Trail to Cassidy Arch in Capital Reef National Park, Utah

This was our favorite hike in Capital Reef National Park in part due to the strenuous nature of the hike (ascent of 1150 ft. in 1½ miles) but also because of the unique terrain on the top half near Cassidy Arch. The Cassidy Arch trail starts in the middle of the Grand Wash canyon at the end of maintained dirt road where you will find a parking area and pit toilets. Taking this dirt road from the Scenic Drive road into the canyon, you first pass a turn of the century uranium mine. It was interesting to learn from the information sign near the mine that back then, uranium was mixed with water and drank to cure arthritis…not sure that was a good practice. Continuing along the dirt road and heading further into the canyon, you’ll come to a turnout on the left for the Cassidy Arch viewpoint. This is a short trail that provides views looking up at Cassidy Arch and is much less work (and time) than hiking Cassidy Arch Trail.

The Cassidy Arch trail begins at the parking lot and follows the wash further into the Grand Wash canyon. After walking for about 4 minutes, you’ll see a sign to Cassidy Arch pointing the left. This is where the real hike starts. The trail immediately begins with very steep switch backs, ascending over stairs made out of rocks and very narrow rock ledges that follow the contour of the canyon wall.

This part of the hike was fun to walk, but did not have very interesting views. About ½ mile into the hike, you’ll start working your way further back into a side canyon and once you get away from the edge of the Grand Wash, the views open up and you start working you way up a sold rock sheet - some dirt, some vegetation, but quite open and expansive with much better views. This is actually the place where upward climbing ends, yet you have more horizontal hiking to get to the arch. There is almost no vegetation and the rocks are a beautiful red and cream colored.

At this point, to safely follow the trail, watch for cairns and follow their route. It’s about a ½ mile and you’ll see Cassidy Arch on your left – below where you are standing! Basically, where we were standing was on-par with the top of the arch – you need to look down into a large hole to see the opening of the arch.

For photo-ops and a very unique perspective you can walk across the top of the arch. (The picture below ~ that spot on top of the arch ~ us!) The easier way seemed to be to the right.

The area around the arch is a nice place to stop, enjoy lunch and chat with fellow hikers as you take one another’s pictures on top of the arch. This would be a definite hike to do when in Capitol Reef National Park; it took us 1 ½ hours to walk to the arch, then about 45 minutes to return, so 2 ¼ hours, including lunch and play on the arch.

Hiking in Capitol Reef ~ Hickman Bridge & Rim Overlook

From the Hickman Bridge parking area there are two nice hikes; Hickman Bridge trail leads to a large natural bridge (an arch formed by water) and the Rim Overlook trail leads to a vantage point high above the canyon floor. These two trails were highly recommended, so we combined them into one hike, as they share the same trailhead. Both trails start by sharing a series of switchbacks, which brings you to a plateau where the two trails go off in separate directions.

The Hickman Bridge trail itself is a 2 mile round-trip self guided nature trail with a small, 400’ elevation change. At the start of this hike there is an information pamphlet you can purchase for 50-cents (honor system). Along the hike there are numbered posts that correspond to information telling about the significance about the stop in the pamphlet. Although interesting, we chose not to read as we hiked, and simply headed off to the bridge. From the plateau junction, the Hickman trail heads off to the left and soon follows along a hidden canyon wash. The trail and the wash become one, so you are walking up the wash basically. To the right of where the trail starts heading up and out of the canyon, there is a very small unnamed bridge spanning the wash. Here you can climb onto and underneath giving you up close and varied perspectives. It was fun to take a moment to explore and of course click a few photos. The trail continues up the ridge until you reach another junction which is the starting/ending point of a loop trail that brings you to Hickman Bridge. This loop trail goes under the bridge and loops back to the starting point. It offers many great varying views of Hickman Bridge and interesting terrain to explore.

Getting our photo-fill, we hiked back to the Hickman Bridge and Rim Overlook trail junction and started our Rim Overlook trail trek. This trail starts by walking over a different part of the same plateau and across a bigger wash. After crossing this wash, the trail follows along the wash for about a ½ mile working it’s way up a large ledge along the canyon wall. About half way from the overlook there are vast views of the valley and the snow capped Harris Mountains in the distance – really quite beautiful. Even if you do not want to hike to the rim overlook, going to this point on a clear day is well worth the time.

Continue to the overlook, the terrain consists of many juniper trees, fallen rocks and smooth rock ledges to walk out on to see views along the south scenic drive and the Fruita orchards. There is no sign telling you that you’ve gotten to the “overlook”, and the trail does continue to Navajo Knobs (another 2 ½ miles), so once you are overlooking Fruita, you know you’re there.

This trail was much less used than the Hickman Bridge trail. So if awesome views and solitude is what you are looking for then Rim Overlook trail is the one to hike. Have fun!!

Cohab Canyon Hike, Capital Reef National Park, Utah

For our first hike in Capital Reef National Park we chose the Cohab Canyon Hike. This trail starts across the street from the Hickman Bridge trailhead parking lot. From the parking lot you have to cross the river via the highway bridge and look for a small trail sign about 25 yards past the bridge on the right side of the road.

We found the first ¼ mile of this trail to be a strenuous hike with plenty of steep switchbacks. After this initial section, the trail levels off and becomes moderate while following a hidden canyon.

This small hidden canyon was very interesting with the huge flat sheets of sandstone that frame the ridges to the smooth path water has made during the rainy season. Eventually the trail crosses through this small canyon and up the other ridge until you come to a small grassy plateau at the top. Here there is a trail sign at the junction of two trails for the north and the south overlooks.

The north overlook trail is about a 1/3 mile hike to the edge of the plateau. This location offers awesome views down into the canyon along Hwy 24 where you can see the petroglyphs area, Hickman Bridge trailhead and further west down the highway. You also get great views to the other sides of the canyon. The south overlook trail is about a ¾ of a mile hike from the junction and winds through large rock formations and through smoothly worn sandstone washes.

This trail eventually takes you to a panoramic viewpoint where you see down onto the Fruita valley area where all the orchards and the visitor center are located.

Amazing views! We were sorry that the fruit trees weren’t quite in bloom yet for this must be spectacular from this vantage point. The total hike was around 3 miles round trip and took us under 2 hours. This was a great hike that offered super views of the two main canyons in Capital Reef. The ranger that suggested this hike to us also mentioned that big horned sheep are often seen on the grassy plateau. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any during our hike….maybe you’ll have better luck!

Fruita Historic District, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

One of the most unique things about Capitol Reef National Park is the historic town of Fruita, located smack-dab in the middle of the park. Fruita was settled in the early 1880’s by Mormon pioneers, and had at most, at any one time, only 10 families. Fruita is in a protected valley within Capitol Reef National Park, and maintains a warmer climate than the surrounding areas, which allowed for the perfect climate to grow fruit. These early settlers planted orchards that still exist today ~ cherry, apricots, peaches, pears and apples. Today, the orchards are maintained by the National Park Service, and people can go into any unlocked orchard and pick the ripe fruit when it’s in season! You are allowed to pick and eat for free whatever fruit you plan to eat at that moment (and there is a lovely picnic area amid the orchards), or if you want to a larger quantity of fruit to take home – and maybe make some pies - then you do need to pay for the fruit.

Now speaking of fruit pies – there is a lot more to Fruita than the orchards – some original homesteads have been maintained, such as the Gifford Homestead. The Gifford Homestead was originally built in 1908 by Calvin Pendleton, and then it was sold a couple times, used by the Gifford family until 1969 when it was sold to the National Park Service. These days, the Gifford Homestead serves two purposes – the house remains a small museum with period furniture, and the kitchen (added in 1946) has now been converted to a sales outlet which sells………….fruit pies! Also for sale are jams, bakery items, and handmade items by local artisans. Now if you’ve been reading this blog a while, you know darn well that we got pie ~ apple! The pies are small, maybe 5” in diameter, and cost $5. We saved ours for later, heated it up, and yum!

Now there’s actually lot more to Fruita than pies – other places to explore in the area are the Historic Fruita School (on the main road) which closed in 1941 and the Behunin Cabin, down the main road going east.

Since we didn’t stay in Capitol Reef to camp – we did check out the campground and it was lovely – large, level sites, firepits, among the orchards, and……free firewood! Since the orchards are in the national park, and maintained by public dollars (there are two full-time crew members), we figured that the free firewood is from the tree limbs trimmed off of the orchard trees.

Beautiful drives in Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

There are two paved roads in Capitol Reef National Park, both offing beautiful views from the comfort of your car(or very small walks). Route 24 bisects Capitol Reef going east-west, and where the Visitor Center lies is the start of the scenic route, which runs north-south.

Coming from the west, as we did, the views are dramatic – similar, yet different to the entire southern Utah region we’ve been enjoying these past few weeks. After a couple miles of these great views, we took an offshoot road towards Panorama Point and Goosenecks Overlook. Each of these viewpoints requires a small walk, and unfortunately, neither is accessible to wheelchairs. Panorama Point is a few-hundred foot walk to a viewpoint that looks down 800’ to the Fremont River – the river that carved the canyon on Capitol Reef. Up here, we saw the coolest rocks – with “divots” throughout, which were rough to the touch. Goosenecks Overlook was a 1/3 mile walk to a more easterly view of the canyon, yet not as dramatic.

Back in our car, we continued our drive down the 10 mile scenic drive. This was a good road, with vast views of mammoth rock formations. There are a few dirt roads (well maintained) and washes along this road that are easily accessible by a pick-up if you enjoy off-road driving. (Be sure to check with the rangers about road conditions and rain in the area.)

Returning back to the main road, we next enjoyed viewing some petroglyphs thought to be created by the pre-historic puebloan people hundreds of years ago. There is a nice parking area and two accessible boardwalks - the first one leads you to a large rock wall, and look closely, there are lots of petroglyphs, but not visible at first sight. The second boardwalk leads you along more rock walls, where again, look closely for more petroglyphs (and some century old graffiti).

Continuing eastbound on route 24, the views are not as dramatic as the large rock walls became rolling hills, the climate dryer and thus less green trees and vegetation. Still beautiful, but in a different way.

Camping and Dining near Capital Reef National Park

Thousand Lakes RV Park
Six miles from the west entrance to Capital Reef National Park and west of the town of Torrey is the Thousand Lakes RV Park. Due to the cooler temperature we wanted hook-ups to stay warm while exploring this national park, so we stayed here. At our check-in, we were met by very friendly, nice and helpful staff and immediately felt welcome. The RV Park itself offers 8 single room cabins for rent, several tent sites with privacy fences and 50+ RV spaces including 36 pull-throughs that include a cottonwood tree and a patch of grass. All the sites and cabins have a fire pit and a generous bundle of wood can be purchased at the store. Speaking of the store, it comes fully stocked with gifts and tons of items as well as a few essential groceries and beer. In addition, this Park offers free WIFI (speed is average), showers, two laundry facilities, a dump station, a heated pool in season, a large grassy play area near the pool that includes a nice swing set for the kids and a 4x4 vehicle that you can rent if you want to explore the many dirt roads in the area and national park. Lastly, antenna TV reception was surprisingly good here. You will receive all the network channels in analog and digital plus a few other stations like PBS and the BYU channels. All in all this is a nice park with plenty of amenities and a great location to Capital Reef National Park.

Rim Rock Patio Restaurant

As you drive to Capital Reef National Park past the town of Torrey, you’ll find the Rim Rock Patio Restaurant. This is the casual dinning cousin to the more formal Rim Rock Restaurant that is nearby. The fact that their sign advertised pizza was enough to lure us in. This restaurant has a cozy pub feel…you’ve got a big screen TV, back patio for outdoor dinner with awesome views of the red rock cliffs in Capital Reef NP, a full selection of draught and bottled beers (Brad really enjoyed his pint of Polygamy Porter), and a nice selection of sandwiches and of course pizzas….what more do you need. We were told that all the pizza ingredients were organic and the beef for the BBQ sandwiches were smoked on-site. After not having pizza for a while, we immediately gravitated to pizza and ordered a large. We also ordered a family size mixed green salad to share. The salad was more than enough for two and very fresh. It included a spring mix of greens, and sliced mushrooms and tomatoes with several homemade dressings from which to choose. The salad and dressings were great and the prefect appetizer to our pizza. Our pizza overall was pretty good especially for a restaurant in the middle of nowhere. We found the toppings to be very fresh and generous but the crust just didn’t match the quality of the other ingredients. We enjoyed the food (and the leftovers) and happy that our pizza craving was satisfied.

Utah's Scenic Highway 12 ~ frorm Bryce Canyon NP to Capitol Reef NP

Utah’s Scenic Byway 12 is a beautiful way to get form Bryce Canyon National Park to Capitol Reef National Park, and takes about 4 hours. The trick to this route is to make sure the passenger is proficient at taking pictures out the window as the car is moving ~ not an easy task, but remember, practice makes perfect!

The first part of the drive takes you through the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument The views through the towns of Tropic, Cannonville and Henrieville are wide and open, with the red, orange, peach and white colors of Bryce Canyon. Cannonville has a nice visitors center, where you can stop and get information about hiking, camping, and driving in the “Monument” (the shortened name for Grand Staircase-Escalate National Monument). There are also some displays that explain the history and the expected future of the Monument. East of Henrieville is a small turn-out where we stopped and saw prehistoric Indian ruins – these particular ones were used as grain storage.

Scenic Byway 12 continues to Escalante State Park, a popular destination for some campers that has petrified wood and dinosaur bones on display. We did not stop here, but continued, enjoying the views as we traveled through slickrock canyon, which was an amazing climb atop of a somewhat narrow (considering it’s a road) ridge with expansive views all around us. We enjoyed a picnic lunch overlooking the town of Boulder.

After enjoying our picnic lunch, we continued our drive which left The Monument and entered the Dixie National Forest. We were surprised as the road kept climbing and climbing, and soon we were in dense forest with lots of snow on the ground.

As we continued climbing, we found ourselves surrounded by beautiful Aspen trees -

With incredible views of the valley, with Capital Reef National Park in the foreground and the La Salle Mountains in the background.