Last Updated on May 26, 2023 by Deanne
Utah is known for its sandstone arches, blazing orange hoodoos and otherworldly rock formations. The unique landscape explains why there are five national parks located in Utah—Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, and Zion—with the three most popular being Arches, Bryce Canyon, and Zion.
(For a list of all Utah national parks ranked and compared, click here.)
Many visitors roadtrip through southern Utah hitting all five parks in one spectacularly scenic vacation. But what if you have limited travel time? If you hit the main three can you skip Capitol Reef National Park and Canyonlands?
Of the lesser-known Utah national parks, Canyonlands is less than a 30-minute drive from Arches, so people often find it easy to squeeze that park into their Utah national park itinerary.
But what about Capitol Reef? Is it a must-see?
Scenic and Savvy is here to weigh in on the topic and help you decide whether to include Capitol Reef in your trip itinerary or skip it altogether. Read on to see whether we recommend you… Trip It or Skip It.
Capitol Reef National Park
Including Capitol Reef National Park in your Utah itinerary requires tacking on an extra day to explore. This may not sound like a lot, but when planning an itinerary, every vacation day is valuable and you want to fill it with the most worthwhile sights and activities.
The park covers more than 240,000 acres, but only a small part of it is accessible by paved roads. Capitol Reef isn’t known for crazy looking hoodoos rising up from the ground like Bryce Canyon. It doesn’t contain thousands of natural arches like Arches National Park. And it doesn’t have a world-renowned hike like Angels Landing in Zion. In fact, Capitol Reef gets 1.2 million visitors annually versus 4.5 million in Zion and 2.6 million in Bryce Canyon. Does this mean you should skip Capitol Reef National Park?
What does Capitol Reef offer?
Capitol Reef’s landscape is made of multicolored cliffs, canyons, white sandstone domes and layered rock formations. Some of the parks natural attractions are located right off the main highway, while others require a high-clearance vehicle to travel onto remote dirt roads. Here’s a glimpse into some of the sights you’ll see in Capitol Reef:
* The park has its own popular arch (actually a sandstone bridge, but who can tell the difference?) called Hickman Bridge. The hike there is fun and scenic as you walk through sand, up stony steps, across slick rock and past smaller rock formations to explore along the way. The impressive structure rises 125 feet high and spans 133 feet across. Walking down into a little rocky valley in front of the arch provides a stunning vantage point looking back up.
* Capitol Reef’s Scenic Drive winds through the park past dark red hills, white domes and sheer cliffs. The route provides access to two dirt spur roads – Grand Wash and Capitol Gorge Road – that take you alongside massive striped canyon walls. The colorfully layered landscape creates a beautiful view against the backdrop of the deep blue sky.
* The 200-acre Fruita Historic District in the heart of Capitol Reef is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Here you can wander through orchards containing close to 2,000 trees – apple, apricot, cherry, peach, pear, plum… and the best part? You can pick the fresh fruit in late summer to eat. The Gifford House, a renovated early 1900’s pioneer home, contains a gift shop and bakery serving up locally made fruit pies and homemade ice cream. A historic one-room schoolhouse built in the late 1800’s adds to the appeal of this inviting area.
How is Capitol Reef different from Utah’s other national parks?
Capitol Reef’s unique landscape and rural, pioneer feel exudes a charm not felt in the other parks. Arguably, that is its biggest draw. It’s less crowded, peaceful and strikingly scenic – creating an overall captivating experience.
Our verdict on visiting Capitol Reef National Park
A Utah trip would be beautiful and worthwhile no matter how many of the state’s national parks you visit, but it would not be complete without a stop in Capitol Reef.
(Find out the BEST time to visit Utah here.)
Carve out time in your Utah National Park’s itinerary for this often overlooked treasure and it will be well worth the effort.
Scenic and Savvy says: Trip it!
And then after you do, come back and tell us all about your experience.
Have you ever been to Capitol Reef National Park? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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Definitely worth the trip – we stayed at Broken Spur Inn, which was great for kids with playgrounds and a pool. Staff was super polite. We wanted to see dark sky since we’ve been too busy on our trip to do so, but with fireworks visible from the lawn and a bunch of tired travelers, we have yet to do that! Capitol Reef does offer an amazing variety of stunning sites with the petroglyphs, canyons, colorful rocks, and the amazing time we had picking apricots. I highly recommend it. A day is enough to get a flavor, but more time would also be good – two days and you get a good feel. We broke our day up as an evening walk down capitol gorge, and then the next morning we did Hickman, petroglyph, and then spent about two hours or so in Fruita. If not pressed for time and being antsy to get on the road, I would have enjoyed just relaxing there longer and walking the river walk which was markedly cooler. Beautiful park and felt very remote.
Hi Poppy, How fun you got to pick apricots! Sounds like you had a good time. We stayed at the Broken Spur Inn also. Nice place. Thanks for the comment.
We loved Capital Reef!! So many more hikes than Zion and all were quite different. Such a unique place and we loved the lack of people and touristy places other parks have outside the main gates. We spent 2 days there and were so happy we fit Capital Reef into our plans!! Favorite hike was the Rim Overlook.
Happy to hear you loved Capitol Reef. It is such a unique and beautiful place.