Info/Tip
Weather – always check weather before going on hikes. Stay out of the canyon if it’s going to rain. Summer monsoon could bring flash flood
Prepare your supplies well before going Capitol Reef. There is no big town around the Park. Torrey is the biggest one but we still find the services very limited.
Capitol Reef National Park has 3 districts
- Fruita is the most accessible and most popular
- North – Cathedral Valley is remote, High clearance required 4WD recommended on unpaved road, check weather and road condition before going. We had plans of going but had to change our plans due to weather and road condition. Plan for 6-8 hours if doing the Cathedral Valley loop.
- South – Waterpocket district is remote and rugged, check road condition before going. We did not plan to visit the waterpocket district during our trip.
Things To Do
Hikes
Hickman Bridge: 2 mile roundtrip hike that takes about 1 hour
Grand Wash Narrow: 2.2 miles one way, there’s an entrance on HW24 or another entrance by Cassidy Arch Trail head. We choose to start on HW24 and hiked about 1 miles in to the narrow part and turned around to make it a 2 miles round trip. There is no shuttle at capitol reef, so if you go the whole 2.2 miles you will have to return the same way to the car. If you have 2 cars and can leave 1 car at one end of the trail then you can make it a one way hike. We saw a family with 2 little kids hiked the whole one way then the Dad ran back to get the car while the rest of the family waited at the parking lot.
Cassidy Arch Hike 2.9 mile
Captiol Gorge trail to the Tank, 2 miles roundtrip. It took us a while to find the tank it was all dry up. The trailhead is at the end of the 7.9 miles scenic drive from visitor center. The scenic drive itself is beautiful just to drive through.
Sulphur Creek: We only did the short route. (long full route) This route is not an official, maintained trail. Please see NPS link regarding this trail. The full trail starts around Chimney Rock and is 5.8 miles one way to the visitor center and requires scrambling down over 3 waterfalls. (short route) There is a shorter route to experience a little bit of the sulphur Creek, start behind the visitor center and it’s a 0.7 miles upstream trek in the creek to the 3rd waterfall. We were not able to find a way up the waterfall so turned around there. There were lots of hummingbirds along this trail and since this was trekking upstream in water it was great for a hot day. Check weather forecast, do not hike if raining.
Fruita Gifford house and orchard
Gifford house sells delicious pies and sourdough bread, check the opening times when we visited they were open from 8 am to 12 pm and 1 pm to 4:30 pm and were limited 12 people in the shop at a time. The sourdough sell out early and some flavor pie may sell out. When we visited they had 6 flavors available (Mixed berry – our favorite, Peach, Apple, Strawberry rhubarb and Cherry).
There’s a U-pick orchard, if the orchard is open with the u-pick sign then you can enter and pick the posted fruit, any fruit taken out of the orchard needs to be paid, there’s a self service scale and cashbox setup at the gate. When we visited apricot was available for picking.
Cathedral Valley
We had plan to drive the Cathedral Valley loop but had to cancel due to weather/road condition. Here were the things to see on the 6-8 hour loop in Cathedral Valley
- Cathedral Valley Entrance Sign: 38.469, – 111.381
- Temple of the Stars: 38.489, -111.353
- Gypsum Sink Hole: 38.499, -111.319
- Temple of the Sun, Moon
- Glass Mountain: 38.499, -111.319
Hotel: We stayed at the Wagons at Broken Spur Inn & Steakhouse in Torrey. It was a very special and fun experience for both kids and adults.
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