After leaving Escalante, we drove Rte 12 through the Grand Staircase area until we veered off to reach the town of Torrey. Capitol Reef has a campground but it’s first come/first served and they have very few sites that will fit us, so we stayed in town instead. Our first day was spent getting acquainted with the area by way of a few short hikes and a stop at the Visitor’s Center to get some ideas on what to see. 
19th century pioneers settled in this area because of the oasis created by the Fremont River. They were able to grow crops here, especially fruit trees, so the community was called Fruita. One of the trails we took was to the Pioneer Register(you’ll have to enlarge the photo to see the graffiti). It’s essentially very old graffiti. People signed their names onto the canyon walls as long ago as 1880. Some of them wrote their names by shooting bullets into the wall. To get to the register, we drove a mile or so down a dirt road in a gorge, called Grand Wash, then hiked a short way into the slot canyon.
Our intent was to also hike another trail that started in the Wash, but it’s no place to be when the weather is threatening, so when we heard the first rumble of thunder, we skedaddled out of there. I was annoyed by some of the other hikers who were continuing on their way because “Gee, wouldn’t the rangers come and get us if the weather was going to be that bad?” Hello?? Did you not see all the signs posted, warning you to leave if it looks like rain, and stating in no uncertain terms that you are responsible for your own safety?? Ugh (Rant over).
We didn’t want to do a major hike that day anyway, because the following day was our “biggie”. We were hiking to the Navajo Knobs, the highest spot in the area, a 10 mile trip with 2500 ft of elevation gain. The knobs are the highest white rock in this picture.
The first part of the hike was pretty standard, but a mile or so into it, it got really interesting. When I could stop and catch my breath, that is. You can see the long diagonal ledge in this picture- each one is about 1/4-3/4 of a mile long. Once you reach the end, you turn the corner, head downhill a bit, then go up the next ledge. There were 4 of those ledges to walk up. At times, we were within feet of the edge, looking straight down, and in other places it was wider.
The view at the top was amazing, and worth the trek up there.
After that kind of hike, I wasn’t sure how much I’d be up for another one the following day, but the things that we wanted to see involved another hike of 6 miles, sooooo….off we went. This time we were hiking the Frying Pan trail, to see the fold from a different perspective, and the Cassidy Arch Trail. Cassidy Arch is named for Butch Cassidy, who had a hideout in this area. The view from the top of Frying Pan trail was pretty good, but not as good as the one from Navajo Knobs.
Cassidy Arch, however, was really cool. This trail is what we call a “twofer”. It has an interesting destination, but the trail to get to it is interesting as well. Hiking on the sandstone is a lot of fun. The arch itself is huge- the top of it is about 30 feet wide, and you can walk across it. Even I did, it felt so wide. I took pictures of the view looking down, but it’s impossible to do it justice in a photo.Our stay in Capitol Reef was short, and we’d love to come back and explore some of the other areas. The park is huge, and this was just one small area of it.
