Capitol Reef National Park

Capitol Reef National Park

Location: Wayne, Garfield, Sevier, and Emery counties, Utah, United States

Features: Off-roading, hiking, camping, bicycling, horseback riding, canyoneering, rock climbing

About The Capitol Reef National Park

An American national park in south-central Utah. Capitol Reef National Park was designated a national monument on August 2, 1937, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to protect the area’s colorful canyons, ridges, buttes, and monoliths. Capitol Reef encompasses the Waterpocket Fold, a warp in the earth’s crust that is 65 million years old. It is the largest exposed monocline in North America. The park is filled with brilliantly colored sandstone cliffs, gleaming white domes, and contrasting layers of stone and earth.

Trails in Capitol Reef National Park

The park is approximately 60 miles (97 km) long on its north–south axis and just 6 miles (9.7 km) wide on average. It was established in 1971 to preserve 241,904 acres of desert landscape and is open all year, with May through September being the highest visitation months.

Top 3 Adventure Hacks

1) Place to stay near Capitol Reef National Park

The closest town to Capitol Reef is Torrey, about 11 mi (18 km) west of the visitor center on Highway 24, The town of Torrey is a quick car trip away from the Capitol Reef Park, with few motel and small rental cabins and restaurant, it is a nice place to stay and sleep.

2) Exciting Activities

Variety of activities are available to tourists, both ranger-led and self-guided, Numerous trails are available for hiking and backpacking in the park, Visitors may also explore several of the main areas of the park by private vehicle, and from early March to mid-October, various fruit likes cherries, apricots, peaches, pears, or apples can be harvested by visitors for a fee.

Utah also has great mountain biking. Here are some of the best places to ride in the summer.

3) Best Scenic Drive

The Capitol Gorge Trail is spectacularly beautiful, there are so many amazing patterns, colors and shapes in individual rocks and cliffs that it’s amazing, the whole scenery is lovely, something to look at the whole time rather than a lot of driving for one quick viewpoint.

Bring a GPS, binoculars and a camera.