is a small charge.

We arrived at the park mid afternoon. 

We stopped at the VC to get our passport stamp and learn the location of the pies, which is The Gifford House, an old farmhouse.  They generally sell out by early afternoon, so we weren’t hopeful of getting any, but wanted to check it out anyway. We were in luck!

We scored the last pumpkin pie and a strawberry rhubarb. They are small 6” pies, perfect for 2 people. We sampled them at a shady picnic table. Then we did the scenic drive.

We are staying in an RV park for the first time. We were anxious for a shower, so we checked in, and had showers, dinner, and a campfire with more pie and planned the next day.

The next AM, we made a quick stop at Gifford House to see if their cinnamon rolls compared to their pie. The cinnamon rolls were tasty with good cream cheese frosting, but not as tasty as the pies. Our first hike of the day was Hickman Bridge. It is a moderate 2 mile hike to a 133 foot natural bridge. It was cool!

When we got to the bridge, the moon was still up and you could see it under the arch but above the cliffs behind us.

Next we checked out a nearby petroglyph panel that dates from 300 to 1300 AD.

After lunch we did Cassidy Arch, named after Butch Cassidy, who local lore says hid out in the area. It was a 3.5 mile strenuous hike. We had over 1000 feet of elevation gain. There were people rappelling from the arch.

A lovely hike!

When we wrapped up the hike, the timing was perfect to attend a Ranger talk about the geology of the area.

Then we took a break and had dinner back at the RV park and headed back to Capitol Reef for sunset and a Ranger talk about pictographs and petroglyphs. 

Tim really dug this park. Probably because there was PIE!

We had one more day scheduled for this area, so we drove over to Goblin Valley State Park. Thousands of hoodoos, or goblins (strange looking gnomes) inhabit the valley. We had fun meandering along them and figuring out what they looked like – a bird, a face, etc.

Tim has a good imagination for seeing faces and animals in them.

I think my favorite one was the set called The Three Sisters. I can see their facial expressions!

The ranger also told us about a nearby slot canyon. I’ve always wanted to do one and the weather forecast continues to be very dry, so we went for it. I loved it! Not too challenging and beautiful! I can just imagine what it is like after a rain storm though! The force of the rushing water moving boulders and rocks through the narrow canyon would be terrifying!