This massive 100-mile long stretch of uptilted sandstone in Utah’s desolate south-center is the least visited of Utah’s five national parks (Arches, Bryce, Canyonlands and Zion are the other four). That’s perfectly fine with the mountain bikers, hikers, rock climbers, horse riders and history buffs who have this magnificent place to themselves. The arid 378-square-mile park, named after a rock formation that reminded observers of the U.S. Capitol dome, was created in 1971, almost exactly 100 years after the area was first mapped. It boundaries protect a series of canyons, domes, escarpments and cliffs, all contained in a formation called the Waterpocket Fold, that presented a formidable obstacle to east-west movement by Utah settlers. It remoteness protected it from exploitation of almost any sort, even tourism, until well into the 20th century.
But some hardy people were able to make a living in the area. Mormon settlers found a reliable water source in the Fremont River on the west side of the region and founded a small farming community. They named it Fruita after the hundreds of acres of fruit trees they planted there – apple, cherry, plum, peach, apricot – and engaged in trade with other isolated settlements in the area. Because of the rugged nature of the land, Fruita and its neighbors were among the most isolated communities in the Lower 48 United States until the 1950s.
Fruita is long gone, its properties acquired by the National Park Service to consolidate the national monument that was established in 1937 and would later become the national park.
Today you can still see extensive stands of fruit trees near the park’s visitor center, a few miles east of Torrey, the successor to Fruita as the largest town around.
Far earlier than the Mormon farmers were the Fremont people, a tribe of hunter-gatherers who were also proficient at agriculture, that settled near the Fremont River and thrived from around 700 A.D. to 1300 A.D. Although they lived in the same general region as the Utes, Paiutes and Anasazi, there’s no evidence linking them genetically or culturally to those tribes. However, they left behind a considerable number of pictographs and petroglyphs, many of which can be seen along Capitol Reef’s “Petroglyph Pullout.” This fairly easy hike, located a mile east of the park’s visitor center, allows you to see up close the artwork left behind by the Fremont people. The subjects are human and animal figures, as well as geometric shapes.
Nobody can say with certainty why Native Americans drew petroglyphs. Some claim they had religious or storytelling significance, while others claim they were the equivalent to doodling or graffiti. Given the amount of labor involved in creating them, though, it seems that the former explanation is more likely.
Torrey and its outskirts have serviceable lodgings and restaurants, but try to remember that this is a very remote area of the country. No matter which direction you come from, it’s a fairly long drive. Probably the loveliest way to approach Capitol Reef is from the south along Utah Hwy. 12, a road that that loops through the spectacular Escalante region, with its remarkable eroded sandstone canyons and gullies, up through conifer and aspen-clad mountains and then down into Torrey.
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