National Parking Made Easy Half-day, full-day & 3-day itineraries for ’s fab five

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SPECIAL EDITION FOR SUBSCRIBERS OF DESERET NEWS AND THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Hickman Bridge Photo by Richard Ansley

Hidden Gem: Cathedral Valley If you took a bunch of major world religious concepts and shook them up in a box, you’d have an approximate picture of Cathedral Valley, a northern swath of the park where imperious weathered stone towers stand around with a splendor that inspires piety. For you pagans and ancient Egyptians, there’s the and its lunar sibling, the Temple of the Moon — two stately monoliths that rise pyramid-like from the desert Photo by Ann Whittaker floor. Old Testament types will be drawn to the Walls of Jericho — sheer sandstone cliffs that, true to the story, are in the process of crumbling apitol Reef is always use the locals’ original down. (Leave your trumpets at home, worthy of many nickname: Wayne Wonderland please.) And for the neo-spiritual, superlatives, but it (after Wayne County). there are miles of remote, unpeopled definitely deserves Either way, the take-home is desert where you can find yourself. the blue ribbon for Weirdest the same: This place is so weird, Plus, unlike those stuffy European ones, you can drive your car through Park Name. (Runner-up: Goblin so whacked-out-beautiful these cathedrals in a 60-mile loop of Valley.) Noobs to the name will and surprising, the namers candy-striped hills, glass mountains wonder, “Are we in Washington, had their hands full affixing a and giant gypsum sinkholes. If you’re D.C.? Snorkeling off Tahiti?” The moniker that captures all the feeling non-vehicular, there are plenty of side trails and overlooks answer is neither, and both. variety as the park does. And where you can have a Road-to- You can’t pass any binding once you see the technicolor Damascus moment. laws in the park, but the rocks, the cathedrals of capitol part of the name is stone jutting up from flat LODGING a shout-out to the white ground and the Fremont Capitol Reef Resort | 435-228-5434 CAPITOL REEF dome formations that dot River goosenecking its 2600 East Highway 24, Torrey 84775 the horizon and look just like way through it all, you www.utah.com/capitol-reef-resort the real deal back East. And won’t even care that you The Broken Spur | 435-222-0499 NATIONAL PARK despite a lack of tropical fish, mistakenly wore your scuba 955 East Highway 24, Torrey 84775 the park has an elevated piece fins. ’Cause it’s worth it. www.utah.com/the-broken-spur-inn By Ash Sanders of land that obstructs passage (Plus, since the park is huge, Boulder Mountain Lodge | 435-222-0583 — a lesser known sense of wild and not that crowded, 20 North Highway 12, Boulder 84716 the word reef. If you don’t like there will be hardly anyone www.utah.com/boulder-mountain-lodge the current name, you can around to make fun of you.)

14 UTAH.COM MAGAZINE | SPRING 2017 UTAH.COM MAGAZINE | SPRING 2017 15 If you have HALF A DAY... If you have THREE DAYS... Near the visitor center. Start Sulphur Creek, . your brief stay with a mid-morning Congratulations! It’s either Memorial Day or view of Mother Nature’s candyland you’ve quit your job to become an amateur on the two-mile Hickman Bridge rockhound. Either way, you’ve got some time trail, a cottonwood-dotted hike on your hands and the park can’t wait to fill between tanned sandstone walls it. Start your three-day wilderness bender ending at a colossal 130-foot by wading through Sulphur Creek, a section natural bridge. Play in the sand, of watery narrows that passes through the visit the nearby Fremont ruins, then oldest rock in the park and features multiple clamber back down to earth and waterfalls, pools and drop-offs. Impress your treat yourself to a homemade fruit hiking date/surly teenager/own self by down- pie at the Gifford House. Wait: Local climbing the steep sections and doing the fruit pies? In the desert?! Yep, you butterfly stroke in the deepest pools. When Burr Trail heard right. Thanks to the hard work you’re done being way-super-tough, head to of early Mormon homesteaders, the Golden Throne, a giant dome of Navajo fruit trees still blossom in the sandstone that rules the rocks for miles. historic homestead of Fruita. . Head out in the fire of Grab some old-timey home goods the afternoon sun and hike into the Frying Pan, from the farmhouse museum, traipsing across the Waterpocket Fold with your eat a pie or two, then pick the phone camera on permanent panorama mode. fresh version from the trees in the End the day by driving the Burr Trail, a truly adjacent orchard. twisted road that takes you straight into the Digest your lunch while looking blood-red heart of the park. Mail a postcard to at the petroglyphs down the road, your parents telling them you really are, as Oprah an array of ancient rock billboards says, living your best (amateur rockhound) life.™ chiseled by the Fremont Indians who settled the area centuries ago. Then catch the sunset at Sunset Go to utah.com/capitol-reef-national-park Point, where you can see the spine for more info, photos and itineraries Sulphur Creek of the Waterpocket Fold, fluted Photo by Ann Whittaker sandstone sentinels and the far-off Henry Mountains all pop with color before cooling into night. TRAIL DESCRIPTION MILEAGE DIFFICULTY If you have A FULL DAY... Keep your canyons close and your friends Take a(nother) hike. Haven’t had Grand Wash 4.4 miles roundtrip easy your fill of arches yet? Good. Take closer on this narrow trail. a scramble up some slickrock to What’s that smell? It’s you, getting funky in Cassidy Arch, named after Butch, Sulphur Creek 12.5 miles roundtrip easy the pilfering outlaw who used to a slot canyon, getting down in the river. hide out in the canyon with his entourage, the Wild Bunch. Sit with *Hickman Bridge An unnaturally long natural bridge. Naturally. 1.8 miles roundtrip moderate your entourage and contemplate both the beauty of red stone against Come for the towering arch, stay for the bricks *Cassidy Arch 3.4 miles roundtrip moderate blue sky and the moral ambiguity of buried outlaw gold. (Kidding?) of a man who devoted his life to bank robbery being rewarded with Chim-chimeny, chim-chimeny, chim-chim, a giant geological namesake. * Loop cheroo, good luck will rub off when you hike 3.6 miles roundtrip moderate Shake yourself back to your on this loo—p. senses and promise to be good, then distract yourself from Mother Nature’s throwing shade on this 2.0 miles roundtrip moderate temptation by hoofing it to riverine walk in the park. (Literally.) Chimney Rock, the knobby tent pole of the park. Take in the views Frying Pan A hike so pretty you could cook an egg on it. 5.8 miles roundtrip strenuous on the way home or, if you have the juice for another major hike, Bow down to her if you want! Bow to her! Bow keep the west wild and drop down Golden Throne 4.0 miles roundtrip strenuous to the queen of stone! into nearby Spring Canyon — a ten-mile canyon adventure. *MOST POPULAR

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