Confessions of an RVer: CAPITOL REEF NATIONAL PARK

We went to visit Capitol Reef National Park. We visited this park in a way that we hate. We were short on time in this area and Capitol Reef was 130 miles from us. We were expecting a 2 hour drive but when you add in steep grades and wiggly mountain roads, your destination time goes up. So, we knew we weren’t going to have much time to spend at this park. We had already decided that we would not have time to do any hikes.

We sat out about 9:00 and didn’t reach the park until 11:30. We stopped by the visitor center to pick up a map and then headed out to see what we could see. There are no shuttle buses in Capitol Reef. I must also say that their maps that they hand out at the Visitor’s Center are not very well marked and neither are their scenic stop spots.

Most of the parks we have visited have had MANY tour buses. The bus goes to a scenic overlook, all 70 people pile out, go to the scenic overlook, take a picture, stand and look at the view for a few minutes, pile back on the bus, and head for the next scenic overlook to repeat. Well, that’s what we felt like. We stopped at all the scenic overlooks, got out and took a picture or two, admired the view for a couple of minutes, piled back into the truck and headed for the next. That is not how we like to see the parks. Mr. W kept saying, “I hate this. I would almost rather not come than to do this.” But, we both agreed after we had visited that it was worth it.

This park is very different in that most of the scenic spots were at rock formations and each formation had a name. Also, you were driving through the park and looking up mostly. You weren’t on a rim looking down. They had a very nice park where we ate lunch. There was also a rock wall close to the road that had petroglyphs on them. I always like to see those. I think it is so cool to think that ancient people wrote messages through pictures on the rocks. This stop was also close to the river that ran through the park. I love listening to the water flowing. Just something about it.

See the drawings

The picnic area where we ate lunch.

The park has a really nice looking campground. Now National Park campgrounds don’t have any hook-ups. No electric, no water, no sewer, so, I won’t be staying at one but this one looked fairly new and the camp host was from Texas. You know Mr. W had to go talk to them because they were fellow Texans.

There is a historic district in the middle of the park. It was a town named Fruita. Fruita was a Mormon settlement dating from the late 1800s. There is a one room schoolhouse that has been restored and refurbished. There is a blacksmith shop that provides a window into the working life of Fruita’s settlers. There is also Historic Giffod Farmhouse, part museum with cultural exhibits and part country store featuring pioneer-era sales as well as homemade pies, cinnamon rolls, and jams. When I see a sign that says “homemade” any kind of pastry, it is like a sign that says waterfall up ahead. I’m stopping. I ended up buying one of their homemade cherry pies and a jar of the homemade strawberry rhubarb jam. The pie is just big enough for two and it was yummy!

The jam and the pie

The old schoolhouse - There are desks with a small chalkboard, an ink well, chalk, and a book on top of each desk. You can't go in but you can look through the windows. Most of the teachers only lasted 1 year because of the isolation of this place.

The Fruita district also has apple, peach, cherry, pear, and apricot trees that grow in the Fruita orchards. Historic and heirloom varieties of some fruits are still found here. You may pick and eat fruit free of charge while in the orchards. A nominal fee is charged for fruit you take with you. Blossom and harvest times vary from year to year. You can find out the harvest times from the Visitor’s Center. We saw some of the apricot trees with small apricots but none of their orchards had fruit ready for picking. Darn.

There are several dirt roads (called washes) that you can drive down. They recommend a high clearance vehicle but they are not 4-wheel drive only roads. These washes go down to the very bottom of the canyon and there are high canyon walls on each side. The roads are very narrow and at the end of each wash is a trailhead. However, as you enter, there are signs that say if there is a chance of a storm, do not enter. Did anyone else see rain clouds in any of my pictures? I thought so. But guess who wanted to drive the washes anyway???? Yep, that would be HIM. Boys.

We started back to the RV park and actually went a different way. It went over a part of the highway where there is a cut off to a place named Hell's Backbone. It was at the top of some mountains with very curvy, narrow roads. One of the signs said that there would be a 12% grade for the next 3 miles. Thanks goodness we weren't pulling the trailer!