Capitol Reef National Park is a wonderful park with limited ways to view it because it is a long narrow park in very rough country. It is the eastern bookend of the southern National Parks and Monuments in Utah with the Grand Staircase-Escalante NM between Bryce and Zion NP’s. The Glen Canyon National Recreation Area is just to the South with the Grand Canyon being Southwest.

The geology of this massive area begins with the Grand Canyon containing the oldest rocks, then Zion is newer, Bryce is newer still, then the Capitol Reef being newest. The Capitol Reef is uplifted section of sediments that show the different geological eras in layers that look something like a staircase due to the way erosion has shaped it. The uplift is about 100 miles long an is called a reef for the same reason as an ocean reef, it is a barrier.

Peg and I chose a day with iffy weather and towards the middle of our visit it clouded up and rained. This did impact some of the pictures and shortened our stay. Many of the roads cross multiple washes and you do not want to be caught in one during the rain. Of course, on the way back the rain turned to snow.

We were at the 9600 foot level when the snow was the heaviest. I suppose it snowed 2″ or less but it was enough for a car to go off the road down into the woods. The Sheriff and a tow truck were there trying to pull the car up. Down the road a bit was a group of motorcycles with one on its side. They were getting it up and running under the careful eye of the Sheriff. It looks like all this happened just before the snow plow came through. Go figure. By the way they do not plow the roads after dark.

Tomorrow is moving day. We travel up to Green River, Utah for a two week stay. We will be taking in Arches National Park and Canyon Lands National Park, plus whatever we can find. Should take delivery of the new Nikon D7200 while we are there. It will be quite an upgrade from the D80 8 Megapixel to a 24.2 Megapixel camera with built in wifi. The pictures probably won’t improve a lot as it will be the same photographer….

Anyway, here is the link to the album from our trip.

Capitol Reef National Park