Saturday August 19th 2017

It was a mostly sunny day with highs in the mid 80s today. One brief shower kept it from being a perfect day. After lots of driving yesterday to visit Capitol Reef National Park, I stayed at home and enjoyed the weather. I’m including a few more pictures of the National Park in this blog entry.

Capitol Reef National Park is less developed than Arches or Canyonlands National Parks. There are fewer paved roads and big parking lots than the others. The vast majority of the park is only accessible on gravel roads best traveled in a four wheel drive vehicle. The main scenic drive runs south in the Watershed Divide from the historic community of Fruita for about 12 miles. For the first 9 miles the canyon is wide enough that there is high ground for the paved road. You are still very close to the steep side walls as you pass over the river and washes. To continue south the road transitions to gravel and often runs in the bottom of the washes. There are many signs warning not to proceed if there is rain in the area. You can see were the road has been regraded many times after water has run across and along the road. In this area the rock walls are right beside your car doors.

It’s the fact that you are so close to everything in your car that makes this park different from the others in the area. I really liked this aspect of the park. There were a couple of other gravel roads off of the scenic drive that I could have explored and a couple of trails I considered hiking. I also didn’t spend much time in the Historic Fruita town displays. Touring the Gifford house, blacksmiths shop and orchards would have added another dimension to my visit. The tension of driving the narrow gravel road between massive rock walls with on coming traffic that had no business on the road (wide rental Class C motorhomes), wiped out my enthusiasm for more adventure.

Taken out the window while navigating the narrow road in the wash. 

Taken through the windshield. 

The park has fewer visitors than the other parks in the area. It is a long way from the Interstate or any significant towns. There were a few places with lodging and food in the town of Torrey Utah about 11 miles away, but the town hasn’t really developed into a tourist attraction town. I think these are some of the things that make the park more enjoyable to me. I look forward to another visit during a time of year that doesn’t pose the same level of flash flood risk that the current monsoon season presents.