Capitol Reef National Park: The Waterpocket Fold

The tour's western start sits at the Wayne County Information Center, where Highway 12 meets Highway 24 on the edge of Torrey. Quinn lays out the route, the fee on the Scenic Drive and the long gap with no fuel, and B…

Westbound drivers finish on Highway 24 at the edge of Torrey, a town with fuel and food. Drivers setting out east hear a short line instead, as the road begins to fall toward the park boundary and the Waterpocket Fold.

Before Capitol Reef was a park, a Torrey storekeeper and bishop kept a museum in his shop and believed its contents could change what people knew about the past. Boone tells how his collection drew the government's at…

A pullout at the park's western sign marks the top of the road's long descent. The park opens here with a statement about the tribes and pueblos whose homelands these are, and the stop introduces the monocline that de…

Charles Kelly came to a Mormon valley for a river and an orchard, and ended up guarding a national monument for almost no pay. Boone tells the story of a stubborn man, his unpaid wife, and the neighbors he never quite…

Chimney Rock stands above Highway 24 as a tower of red Moenkopi under a hard pale cap, and its trailhead lot sits back from the road with restrooms. The Chimney Rock Loop is the park's sunset climb, a strenuous circui…

Coming up on your right, the turn-off for Goosenecks. Under a mile of gravel to a full-circle view and two easy walks. Want it? Turn right at the sign. If not, stay straight.

Stay on this road for about eleven miles.

A pullout on Highway 24 faces a cliff of Moenkopi rock worn into repeating pillars and alcoves. The stop unpacks the words in the park's name and its great feature, notes who relied on the waterpockets first, and pass…

Coming up on your right, the turn-off for The Scenic Drive. The heart of the tour, about eight miles of pavement out and the same back. Allow ninety minutes. Twenty dollars a vehicle, free with a pass, and storms can…

Highway 24 runs past the Fruita Historic District at the heart of the park, with the orchards to the south and the cliffs to the north. Eastbound drivers get the last word on fuel here, since no station stands between…

Stay on this road for about nine miles.

Fruita's one-room log schoolhouse stands beside Highway 24 with its own small parking area, and visitors look in through the windows at a furnished classroom. Most sources date it to 1896, though an older nomination s…

From the short boardwalk the large figures and bighorn sheep carved into the Wingate cliff are easy to find, and fixed binoculars bring them closer. The park's waysides at this spot are unusually direct about the name…

Two wooden boardwalks at the foot of the cliff give the only access to the Fruita petroglyphs, with two free fixed binoculars for a closer view. The shorter boardwalk shows large human figures and bighorn sheep. The l…

Back at the car, keep going the way you were heading.

A small pullout on Highway 24 sits beside the Max Krueger Orchard, planted mostly in Rosa peaches and watered from the Fremont River. Its owner fought the park's custodian for years with no trespassing signs. A 2007 s…

The Hickman Bridge Trail is the park's most direct walk to a natural bridge, climbing 400 feet in 0.9 mile from a lot on Highway 24 with parking for cars, a limited number of RVs, and a vault toilet. The moderate rout…

In the summer of 1925 a dusty road filled with cars, a governor and a rodeo, all because one school principal saw something his neighbors didn't. Boone tells how the party went, and what came after it.

In May 1997 a slab of vertical cliff about 100 feet high and 250 feet long fell onto Highway 24 about five miles east of the Visitor Center and closed the park's main road. Travelers faced detours of three to four hou…

A one-room sandstone cabin stands beside the Fremont River at a dirt lot on Highway 24, suitable for cars and RVs, with limited room for large vehicles. It's a look-from-the-lot stop. Elijah and Tabitha Jane Behunin b…

Cass Hite came to the canyons of the Colorado with a head full of gold and ran a horse thief off the best crossing on the river. Boone follows him from Dandy Crossing to a shooting, a courtroom and a garden at the bot…

Eastbound drivers finish at the East Entrance pullout by the Notom-Bullfrog Road, which has a vault toilet and information boards. The next fuel lies well to the east in Hanksville. Drivers setting out west hear a sho…

The tour's eastern start is the East Entrance pullout at the Notom-Bullfrog Road, a named lot with a vault toilet and information boards, usually reached from Hanksville. Quinn explains the Fold from its east side and…

The park's Visitor Center stands at the junction of Highway 24 and the Scenic Drive, with exhibits, a park film, staff and a bookstore. The Castle rises above the lot as a textbook section of the local rock, and the d…

The Fremont River and Sulphur Creek meet at Fruita, the green center of the park, where about 2,000 fruit trees grow on land farmed long before the settlers came. Irrigation ditches from the 1880s still water the orch…

The Gifford farmhouse, built in 1908, now holds a store and small museum run by the park's natural history association. It stands in the orchards with picnic tables and a water refill station nearby. Parking is limite…

Cora Oyler Smith lived in Fruita longer than anyone ever has. Boone tells the tale of her father's orchards, her sisters, and the house with the picture windows, in a valley the government had other plans for.

Heading south on the Scenic Drive, the rock layers visibly lean to the east, a direct view of the great tilt that formed the Waterpocket Fold. Reddish-brown Moenkopi and the gray and burgundy Chinle line the road near…

Paved dips along the Scenic Drive mark where desert washes cross the road. Flash floods can reach them with very little warning, even under a clear sky, and machinery may be needed to reopen the road. Rangers advise a…

A dirt spur leaves the Scenic Drive for a steep-walled canyon, ending at the Grand Wash and Cassidy Arch trailheads. It suits ordinary cars when open, but closes after storms. The gated openings of an old uranium mine…

A hole at the foot of the cliffs has been dug by a Colorado River explorer, a Fruita farmer and the Cold War. Boone adds up what all that digging came to, and the figure is in the title.

For miles the Scenic Drive runs beside the western face of the Waterpocket Fold, where three formations stack up in a single view. Sheer red Wingate rises from the slopes, the ledgy Kayenta steps back above it, and wh…

The Scenic Drive climbs to a low rise at a paved pullout that splits the drainage between Grand Wash and Capitol Gorge. Water on this bare rock runs off fast, and what stays behind collects in stone pockets that hold…

Desert bighorn sheep work the ledges along the southern end of the Scenic Drive, though they're never guaranteed. Once common here, they disappeared in the twentieth century and returned through a series of releases.…

This road only goes back the way it came, about eight miles. Pull into those four pullouts and they'll talk. At the highway, go left for Torrey, or right for the petroglyphs, Hickman Bridge and Hanksville, with no gas…

Surveyors with a crew of college students, a long summer and a bright idea. Boone relays a family's favorite story about how quickly this country erodes, or doesn't.

The paved Scenic Drive ends here at the mouth of Capitol Gorge, with parking for cars and buses, covered picnic tables, vault toilets and no water. A dirt road continues when it's open. The dead end is deliberate, the…

North takes you to Fruita and the highway.

This trailhead marks part of the old dirt road between Fruita and Grover. The Old Wagon Trail is a strenuous loop of 3.8 miles that climbs over 1,000 feet, with no water along the way. Quinn uses the quiet here to tel…

Thisbe Read crossed the plains with a handcart at eleven and ended up homesteading at the foot of these cliffs. Boone tells of a hard marriage, a harder country, and the day she got a horse.

North takes you to Fruita and the highway.

Slabs of rippled Moenkopi rock lie beside a paved pullout near Slickrock Divide. They preserve the surface of ancient river bottoms and tidal mudflats, and some carry mud cracks and swim marks left by reptiles crossin…

North takes you to Fruita and the highway.

A pullout among pinyon and juniper shows how slowly life moves in this desert. Junipers here can reach 700 years, shutting down branches to survive dry spells. The dark crust on the sand is a living community, easily…

North takes you to Fruita and the highway.

A pullout at Danish Hill looks across banded slopes of the Chinle Formation, a layer rich in volcanic ash and petrified wood. Its colors record ancient rivers and bogs, and the clay is so poor for plants that the hill…

North takes you to Fruita and the highway.

Cohab Canyon climbs out of Fruita near the campground, and its name carries a story local history has come to doubt. The trail runs 1.7 miles one way with 440 feet of climbing, rated moderate, with views over Fruita.…

North takes you to Fruita and the highway.

A shaded lawn with picnic tables marks the old property of Doc Inglesby, a retired dentist and rock collector whose house drew the attention of the state's WPA guide. Restrooms and water run in season. Easter picnics…

North takes you to Fruita and the highway.

The Johnson Orchard stands on the homestead of Nels Johnson, the first to file at Fruita, and a row of old walnuts along this road may date from his time. Boone tells the story of Mary Jane Behunin, who married him at…

A short gravel road off Highway 24 reaches a lot with room for cars, buses and RVs, and a very brief walk leads to a 360-degree view. Black boulders from the high plateaus lie across the ground here, and flat mesas ma…

When you're back at the car, this gravel road goes back the way it came. At the highway, go left for Torrey or right for Fruita. The tour picks up on its own.

The Goosenecks road ends at a lot with two short, easy walks. One reaches an overlook above the looping canyon of Sulphur Creek, and the other runs to Sunset Point for wide views at either end of the day. Footing near…