Capitol Reef National Park Torrey, Utah 84775

Capitol Reef National Park is located in Central Utah east of Torrey and west of Caineville on SR 24. A giant wrinkle in the Earth's crust streaches for 100 miles across central Utah. This impressive buckling of rock, created by the same tremendous forces that built the Colorado Plateau 65 million years ago, is called the Waterpacket Fold. Capitol Reef National Park preserves the Fold and its spectacular, eroded jumble of colorful cliffs, massive domes, soaring spires, stark monoliths, twisting canyons, and graceful arches.

The Waterpocket Fold country can be explored along SR 24, the major east-west highway through the park, and on the Scenic Drive, a gravel road that provides a 25-mile round trip tour of the park. This especially majestic part of the Waterpocket Fold is named for its vaulted white rock domes and its nearly impassable ridges (pioneers sometimes called these ridges "reefs").

The park is where Indians hunted and farmed for more than 1000 years and, later, where Mormon pioneers settled to raise their families in a town they called Fruita. Fruita became well known for its productive orchards and the quality of its fruit. Some of the Mormon ruins still remain in the park as well as the peach orchard that still produces tasty peaches that can be picked by the public when they are in season.

We camped for 2 days at the park and one morning we awoke to the sound of Mule deer eating apples that had fallen to the ground. We were able to experience a thunderstorm which is rare because this part of Utah is a desert.

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Last updated July 16, 2000