Conquering Capital Reef National Park
Place: Capital Reef National Park, Goblin State Park, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
State: Utah
Closest Cities: Moab, UT, Fruita, UT
Time of Year: March 2024
How we got there: Road Trip
As part of Utah’s Mighty Five, Capital Reef National Park is by far the least visited. This remote national park is located in central Utah and is mostly overlooked by visitors. Some of you may not have even heard of it, but since our goal is to visit every US national park, it was on my list! You may be wondering how it got it’s name. Well, the name comes from something we are all very familiar with, the US capital building. This park features white Navajo sandstone domes that resemble the dome on the capital building. It is also located on the rugged ridge of the 100 mile Waterpocket Fold which runs from Thousand Lake Mountain to Lake Powell. Hence the name Capital Reef! I know, it is a stretch , but we will go with it!
As part of a 9 day road trip with my brother Marc and his wife Stephanie, I feel I cannot just tell you able Capital Reef but must mention a few other stops we made along the way! There is just so much to see in Utah that it is almost overwhelming! So lets start on day 3. We woke up bright and early in Thompson Springs, UT and made the 75 mile drive to Goblin State Park. This is a pretty remote area so hotels and Airbnb’s are limited and we stayed in the closest place we could find available which was a mobile home park in Thompson Springs. It was actually really nice!
Goblin Valley State Park
Goblin State Park was a recommendation from a friend who knew how much we love unique places! I am so glad we stopped because it it quite incredible! We had very limited time so after stopping at the tiny visitor’s center to pay our $10 park fee and getting our park sign picture, we made our way into the park.
It was so cold that day! I am talking in the 30’s! The park is only about 4.5 miles total and is broken up into 3 valleys. We focused our entire visit in Valley 1 which is the first stop where you can find Observation Point. Goblin Valley is the perfect name for this place as it looks like a little village! It is filled with such incredibly bizarre formations that you might actually believe goblins lived here! Hoodoos are everywhere! Some big and some small and all with crazy shapes! You really could spend all day roaming in and around them. There are very few hiking trails so you are encouraged to wander freely and that’s just what we did!
These hoodoos are more mushroom shaped and remind me of the sandcastles I used to build on the beach as a child. Like when you drizzle wet sand to make lumpy towers on your castle!
After about an hour exploring, we jumped on the Goblin’s Lair Trail to the left of the parking lot. This is a 3 mile out and back trail to leads around the back of the Goblin Valleys to two incredible caves. The Goblin’s Lair and The Goblette’s Lair. The beginning of the trail is easy peezy as you are just hiking around to the backside where you can get awesome views of Molly’s Castle.
The hard part is getting into the caves! This requires some bouldering and climbing up and then down into the cave. The reward is well worth it!
Because this is what you will see!
Depending on the time of day, you can get some incredible pictures with the light coming through the opening at the top.
This gives you an idea of how deep the Goblin’s Lair really was!
If you only have time for one cave I recommend the Goblin’s Lair over The Goblette’s Lair. Of course the Goblette’s Lair is just a smaller version of the Goblin’s Lair and about 1/2 mile further. We did check out both just in case we were missing something!
We took a few more pictures on the way out including one of the 3 Sisters and we were off to our next stop of the day Capital Reef National Park!
Capital Reef National Park
It was so cold that we had to forgo our picnic and eat in the car on our 1 hour drive down Highway 24 to Capital Reef. Highway 24 runs right through Capital Reef NP so there isn’t a guard booth checking passes. They rely on honesty from those choosing to stop and enjoy the park. If you are just passing through, no problem! But if you plan to stay and soak in all this park has to offer, please purchase a national park pass!
Immediately after entering the park you will come across two trails. The one on the left is Grand Wash Trail and the one on the right is Hickman Bridge Trailhead. We passed up Grand Wash Trailhead as we would do a portion of it later in the day in connection with Cassidy Arch Trail. Hickman Bridge trail would be a good warm up hike! It was an easy trail with amazing scenery leading to a natural arch called Hickman’s Bridge. Only about 1.7 miles round trip.
Don’t forget to go through the arch for some amazing views of the backside!
Along the way we explored a set of smaller arches that you can walk under and over!
There are so many little pockets and alcoves to explore and a muddy river at the beginning/end of the trail. This was our very first glimpse of Capital Reef and we wanted more!
Another 2 miles driving down 24, we entered the town of Fruita, UT which is a rural historic district with orchards and historic buildings like the old school house. They have some stunning petroglyphs as well which we decided to come back to later. On the right will be the turn for the visitor’s center and the main part of the park. Our goal was to stop and get a famous mini pie from Gifford Homestead, however we were too late in the day and all the homemade pie’s were sold out! Tomorrow for sure! Past the Gifford Homestead and campground you can find the start of the scenic drive. At the beginning of the drive was the trailhead for Cassidy Arch. Cassidy Arch was our main focus and we thought why not knock it out today? This is a 3.5 mile strenuous and steep trail with the trailhead starting at the end of Grand Wash Trail. We soon found out that the 1/2 mile dirt road leading to the trailhead was closed and we would have to park along the road and hike the 1/2 mile in to start the trail. This made our hike 4.5 miles in total.
It was an easy walk with towering red canyon walls all around us. The beginning of Cassidy Arch Trailhead offered restrooms which was nice. We followed the trail signs into Grand Wash Trail which is a dry riverbed leading to some slot canyons. About a half mile in we turned off Grand Wash Trail and started our climb up Cassidy Arch Trail. This is no joke! A real leg burner! The higher we climbed, the better the views got!
The first look at Cassidy Arch came into view as well as the dome shaped Navajo sandstone mounds that gave the park it’s name! Some of them looked more like nipples! In fact I believe this one is called Fern’s Nipple!
We had a little fun taking pictures with Fern’s Nipple!
The scenery all around was spectacular and when we arrived at Cassidy Arch, we were super excited to find that we were the only ones there! You can actually walk across the arch, however I was the only one brave enough to try it!! Check me out on the arch below!
On the way down we stopped for a few more pictures including one of a hole that looks like a dinosaur print!
All in all our elevation gain was about 845 feet. The hike started a little over 5000 ft and ended around 5,912 ft. This is a must do hike! 2 parks and 3 hikes in one day and we were ready for dinner and bed! We rented an amazing 3 bedroom master suite in a boutique hotel called The Snuggle Inn in Loa, UT that I found on Airbnb. It was a quick 26 minute drive on Highway 24 . We stopped for dinner in Torrey, UT on the way.
We certainly did not want to miss out on the mini pie’s from Gifford Homestead, so we were back in the park super early so that we could be the first in line! We were so early that we had some time to spare so we made a stop to see the petroglyphs in Fruita. These truly were some of the best I have ever seen. It only takes about 15 minutes for this stop, so definitely try to squeeze it in!
Next we got in line at Gifford Homestead and picked out our very own mini pie and cinnamon roll! Nothing like a hopping load of sugar to start your day! There are no tables inside and the few picnic tables outside where taken, so we walked behind the building to the campground and found an empty site with a picnic table to enjoy our pie feast!
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
Now that we checked the famous pie off our list as well as everything we wanted to see at Capital Reef, we decided to take a scenic drive to the Grand Staircase-Escalate National Monument. It took us a little over an hour to drive the back roads through Boulder, UT to Lower Calf Creek Falls Trailhead which would be the start to a fantastic 6 mile hike with a grand finale at the end.
This hike! I cannot even begin to describe all the wonderful sights we experienced on this trail! As we hiked the thick sand trail, grapple(teeny tiny hail) fell from the sky! It was chilly but the sun was out which made for a strange time to see ice falling all around!
I loved the massive walls all around us, some of which had pictographs!
As we approached what we knew was a waterfall, we were not prepared for the sight of it!
Wow!! It was quite spectacular!
There were little snow flurries as we sat on a log and ate our lunch. We watched a man propose in front of the waterfall and thought about how amazing it was to be in such a beautiful place! If you find yourself in the area, this hike will not disappoint.
Well that concludes our 2 days in the area of Capital Reef National Park! Hope you too can experience the beauty of this place! If you are interested in where we went next check out these links! https://dawntillduskaz.com/the-best-days-in-bryce-canyon/ & https://dawntillduskaz.com/overzealous-in-zion/
Please remember to hike responsibly and leave no trace!
