Camping in Capitol Reef

Thu 22 May 2025

After we biked the Wild Horse Gravel Race in De Beque, we continued Saturday night to Fruita and stayed at the Balanced Rock Inn. We did dinner at the Reckless Brewery. Sunday we drove to Capitol Reef. We planned on stopping at Goblin Valley to picnic. The weather was not cooperative, rainy as we arrived. Also, Goblin has upped their entrance fee to $20/vehicle. We asked the ranger if they had covered picnic tables, and he said just the one pavilion and it probably has everyone under it right now. So, we turned around and continued to Capitol Reef.

The campsite was part of the walk in tent area of Loop B. This looked good. However, we noticed that Loop A and B forbid the RVs from running generators, this camp area borders the Loop C - which does allow them. Fortunately, the campers behind our camp site were not using generators.

The scenic drive is Still under construction and you can't take the 20 miles of through the park. We got up early Monday and drove to the Cassidy Arch trailhead. We were one of the last vehicles that could find a parking space at the trailhead. The park needs to consider how small all their pull outs and trailhead parking lots compared to usage. But, since it's been taking them years to pave a simple 2 lane road, perhaps they aren't capable of funding park expansion.

At the arch, we discovered that it is popular for Repelling down. We watched a group of 3 set up and start repelling down the arch.

We also hiked the Hickman Natural Bridge in the afternoon.

Weather was one the cold side. A distrubance went through Sunday night/Monday morning. Part of that was the rain that drove us away from Goblin Valley and pushed upper air down to make overnights in the 30s.

Tuesday we loaded up the bikes and went to the east boundary of the park and parked where the Notom Road ceases to be paved. We biked the gravel until the Cedar Basin remote camp ground.

Deer wandered the campsite freely. They were almost tame. Walking up to the fence to take pictures and they started walking toward me - expecting that I might feed them I think. Speaking of feed, the museum store on the park site is famous for pies, we stopped by and got a berry pie (small one) to share.