Capitol Reef was the last National Park we visited on our road trip last summer. After our time in Zion, we drove 3.5 hours to Capitol Reef. We spent about two days in Capitol Reef and in my opinion that was plenty of time. This is a small National Park that offers unique scenery and a more secluded environment. Here’s an outline of our time in Capitol Reef.

Things to Know About Capital Reef

• It’s hot! Similar to many other National Parks in Utah during the summer, the heat is extreme. Many of the trails in Capitol Reef have little to no shade at all.
• The park is the main attraction. Capitol Reef is nearby the small town of Torrey, UT. There are limited restaurants and shops in this area. We also discovered the restaurants in the town had limited hours and most were closed during the early days of the week.
• There are different regions of Capitol Reef National Park, we spent our time in the most popular area of the park, the Fruita Historic district. Someday I’d love to explore other regions of this park but they are quite spaced out so more time would be necessary.
• I would recommend having a park map with you while hiking or using an app like Alltrails. We noticed many hikes were not clearly marked and it was easy to become lost.

Day One

We started our time in Capitol Reef late in the afternoon after a drive from Zion. One of the first things we wanted to do was drive along the scenic drive in the park and check out some scenic overlooks. The scenic drive is called the Capitol Reef Scenic road and it leads all the way to the capitol gorge area.

After taking some time driving along the scenic drive, we decided to check into our hotel. We stayed at Capitol Reef Resort while visiting the park. This resort is more like a nicer motel but offers incredible views of the red rocks in the park. We stayed in one of the hotel rooms but they also offer cabins and other unique accommodations. For dinner we found a local place that was open, and had a relaxing night in after a long day.

Day Two

Our second and really full day in Capitol Reef was actually my birthday and I wanted to hike to Cassidy Arch. The hike to Cassidy Arch is 3 miles round trip and it provides some of the best views within Capitol Reef. The hike to get to Cassidy Arch is steep and pretty strenuous. It was also extremely hot even though we started fairly early in the morning, there was limited shade. This trail was marked more so towards the end of the hike as you become closer to the arch. The beginning of the hike is where we became turned around a few times and we were frequently referring to Alltrails app to find the way.

Once we reached Cassidy Arch we spent time at the top soaking in the view. When we reached the arch, there was only one other family there. One of the most surprising parts of visiting Capitol Reef was experiencing popular areas with no crowds, definitely a nice change compared to other parks we’ve visited. The best part of Cassidy Arch is you can actually walk across it! It’s a lot wider than it appears and is safe to walk across.

After Cassidy Arch, we made our way back towards the historic fruita district to explore. We stopped by Gifford Homestead for fresh pies. Gifford’s is famous for their fresh fruit and pies throughout the year. The pies did not disappoint, we bought two apple pies and they were incredible! Definitely a must see while visiting the park. The pies are baked fresh daily so it’s best to go early as they do sell out fast.

For the rest of the afternoon we spent time at the visitor’s center and exploring the grand wash trail. Unfortunately we did not hike the entire trail due to extreme heat temperatures. We decided to go back to our hotel and spend some time in the pool and cool down before dinner.

For my birthday dinner, we decided to eat at our hotel’s restaurant, The Pioneer Kitchen. I would highly recommend if you want a nice sit down dinner, it was very good!