Capitol Reef National Park in 1.5 days

How we spent 1.5 days at Capitol Reef National Park

This post gets really long, recap at the end.

Lodging

There aren't many lodging options near the park entrance, and the only lodging option inside the park is the Fruita Campground, as much as I enjoy camping that's not something I want to do during big trips. 

We drove 3 hours from Salt Lake City to Torrey, it is the town closes to the entrance of Capitol Reef. It was completely dark when we arrived at Broken Spur Inn & Steakhouse. I didn't spend too much time researching where to stay for our time at Capitol Reef, because there aren't many options but as soon as I saw the wagon pictures I knew that's where we wanted to stay.  Sleeping in a wagon sounded like a fun way to start our big trip, spoiler alert it wasn't that much fun. The best part was that breakfast was included with our stay, I'm not a big breakfast person but having a meal before big hikes is always nice. 

Hikes

After our continental breakfast we started off with a an easy 1.8 mile hike to Hickman Bridget. The parking lot at the trailhead is very small, you must arrive early to get a spot. When going to National Parks, it is important to get up early, to get a good parking spot and enjoy the trail. We were usually one of the first 10 families on the trails. 

Not a bad way to start off our Mighty Five trip. 

We then headed back to the Visitor's Center to start our second hike of the day. We hiked part of the Sulphur Creek Trail. The Sulphur Creek is best done as a point-to-point hike, starting at the top of the trail and ending at the Visitor's Center. For that you need a second vehicle or someone willing to walk back to the starting point, which is right off Highway 24, this isn't safe or recommended. Since we didn't have a second vehicle we hiked to the first/last pool. The girls jumped off the side of the canyon and we had our first trail/roadside sandwich of the trip. 

Tip: Pack your cooler. Medium size coolers can be checked in, as long as they don't have dry ice. We have an RTIC 45 QT cooler. I had an American Express Delta Gold card, a benefit of the cards is that every person on my reservation is allowed one checked item for free. Check your airline policy, but so far our cooler has flown Delta and Southwest as a regular checked luggage. 

The Sulphur Creek Trail was an easy hike, but do your research as it is a creek and flash-flooding can be an issue, we encountered some flooding that evening. Here is a better report on hiking Sulphur Creek.

After spending the morning on our legs it was time to take a scenic drive along the Scenic Drive road.  It is a short 7.9 mile drive on a paved road. Remember when I mentioned flash floods? It started pouring rain during our drive, I don't have pictures because I was driving but Dave did manage to get a video. 

It was a quick downpour, by the time we made it back to the start of the road it had stopped raining. The rain had cleared some of the crowds so we stopped at Gifford House to eat some pie. Capitol Reef National Park has a very interesting history, there once was a small settlement that included an orchard with apple, apricots, peaches, pears and cherries. 

We were tired and ready to relax after a busy day. We headed back to our wagon to get cleaned up before grabbing dinner. There weren't many options due to COVID, we drove to town to one of the few places that was open, Slackers, they had decent burgers.  After dinner the girls spent some time at the pool. 

Day two

We still had another big hike before we left Capitol Reef National Park. We packed up, had some breakfast and headed to the Cassidy Arch trailhead. This is a must do trail, it is a 3.1 mile out and back trail. It is a moderate trail, with no shade. 

10 out of 10, don't miss out on Cassidy Arch

We had one more trail at CRNP, Grand Wash trail. The trail is 5 mile point-to-point but we didn't have time to do the entire trail, we spent about an hour walking the trail before we turned around to head back to the car. 

We then drove to Bryce Canyon National Park, but on the way there we pulled over to eat our lunch: Turkey, cheese, peperoni and pickle sandwiches. This was our lunch view.

And that concludes our tour of Capitol Reef National Park. Here is the quick recap:

• Lodging: Broken Spur Inn & Steakhouse
• Activities:
• Hickman Arch Trail
• Sulphur Creek - starting at Visitor's Center
• Scenic Drive 
• Pies at Gifford House
• Cassidy Arch Trail
• Grand Wash Trail
• Food:
• Continental breakfast at hotel
• Trail/roadside sandwiches 
• Burgers at Slackers

Link to my recommendation