Utah National Parks – Capitol Reef

We loved the Fruita campground at Capitol Reef.  It is in an orchard created by Mormon settlers in the 19^th century.  During summer you can still pick fruit from the trees.

The sites are spacious and there were camp hosts on site.  Also – it was freezing – and the toilets were heated.  We had a great place to get changed and to do our daily sponge bath without freezing our tits off.

Next door to the camping ground is a little business called Giffords that sells exquisite home-made fruit pies.  They also sell other local produce and act as a general store where you can buy firewood and ice.

Another bonus was that we had a herd of deer wander amiably past us while cooking dinner one night.

On our first full day – Dale’s birthday – we did a lot of climbing.

First up was the Rim Overlook and Hickman’s Bridge.  Getting up to Rim Overlook required a couple of hours of steady climbing over rocky and sandy terrain.

On the way we were lucky to see some endangered native long horned sheep.

The blend in well with the colours of the rocks

At the top we got a great view of Capitol Reef, including Fruita Campground and Highway 24 that runs through the park.  Dale bravely lay down at the edge of the cliff and hung his head and camera over the edge to take photos.

I was using my telephoto lens for this shot; our little green tent is centre bottom

  

 

The walk to Hickman Bridge is a side trip after descending from The Overlook Rim. It is short but very hilly and leads to a natural rock bridge, much like an arch.

 

  

The walk to Cassidy’s Arch was strenuous.  It was very steep and rocky with precipitous drop offs on one side.  We got great views across to the rock walls on the other side of the canyon, as well as those ahead of us on our side.

Below is the road we drove in on

 

Cassidy's arch from the front

 We ended up approaching Cassidy’s Arch from behind, which was unusual, on a pretty steep rocky slope.  As there was evidently a precipitous drop off close to the Arch, I was hesitant about getting too close and stayed on the high side of the slope.  Dale went right down and was able to take photos through the Arch to the valley beyond as well as 100s of metres below.

Cassidy Arch is named after Butch Cassidy , who reputedly had a hide out in the area.

A shot on the road back to the camp ground

On Sunday, our only objective was to walk the Sulphur Creek Trail, which is the most highly rated walk in the park.  There are a couple of challenges with this hike.  Firstly, it is a point-to-point hike and we had no-one to shuttle cars with.  As the trail ended back at the park office, near the camping ground, we had to walk 5 kilometres uphill on the highway just to get to the trail head.

The walk then joins and follows the Sulphur Creek.  The second challenge is to negotiate one’s way around three small waterfalls. To get to the Creek, we first had to follow a series of dry creek beds called washes. 

We were immediately enclosed by canyon walls and they started to narrow even further as we neared the creek.  Even before reaching the creek, we had to navigate a couple of 2 metre rock scrambles – which were not too difficult.

Suddenly we arrived at the creek, which was only ankle deep fortunately, and we spent much of the next hour crossing and re-crossing it, while trying to keep our boots dry by picking, stepping, leaping and lunging our way back and forth.

Then we reached our first waterfall, where we had to rock scramble around a 3 metre drop just past the waterfall on the right-hand side.  Again – easy enough.

At this point we realised that there was no way that we’d be able to keep our feet dry.  Luckily, we had bought some cheap second hand backup hiking boots in Moab for just this purpose, so we changed into those.  Although the water was mostly still ankle deep, it was very cold and our feet, socks and boots quickly became sodden. Nevertheless, we were loving following the Creek, as it meandered its way between steep canyon walls that were higher than we could tell at the time.

We navigated the second waterfall successfully even though it was higher than the first.  It meant that we had to navigate three by three metre drops but they were all straight forward.  Scrambling around a steepish rock face to get to the drops was the most difficult part.

At one point we realised that we were hundreds of metres below a lookout point on a cliff above and that people were yelling and waving to us!  Amazing that we could see and hear each other.

Finally, we reached the third waterfall which we had been strongly advised not to rock scramble around.  Volunteer Ranger Rick had told us that this is where they perform all their rescues.  It isn’t a big waterfall but the only way to get down is to jump a few metres into shallow water.  Fortunately, Ranger Rick told us how to get around by climbing quite steeply above the waterfall and then picking up a trail on the cliff that leads you back to the Creek, bit further along.  The climb was pretty steep but preferable to breaking an ankle.

Not far along after that, we reached the end of the walk and were able to rid ourselves of sodden socks and hiking boots. But what a wonderful walk. The following day we visited the lookout from where people had yelled and waived at us (Goosenecks Lookouts) and this was when we realised that the canyon walls were higher than we thought.  From below we had only been able to see the lower and middle parts, not the upper parts.

A shot down to Sulphur Creek where we walked the previous day

We spent our last day at Capitol Reef hiking the Chimney Rock Loop and a small part of Upper Spring Canyon. It started with a steep climb to get views of Chimney Rock, south towards the rest of the park and west along Highway 24. 

Chimney Rock

 

 

 

Then we dropped into the canyon and walked along a wash for about an hour.  We were again surrounded by enchanting canyon walls.  We continued to stop, admire and discuss the red and black tones and different textures and shapes (coming soon, just for connoisseurs, a blog entry solely composed of photos of these rock faces).

Upper Spring Canyon was beautiful because of the many trees bordering the wash.  This obviously gets better quality water when it’s wet because it’s a little higher and closer to the watersheds.

 

Finally, we visited the aforementioned Goosenecks Lookouts and Panorama Lookout.

We decided to sleep in the car for the first time so that we could get a quick getaway the next morning.  It was perfectly comfortable and did achieve the purpose of getting away early.

Laid out flat and still room for the camp kitchen behind us (BTW that is not a Chicko roll, it is David's pencil case)