Capitol Reef National Park

"Waterpocket Fold National Park" obviously wasn't going anywhere, according to the focus groups, and so, I surmise, the National Park Service had to come up with something a bit sexier, more enticing, even for visitors to Utah. (Try ordering a double of any adult drink in Utah...). So, yeah, maybe a beach theme: "Capitol Reef." Yeah, sun and fun. Maybe a luau and tiki huts and surf boards and dancing girls. Let's get back together and do it again. Except during thunderstorms and flash floods....

Despite the misnomer thing, it's a pretty neat place, showcasing and protecting the Waterpocket Fold, a 90 mile geologic monocline that is its own micro environment, with a human history and pre-history to match. The monocline is an up-thrust staircase of hundreds of millions of years old sediments, now an eroded wonderland of peaks, domes, cliffs, towers, spires, and arches. We spent only a day there, driving on to beat an incoming winter storm. But we'll be back.

En route to Capitol Reef NP

See, Waterpocket Fold; I wasn't making it up

Approaching Fruita, the 19th century Mormon settlement, known
for its extensive orchards; but on the wall above, more rock art

Thus

And thus

After doing the visitor center and film, we drove the scenic
road, veered off onto a scenic unpaved road, and then finally,
on foot, onto the scenic Capitol Gorge Trail...

More rock art

Thus

A real slot canyon

Definitely not summer; nor a beach

More pictographs

And now we are climbing up a little side canyon to see some
of the "tanks," waterpockets that are characteristic of the area,
and which provide for much of the micro environment

Thus

And thus

Walking

And then driving back out

Wait a second! Was that there when we drove in?!

Neat place; we'll be back...with our surf boards