Utah · Region

Capitol Reef Country

Utah's quietest red-rock park and the country around it — Capitol Reef, the Waterpocket Fold, the orchards of Fruita, and the desert towns of Highway 24.

9 places to explore

Capitol Reef is the quiet one. Set in the thinly populated middle of Utah's red-rock country, it draws a fraction of the crowds that pour into Zion and Bryce to the west or Moab to the east — which is precisely its appeal. The country here is built around the Waterpocket Fold, a hundred-mile wrinkle in the earth's crust where the rock layers buckle and tilt on edge, and around the orchards and ranch history tucked into its folds.

Capitol Reef National Park takes its name from two things early travelers noticed: the long ridge of rock that blocked their way like an ocean reef, and the rounded white domes of Navajo sandstone that reminded them of capitol buildings. State Route 24 cuts straight through the heart of it along the Fremont River, which means some of the park's best scenery — Fremont petroglyph panels, the Hickman Bridge trail to a broad natural span — sits right off the highway, no entrance gate required.

The soul of the park is Fruita, a green oasis of pioneer orchards along the river, planted by Mormon settlers in the late 1800s and still tended by the Park Service. In season you can pick cherries, peaches, and apples from the historic trees, and the Gifford Homestead — a 1908 farmhouse — sells pie and preserves out of its kitchen. It is one of the most unexpectedly tender places in the national park system.

Two gateway towns bookend the region along Highway 24: Torrey to the west, a small, leafy town where Scenic Byway 12 comes down off Boulder Mountain to meet the park, and Hanksville to the east, a remote desert crossroads surrounded by some of the strangest land in Utah. Out that way stand the dark badland spire of Factory Butte and the thousands of squat sandstone hoodoos — the "goblins" — of Goblin Valley State Park.

It is hot in summer and gloriously empty much of the rest of the year. Come for the orchards, the Fold, and the rare sensation of having a national park nearly to yourself.