Capitol Reef National Park
Saturday, September 05, 2009
Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, United States
Of southern Utah’s five full national parks Capitol Reef
seems to be the least known and visited, probably because it is somewhat more remote
than the others but also because many parts of the park beyond the northern
part through which a main road crosses are only accessible by four-wheel drive
vehicle . I’ve been to Capitol Reef a few times and quite like it for that
reason. The park is more oriented toward hikers than scenery gawkers in SUVs
and is thus far less crowded.
Doug and I spent a full day in the northern part of the park
and went on three hikes of short to moderate length in different areas. The
first one of these was from a short drive off Route 24 to Panorama Point
overlook and the Goosenecks overlook, two very short trails from parking areas
to lookout points over the whole red rocks scenery that constitutes Capitol
Reed and to the wiggly bends of Sulphur Creek, one of several places in Utah
where rivers bend back on each other through eroded canyons in formations
nicknamed Goosenecks.
Our second hike was in Capitol Gorge, a trail that leads
through a winding canyon from a trailhead at the end of a graded dirt road
toward the southern end of the easily accessible northern part of Capitol Reef
park. Our third hike was also from a trailhead just off Route 24, a rather
shirt hike through a canyon to Hickman Bridge, a 133 foot long natural bridge.
All in all we had a great day of hiking in Capitol Reef. It
seems like there just aren’t as many good stories to write about when
everything goes as planned, in contrast to the day before with our flat tire.
It’s kind of funny how that happens, isn’t it?
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