Capitol Reef National Park and Lower Calf Creek Falls Trail, Utah. (October, 2022).

We didn’t know much about Capitol Reef National Park before this trip, and we still don’t know much about it.  The most interesting locations in the park, Cathedral Valley and Strike Valley, require the better part of a day to visit, either on a tour or in a high clearance 4WD vehicle as the roads are not paved. 

Perhaps we could have driven through Strike Valley in our car, depending on the condition of the road, but Stephanie hates driving on gravel roads and I hate how slow she drives on gravel roads.  So this was a journey best avoided.  Maybe next time.

Because we had only a day and a half in the park, we stayed in the main area, the Fruita Historic District, and experienced as much as possible.

After a short stop at the visitor center upon arriving in the park, we headed down Scenic Drive.  After driving its entire length, eight miles, Stephanie decided that Scenic Drive is not that scenic.  Not that it is bad, but Scenic Drive is far less interesting than Highway 24 which passes through the park.

At night we returned to Panorama Point to see the stars and Milky Way.  We rarely get to see stars from a dark sky location.  Coupled with a slice of the Milky Way, it was fascinating for us.

Our full day in the park was spent hiking.  First the Cohab Canyon trail, which is 3.0 miles round trip.  A short and steep beginning section took us to the canyon, which after about a mile led to another short and steep section up to a plateau looking over the Fruita area.  Definitely a great hike.

Afterwards we took a break for our standard picnic lunch: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches; an apple or banana; a few chips; and, cokes.  At least we found a nice picnic table in the park and were not condemned to eating in the car as we were in Arches National Park. 

Note to Arches – you need a whole lot more picnic tables.

In the afternoon we hiked the easy and enjoyable Grand Wash trail.  This is a relatively level trail following a wash through a canyon.  You can start this hike from either end of the two mile long trail.  We started from the Highway 24 trailhead; the Grand Wash Road trailhead is at the opposite end.

The highlight is supposedly the Narrows, a section where the canyon narrows to 16 feet wide about one mile into the hike, near the halfway point.  Our goal was to go to the Narrows and then turn around.

There is just one problem.  It is hard to tell when the canyon is 16 feet wide.  As we walked through the canyon, I told Stephanie when I thought we were at the Narrows.  It was a fairly short section.  And 16 feet might have been an exaggeration by the park service.  We were not sure, and suspected the true Narrows were still to come.  So we kept walking … and walking. 

Eventually we walked for over forty minutes, which was just under two miles.  The trail was interesting enough that we did not care about the Narrows or the fact that we walked twice as far as anticipated.  We made it almost to the opposite trailhead before turning around and heading back.

As we neared the Highway 24 trailhead heading out, we passed a family heading into to the canyon.  I was somewhat surprised as we passed the same family earlier in the hike.  After a short conversation with them, we realized the problem.  They started from the Grand Wash Road trailhead and intended to turn around at the Narrows.  But, like us, they could not figure out where the Narrows were and kept walking.  We caught them just after they turned around at the Highway 24 trailhead.

Together we decided that naming anything “Narrow” in this canyon is just plain wrong, but no matter.  It is an enjoyable hike and highly recommended. All in all we walked 3.8 miles, about twice as far as intended. 

We made it back to the Red Sands Hotel (which is a really great hotel, by the way) in time to get to an early dinner and then relax in the hot tub with a few beers.

Though we only spent one and a half days in Capitol Reef, we could have easily spent several full days exploring the park.  A day each for Cathedral Valley and Strike Valley, plus another two days of hiking, would have been perfect.

Because we saw so little of Capitol Reef, it is difficult to compare it to the other parks in Utah.  From our limited experience, and in our opinion only, I’d say the park is not nearly as good as Canyonlands, but is better than Arches.  It’s just different. The relatively few visitors to Capitol Reef suggests that either the park is too remote for many folks to visit or our opinion of its merits is not shared by most.  Or perhaps a bit of both.  The lack of crowds is a huge plus in its favor.

A short drive from Torrey down Utah Highway 12 – probably the most scenic drive we have ever taken – is Calf Creek Recreation Area in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Lower Calf Creek Falls trail is often recognized as one of the best day hikes in Utah, if not the west.  It is a very popular hike and the parking lot at the trailhead fills up early.  The parking lot was probably half full when we arrived a little before 9:00 AM on a Wednesday.

At 6.7 miles roundtrip the hike is a good, not ridiculous, distance.  It took us about 3.5 hours.  The waterfall (126 feet tall) at the end is magnificent.

The worst part about the hike is that at least half of it is in relatively deep, soft sand.  Think walking on the beach in hiking boots.  But Stephanie did not complain at all because the trail is popular with dog owners.  We passed a lot of dogs on the trail and she got to pet most of them.  After the falls themselves, the dogs were the best part of the hike.

We again had our standard picnic lunch (which we are having four to five days a week on this trip) at a table in the large picnic area before continuing on to Bryce Canyon National Park.

Miles Hiked:

Capitol Reef National Park: 6.8 miles (Cohab Canyon Trail and Grand Wash Trail)

Lower Calf Creek Falls Trail: 6.7 miles

Garrett and Stephanie

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