What’s in a name? Capitol Reef

We had a quick 3-hour drive to our next campground in Torrey, Utah which is about 13 miles from Capitol Reef National Park. We were pleasantly surprised to find it is about 10 degrees warmer- YAY! After setting up we took a quick drive into the park to get information from the visitor center- no luck! Apparently everyone else had the same idea because there was no parking available- especially for a big and wide truck!

We hadn’t heard much about this park, but we learned that the name comes from this dome that looks like the Capitol in DC, and the walls look impassable like a reef:

Since we couldn’t get into the visitor center, we drove the scenic route listening to the Gypsy app, which gives lots of interesting information about the park as you drive. We stopped in the Fruitta District, and got pie at the Gifford Homestead, which is THE THING to do! The mixed berry pie was delicious! They run out every afternoon, but we got pie 2 of the 3 days we visited 😉

We saw the petroglyphs in the park- they are very cool!

The next day we went on a hike in the Grand Wash, which goes through a narrow canyon. It was very nice, and got a little warm- which was great!

The walls were so many different colors, including red:

We also went to the Gooseneck overview, where you look down into the canyon at the river:

Sunset Point, where you could see all around and found this huge rock that looks like a dinosaur head:

and also to Panorama Point, where you look out over the canyon and also have 360 degree views. This is the Castle:

We wanted to hike to Hickman Bridge, but we could not find parking- all 3 times we tried!

We saw a pretty sunset when we went out to dinner for our anniversary (43!):

We went back to Panorama Point at night to get pictures of the stars:

This is a pretty small park, so it doesn’t take as much time to explore- 2 days will do it for sure.

Next stop- Moab to see Arches and Canyonlands National Parks!