Utah wins.
Throughout our travels across this amazing country, no state has elicted more jawdropping awe than our very own neighbor, the Beehive State. Utah, while not extraordinarily diverse, has dibs on the country's best scenic drives. The whole state is one big Rand McNally dotted road. (Google it).
Overshadowed by big sisters Bryce Canyon and Zion, Capitol Reef National Park is marked by a literal "wrinkle" in the Earth's crust. Over millions of years, the sediments and fault lines pressed up against each other over a period of time to create a permanent 100-mile long crease in the Earth. As with many locations in the Southwest, it was inhabited by Ancestral Puebloans, but after they vanished in or around 1200, the area stayed resident free. Until Joseph Smith and his brethren came along....
A Mormon sect found their way to the middle of Utah and what appeared oddly....to be fertile and lush land. The red rocks filled with iron ore are an unending site in all of Southern Utah, and patches of green are unusual. The drive to Capitol Reef is a lonely one, approximately 100 miles southwest off Interstate 70, with only one gas station (encased in a rock) between the freeway and the park's entrance.
Mormons inhabited the area, establishing several small towns around the Waterpocket Fold. Inside the confines of the park itself is a still working orchard. Housing peach, pear, apple, and cherry trees in the oxygen rich ground, visitors today can still pick bushels of fruits of their choice when in season, and in the hot summer sun, the fruit ripe trees provide respite from the sun. Our day, however, was a crisp, perfect 67 degrees.
A short plank walk (dotted with literally hundreds of blue fuzzy caterpillars....everywhere you looked, walked, or rested your hand was nature crawling) took you past ancient petroglyphs and along the edge of the orchard itself.
Capitol Reef is massive in size, and the visit that we did would be considered shameful among many travelers. Miles of scenic drives and hikes keep visitors busy for days, along with a scenic farm, schoolhouse and community offering a street fair of sorts the day we arrived. Matt Griswold, however, insisted that we keep moving because we
absolutely had to get to Bryce Canyon soon andthedriveislongsowehavetogonow allowed us a grand 90 minutes in Capitol Reef......
Wally World Bryce awaited the Cales, so we moved quickly......
The Castle (above) is the highlight of the Scenic Drive and the spot of the Visitor Center. Although remote and less well known than other National Parks in Utah, there was barely room to move in the small Visitor Center due to the crowds. A small theatre to the right offered an excellent film overview of the valley and the creation of the Park itself. Well done and packed with geologic and historic tidbits, this was time well spent away from the park to appreciate the mechanics of the spectacles around us.
Capitol Reef is well worth the side trip through Southern Utah.....Less known does not mean lesser in general.
But......Aunt Edna needs to get to Phoenix, so off we go.......
FINAL RATING
8/10
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