RV Camping at Capitol Reef National Park

This is the fourth part of our first RV trip to Utah Mighty five National parks loop. Here are the links to the previous post(Canyonlands National Park) and the next post(Bryce Canyon National park)

April 6, 2022:

After days of driving around in the dry sandstone landscape, sight of Fremont River along hwy 24 was very welcoming. Indeed, water not just adds beauty to the landscape, but the also reason for the early settlers and hence these beautiful historic orchards here today. It was a love at first sight as we drove through our campground and soon became my most favorite camping spots so far. 

We hiked the Hickman Bridge Trail, which is a 2.2-mile round trip walk to the natural bridge, which felt like another arch. We enjoyed our packed sandwiches at the bridge and walked back. Capitol Dome can be seen looking east from the trailhead, named for its resemblance to the U.S Capitol. This dome, along with the nearly 100-mile Waterpocket Fold (a barrier of rock that obstructed early travelers like a barrier “reef”), inspired the park’s name. 

We drove back to the visitor center, got some maps, drove the 4.5-mile scenic drive and to the Panorama point for scenic vistas. The Fruita orchards were one of the largest historic orchards maintained by NPS with over 2,000 trees including apple, pear, peach, apricot, cherry and plum. Now bare, flowering typically occurs March into May, and harvest generally occurs June through October. Fruit is free to sample while in orchards; a small fee is charged for fruit taken out of the orchards.

 Interestingly, there were lots of dogs in the campsites but the people were very friendly and even helped us with stabilizing the RV lending their bricks. The rows of trees, the horses on the ranch, the cowboys next door from whom we borrowed the firewood for the night and the starry sky transported me into a different world and made the camping extra special that night.

 April 7, 2022:

We spent the morning strolling around in the Fruita Historic District beginning with the historic Gifford house museum and store (open 9:00 AM-4:30 PM). Be sure to go early to grab their cinnamon rolls, we went around 10am and they were all gone, and we had to work with their personal fruit pies (made from local cherry, apple and peach). It was interesting to see the Mormon pioneers lived off this isolated land with such ingenuity and hard work, completely self-reliant. We strolled around the picnic area and the orchards, before driving to Bryce Canyon National Park.