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Tim's Hikes #1: Capitol Reef National Park

There are some famous hikes on public lands in the US that have restricted access, that limit the number of people who can do the hike each day. Some are for safety reasons, like Half Dome in Yosemite National Park or Angel's Landing in Zion National Park. Others are limited because the area is very fragile and would be damaged if huge numbers of people visited every day. The most famous hike in that category is Coyote Buttes North, popularly known as The Wave.

It's not easy to get a permit for The Wave because so many people are interested in going. You have to enter a lottery but the odds of winning are less than ten percent. I entered the last three years without success. This year I was lucky. My name came up and I got a permit for two people to hike to The Wave during the first week of May. I put down two hikers on my application because I thought Sandy would like to go as well. It turned out that for various reasons this spring she couldn't make it. So I had a very valuable permit with an open slot.

I talked to my sons Tim and Mickey to see if either of them would be interested. I didn't expect a positive response since in the past neither of them have been that excited about hiking. The last time I did a hiking trip with them was way back in 1999 when we went to Yosemite and climbed Half Dome.

Surprisingly, Tim came back and said he would like to go. The idea of going someplace that very few people are able to visit appealed to him. Since it's about a ten hour drive from Boise to the Coyote Buttes North area, we planned for five days total for our trip. That would give us time to do some additional hiking. Tim has never been to the canyon country in Southern Utah/Northern Arizona, so I spent a lot of time thinking about our itinerary. I wanted to give him a good sample of the variety of fantastic scenery on the Colorado Plateau, as well as share some of my favorite hikes with him. It was tough because there are so many cool places to see and awesome hikes to do.

I finally narrowed down my list. I warned Tim not to expect to spend much time lounging around in hotel rooms. We'd squeeze in as many hikes as we could. But I wasn't worried. Tim is a strong runner and very tough. I knew that he could easily keep up with any schedule that I came up with (and that I could do myself).

Tim flew out to Boise on a Friday night. He left fairly late so he wouldn't have to take the day off from work. That meant he arrived around 11 pm. With just enough time to make his connection in Dallas, he didn't have dinner. That meant he was starving, and we stopped at In-N-Out Burger for him to grab something. Now that Denny's is gone from the Boise area, I was surprised to find anyplace open so late. But I found out they stay open till 1 am. There weren't many people eating in but the drive through line went out of sight. By the time we got home and settled, it was after midnight.

Since Tim is an early riser, plus had a two hour time change from the East Coast, I figured he would be up really early in spite of his late arrival. An early start would allow us to get a hike in that day and not lose a whole day to driving. When I woke up at 4:30 am I dragged myself out of bed figuring Tim would be downstairs already waiting for me.

Wrong. He was still sleeping. Abby got up with me, so I fed her and let her outside to do her business. Then she was sensible and went back to bed, while I waited around, figuring Tim would be down soon. Well, he didn't show up till six. I guess he is getting lazy in his old age! Just kidding. He had a long day traveling the day before, and six hours of sleep is not really slacking off, especially when we had a lot of driving ahead of us. Getting up at 6 am definitely counts as rising early in my book. We got ready quickly and were on the road by 6:30 am, which was pretty good.

Our first destination was Torrey Utah, which is the gateway to Capitol Reef National Park. We made good time. Our only stop, other than for gas, was a brief one in Twin Falls (for Cinnabon - some things are worth a slight delay). We also had about twenty minutes of stop and go (but mainly stop) near the I15/I215 junction in Salt Lake due to a combination of heavy traffic, construction and an accident. We still made it to Torrey by mid afternoon. The weather was good and we had several hours of daylight left, so after checking into our hotel, we headed to the park to do a hike.

Capitol Reef National Park has a number of short to medium hikes, only four or five miles long with moderate elevation gain, that can be done in 2 - 2.5 hours. I picked the Cassidy Arch Trail for our first hike. It's unique because while there are many arches in Utah, it is easy to stand on top of Cassidy Arch. It makes for a great photo. In fact, I have a large print (24x36 inch) hanging on the wall of my office, of Sandy standing on Cassidy Arch. Since the viewpoint of the arch is from the west, I thought late afternoon would be the best light for a photo.

Although the light would be good, I was nervous about parking late in the day. I'd been there before and knew that the parking area was not very large, and that two popular trails left from the same trailhead. There were overflow cars lining the access road as we approached, but there were a few spots available when we reached the parking area. It was late enough that the people who had come early and gotten good parking spots had already finished their hikes and left.

The weather was great - blue skies with a few clouds. The temperature was pleasant. There were a few other hikers on the trail but not a lot. Not bad for a national park on a weekend. When we reached the arch there were two other people there, but they left soon after we arrived. I've done the hike several times before and this was the first time that we were the only party there. I got the standard picture of Tim standing on the arch. The light could have been better. This late in the afternoon part of the arch was in shadow, so it wasn't as obvious in the pictures that he was standing out on the arch. The arch kind of blended into the cliff behind it. Lesson learned - the best time for photos standing on the arch is probably right in the middle of the day.

The scenery all along the trail was spectacular. We got lots of other good pictures as we hiked, including the mandatory one posing with the provocatively named Fern's Nipple, a prominent peak on the southern skyline.

Here are our stats for the hike, from GPS and the AllTrails app:

Distance = 3.47 miles

Elevation gain = 715 feet

Moving time = 2:07:42 Total time = 2:15:17

After the hike we drove back into Torrey to get dinner. We hadn't stopped for lunch on the drive down, just eating snacks along the way, so we were hungry. I wanted to take Tim to the Rimrock Restaurant, my favorite place in Torrey. I always get a steak and Sandy really likes their trout. Unfortunately, by the time we got there it was after six and there was a forty five minute wait. The food is good, but not that good.

We moved on to the Broken Spur Steakhouse. I had never been there but a steak sure sounded good. Sadly it had a twenty minute wait, so I still haven't eaten there. We finally ended up at the Rock Reef Cafe. Tim had a bison burger and I had a pizza. Both were good and definitely filled us up. After dinner we went back to the hotel and watched the Brewers lose to the Nationals, 3-2. Tim isn't really a baseball fan but he indulged me.

The plan for the next morning was to do another hike in Capitol Reef National Park before moving on. There was no rush so even though Tim was up before me, he let me sleep in. I didn't get up till 8 am. Pretty decadent, but after my short sleep the night before it felt good. Neither of us eat breakfast but Tim is big on having a coffee in the morning on weekends. Since it was Sunday, he didn't want to miss one of his designated coffee days. We made a quick trip to the coffee stand in town, Dark Sky Coffee, and then headed for the park.

The forecast was for overcast skies in the morning, partially clearing up in the afternoon. We were going to do another hike in Capitol Reef National Park, and then drive to Escalante, Utah. We might do another hike near there in the afternoon, depending on the weather and how we felt. The hike I picked for the morning was Grand Wash, which starts at the same trailhead we had used yesterday. The hike is entirely in a canyon so I figured that if it was overcast, it wouldn't make much difference. Turns out it didn't matter. When we got to the trailhead the sky was mostly blue. It provided a beautiful contrast to the red rock and made for great photos.

Grand Wash cuts completely through the main ridge of Capitol Reef, from the Cassidy Arch Trailhead in the west to a trailhead along the Notom Road in the east. The canyon is hundreds of feet deep, lined with spectacular cliffs. We followed the broad wash along the bottom of the canyon, passing the turnoff for the Cassidy Arch Trail, which we had taken the previous afternoon. I didn't have a particular destination in mind. I figured we would just hike until the canyon gradually died out as we came out the other end. Well, it ended rather suddenly, just as we reached the trailhead on the Notom Road. So we ended up hiking the entire length of Grand Wash, from one trailhead to the other and back. It was pretty easy. The route along the wash was flat. There was very little elevation gain. Tim carried his empty coffee cup all the way out and then back to the car.

Since it was Sunday, we saw quite a few families with little kids. Utah has lots of good, Mormon families and they were out hiking. You know a trail isn't too tough when it's suitable for toddlers. Seriously though, it was good to see parents getting their kids outside hiking rather than sitting and watching tv. Hopefully as they get older, they will stick up for preservation of these lands.

The stats for our hike, according to my GPS:

Distance = 5.64 miles

Moving time = 2:20:46 Total time = 2:22:03

That was fine, but it was completely confused about the elevation gain. It gave it as 1417 feet when it should have been less than 300. Being in the steep canyon faked out the GPS somehow. Maybe it was getting reflections off the cliffsides or something. The hike profile showed us bouncing up and down the entire time, while the actual wash that we followed was so flat we didn't notice any ascent or descent the entire time. I guess even GPS can have a bad day.

After the hike, we stopped at the Gifford House, an old farm house in the Fruita Valley. It's been restored to show what life was like for the Mormon pioneers who lived in what is now part of the national park. The Capitol Reef Natural History Association operates a small gift shop, selling local food items like jam, honey and baked goods. I thought Tim might want to get something to take home as a souvenir. Instead he zeroed in on the homemade pie for sale, and we each got a slice (mine was cherry) with a scoop of ice cream.

The few spots to sit outside were taken, but a nice lady who was by herself offered to share her picnic bench with us. It was a beautiful spot, in the shade under a tree, with the green of the fruit trees in Fruita nearby and the red cliffs of the park in the background. Oh yeah. The pie was delicious too.

We tried to go to the Visitor Center next, but the parking lot was full and cars were lined up waiting for spots. We didn't want to go that badly. We did make a stop at the petroglyph site nearby. Just off the highway, it was a chance for Tim to see some ancient rock art.

Then it was time to leave the park. We drove back to Torrey, where we stopped at Slacker's Burger Joint. Tim was hungry so he got a burger and fries, which he said were good. After the cherry pie and ice cream, I just wanted a fountain drink. But I was thirsty. I don't remember how many refills I got. I tried to buy one of the tshirts that the staff wore. The back said "Genius by birth, slacker by choice". Seemed perfect for me but alas, they didn't have my size.

I didn't let that stop me, because I am the tshirt master!

After lunch, we went to the Torrey Trading Post. They have a good selection of Capitol Reef National Park tshirts. I think I showed restraint because I only bought one. I had to pace myself. It was still early in the trip.

Meanwhile Tim wasn't that interested in tshirts, so he amused himself by checking out the display of large metal animal sculptures outside the store. They had several dinosaurs: a Tyrannosaurus, an Ankylosaurus and a Triceratops, as well as some smaller dinosaurs. Since Tim is a dinosaur enthusiast, he had to get his picture taken with the dinosaurs.

When we were done it was almost 2 pm, later than I had expected. It was time for us to leave Torrey and Capitol Reef National Park. It had been fun, but we had to drive to Escalante, Utah where we would spend the night. The weather was still good and we had plans to try to do another hike along the way. I'll cover that in the next post.