June 2019

Capitol Reef National Park is about 10 miles east of Torrey, Utah. We spent a full day there, driving through the park, enjoying a couple of great hikes and rescuing two damsels in distress.

As you enter the park, even before you get to the Visitor Center, the beauty and vibrant colors of the surrounding scenery takes your breath away.

We stopped by the Visitor Center and got a map and then started up Scenic Drive that cuts through the center of the park.

The first point of interest is the Fruita Historic District where in the 1800’s Mormon pioneers established this small settlement, building irrigation systems and planting orchards of apple, peach, pear and apricot trees. The Gifford homestead and orchards are still maintained by the park service.

Continuing along Scenic Drive, we stopping frequently to admire the awesome scenery.

We turned onto Grand Wash Way, a 1.3 mile bumpy dirt road, leading to the Grand Wash trailhead. Once at the end of the dirt road, we parked the car and set off on the 1.3 mile deep canyon Narrows Trail (yes, Richard went with me on the hike!), walking along the dry riverbed. It was so beautiful with the canyon walls rising on either side of us.

Richard turned around before I did and when he got back to the car there were two young ladies in the parking lot, one sitting on a log with a twisted ankle. He gave her an ice pack from our cooler and when I got back to the car we took them to where they were parked, about 10 miles away. Luckily it was the last day of their vacation.

After dropping the girls off at their car we headed further up Scenic Drive, stopping to look at some ancient petroglyphs and eat our lunch.

Our final destination was Capital Gorge Trail but we stopped frequently along the way to take pictures.

The Scenic Drive paved road ended and we continued on the rough 2.4 mile dirt road to the Capitol Gorge Trail, another narrows canyon hike. Richard decided to sit this one out : )  It was another fantastic hike and I took one detour up a steep trail that provided a great view of the trail below.

After my hike we headed back to our campground in Torrey. I really loved the easy but beautiful canyon hikes here in Capitol Reef National Park!