After spending four months as a seasonal interpretive volunteer at Capitol Reef National Park, I have completed a whopping 46 blog posts for Live and Let Hike about Capitol Reef, including 42 detailed descriptions of the park’s trails and routes. Alas, despite wishful thinking, your average visitor to Capitol Reef is not likely to research …
Continue reading Top 10 Hikes in Capitol Reef National Park’s “Frontcountry”
The mostly level and shady Capitol Gorge Trail continues up the narrow canyon where the scenic Capitol Gorge Road ends. A geological cousin of nearby Grand Wash, Capitol Gorge also played a central role in the area’s human history. For nearly 80 years, despite its extreme narrows, the canyon was the only reliable transit point …
Continue reading Capitol Gorge Trail, including the Tanks (Capitol Reef National Park, UT)
Some places have great stories, and popular hiking destination Cohab Canyon in Utah’s Capitol Reef National Park is exactly one of those places. For the Mormon faith’s remaining polygamists in Utah, the late 1800s were a trying time: the state had just consented to the Edmunds Act, which bans the practice. Federal law enforcement officials …
Continue reading Cohab Canyon Trail (Capitol Reef National Park, UT)
In many ways, Capitol Reef National Park is Utah’s best-kept secret. Despite its central location—roughly halfway between tourist behemoths Arches National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park—Capitol Reef packs as great as a punch as its more popular neighbors with far smaller crowds. Even the park’s most travelled areas—the Highway 24 corridor and Scenic Drive—offer …
Capitol Reef National Park—a long, skinny unit comprising 378 square miles in the heart of Utah’s canyon country—can be divided conceptually into three separate districts, each with a unique flavor. Around 95 percent of visitors flock to the central Fremont River District, which includes the Highway 24 corridor and the Scenic Drive. Ambitious day hikers, …
Continue reading Cathedral Valley Loop Drive (Capitol Reef National Park, UT)
The 60-mile Cathedral Valley loop drive serves as the departure point for six short hiking trails in Utah’s Capitol Reef National Park. When completed in a clockwise direction, the sixth and final hike reached along the way is the 1.1-mile Cathedrals Trail, a well-defined and scenic jaunt through some of the park’s (and country’s) most …
Continue reading Cathedrals Trail (Capitol Reef National Park, UT)
Throughout much of the 20th century, cattle rancher Lesley Morrell owned some of the finest real estate in the West. Though a modest and solitary—comprising just one small room—the cabin was nestled next to stream in the heart of Cathedral Valley, a delightfully remote nirvana of fluted cliffs and striking monoliths now protected as part …
Continue reading Morrell Cabin Trail (Capitol Reef National Park, UT)
Overlooking a spectacularly colorful basin in Capitol Reef National Park’s northwest corner, the Cathedral Valley Overlook Trail leads to one of the finest viewpoints in the park. From a vantage point 400 feet above the basin floor, this brief hike affords a bird’s eye look over Upper Cathedral Valley, fluted cliffs, and a line of …
Continue reading Cathedral Valley Overlook Trail (Capitol Reef National Park, UT)
Situated 27 miles up the unpaved Hartnet Road from Utah Highway 24, the Upper South Desert Overlook is a remote viewpoint in the northwest reaches of Capitol Reef National Park. For those completing the 60-mile Cathedral Valley loop drive, Upper South Desert is often the second or third stop (after quick jaunts to the Lower …
Continue reading Upper South Desert Overlook Trail (Capitol Reef National Park, UT)
Utah’s Capitol Reef National Park is usually divided into three districts: the Fremont River District, home to more than a dozen maintained trails and the bulk of visitor traffic; the wild, southern Waterpocket District, home to slot canyons and the park’s best overnight hikes; and the remote and pristine Cathedral Valley District. Less than 1% …
Continue reading Lower South Desert Overlook (Capitol Reef National Park, UT)
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