Located in southern Utah, Capitol Reef National Park is a wonderland of red rocks, stunning domes, and unique arches. It’s a geology lover’s dream, and it also has a unique history of settlement and agricultural cultivation. In this blog we share a Capitol Reef National Park 1 day itinerary. Our itinerary includes two iconic hikes, as well as a unique driving tour through the southern section of the park.

This Capitol Reef National Park 1 day itinerary does not cover Capitol Reef’s Cathedral Valley. Cathedral Valley is a stunning landscape worth having on your radar! However, visiting Cathedral Valley takes a significant amount of time (6-8 hours). The drive also requires a high clearance vehicle (and sometimes 4 wheel drive). Our itinerary can be done by any vehicle, and is less of a time commitment. See below for exactly how I recommend spending a day in Capitol Reef National Park! 

Looking for more Mighty Five itineraries? Click here! I especially recommend our 3 day itinerary for Zion National Park, which is located relatively close to Capitol Reef.

Capitol Reef National Park 1 day itinerary

Below you will find everything you need to know when planning a trip to Capitol Reef, including what to pack. You’ll also find a free Capitol Reef National Park 1 day, which includes 2 hikes and an amazing half day driving tour.

What you need to know when planning a trip to Capitol Reef

The main thing to consider when planning a trip to Capitol Reef is what part of the park you want to explore. Visitors with 2-3 days should be able to explore all of the park’s sections. Those with less time will have to be more selective.

Capitol Reef National Park is divided into three main sections: Fruita, the Waterpocket District, and Cathedral Valley. As mentioned above, Capitol Reef’s Cathedral Valley offers some of the most iconic landscapes in the park, but requires a high clearance vehicle and significant time. Fruita is the heart of the national park, and is a great place to explore day hikes and the park’s unique history. The Waterpocket District is the least visited part of the national park, and offers amazing views of the park’s unique geology, including oyster fossils and the ‘waterpocket fold’ for which this area is named.

This Capitol Reef National Park 1 day itinerary focuses on the Waterpocket District and Fruita. Visitors traveling from Zion to Capitol Reef may consider doing this trip backwards. If you do this route backwards you will not be able to pick up the auto tour book we recommend below. Instead, use this page on the NPS website.

You can find a map of Capitol Reef National Park here.

What to pack for a trip to Capitol Reef National Park

Below are some of the essentials you should pack for a trip to Capitol Reef! Click here to read up on the average high and low temperatures in the park so you can plan your outfits accordingly, depending on the time of your of your visit.

Hiking essentials checklist

• America the Beautiful Pass. An annual America the Beautiful pass covers your entrance fees at all national parks. It also covers fees at other federally managed public lands, such as forest service and BLM sites. This pass is a great investment for people who love national parks and outdoor recreation!
• Good hiking boots. Waterproof boots with good traction are essential, and a quality pair can last for years. We highly recommend Lowa’s Renegade hiking boots (for women and men).
• Water and a water filter. We love the Katadyn BeFree 1.0 Liter Filter Bottle for water filtration, and usually use a Nalgene water bottle or a HydraPak Water Reservoir for water storage.
• Sun protection. We recommend the Sahara Sun Hoodie (for women and men), which is a sun shirt that offers UPF 50+ sun protection. For sunscreen we like Dermatone’s sport sunscreen and Skin Protector Balm (for winter).
• A headlamp. The Black Diamond Storm 500-R Rechargeable Headlamp is lightweight, compact, waterproof, and USB rechargeable.
• A comfortable day pack. We recommend the REI Trail 25 (unisex), the Gregory Juno daypack ​for women, or the Gregory Citro daypack for men.

Looking for more hiking gear recommendations? See below!

Capitol Reef National Park 1 day itinerary

Hike Cassidy Arch

Start your morning with a sunrise hike to Cassidy Arch. This 3.1 mile (round trip) hike is beautiful at sunrise with the soft morning glow illuminating the sandstone cliffs. The trail rises 685 feet before reaching the Cassidy Arch. It’s one of the rare arches you can walk across (just be careful where you step). 

Travel tip: Flash flooding in the park can be deadly, so make sure you understand the risks and check the weather before hiking. When in doubt, talk to a ranger!

Visit the Gifford House for some pie

The Gifford House is famous for its history, and for its locally produced pies!! Open from March 14 (Pi Day) to late November, this is a great stop to add to your itinerary if you’re in town while it’s open. Sadly, we visited in January so we weren’t able to get any pie here. Operating hours vary, but it typically opens by 9:00 am.

Stop by the Visitor Center 

The Visitor Center opens at 9 AM most days, which is good timing after hiking the Cassidy Arch Trail. The Visitor Center usually has a ranger on staff to ask questions about trail and road recommendations. However, we visited the Visitor Center for the sole purpose of picking up the Loop the Fold Auto Guide, and I recommend picking up a copy to follow this itinerary. This booklet is a self-guided auto tour guide that takes you deep into the southern portion of Capitol Reef National Park. Along the drive you’ll see ancient petroglyph art, sandstone arches, the famous ‘Capitol Dome,’ ancient oyster fossil beds, and plenty of unique and stark geology!

The tour can be driven in about 5 hours, but may take longer depending on how many stops and hikes you opt to do. While the guide has 38 distinct stops along its 122 mile route, we only stopped at a handful of them, which we describe below. This guide booklet costs less than $3.00 and is well worth the investment for a full day of exploring the least visited part of the park! 

Start the Loop-The-Fold Driving Tour

This self-guided tour starts at the Capitol Reef National Park Visitor Center and proceeds in a clockwise direction. The guide book mentioned above provides a map and the mileage for each stop, starting at mile zero. As such, I recommend zero-ing out your car’s “Trip A” odometer at the visitor center before beginning your drive so that you can track your progress along the trip.

If you don’t want to purchase the guide you can find a free driving tour resource from the NPS here. However, it is not as in-depth. 

Below you will find our list of essentials for this drive, as well as all the stops we reccomend checking out!

Road trip essentials

This 122 mile road trip takes you deep into the southern part of Capitol Reef National Park. It is the least visited part of the park, and often has limited to no cell service. The road is mostly well-maintained gravel, and does not require 4WD. As such, you need to be “road trip ready” if you run into car troubles along the way. 

Below are a few notes and tips regarding the Loop-The-Fold Driving Tour auto tour:

• Prepare for limited cell service. Have a communication plan if you run into issues. We carry a Garmin InReach satellite messenger with us for emergency communication, which does not rely on cell service. 
• Carry plenty of water and food. Pack at least a couple gallons of water per person and food for 1-2 days just in case of a car breakdown.
• Start with a full tank of gas. There are no gas stations along the way.
• 2 wheel drive is fine. 2WD cars should be fine for this route. 4WD is not required unless you are hauling a trailer (due to the steep slope on the Burr Trail Switchbacks).
• Note the maximum vehicle length. Cars longer than 24 feet (including trailers) should not drive the Burr Trail Switchbacks due to the sharp turns next to the steep cliffs.

Lastly, don’t forget your camera! I used my wide angle and zoom lenses extensively during this drive. See below for links to all our photography gear.

Stop at the Petroglyph Panels

About 1 mile into this self-guided tour, stop at the Petroglyph Panels. Here you’ll see ancient artwork from the native Hisatsinom and Nengwoots people. You will only have to walk about 100 feet from your car to see the main petroglyphs on the cliff wall. They depict human-like figures with ornamental head-dresses, and bighorn sheep. You can also wander a couple hundred yards along a wooden boardwalk to see more petroglyphs on the cliff. This hike is relatively flat. 

Look hard at the image above! Can you spot the petroglyphs?

Hike the Hickman Bridge Trail

At 1.9 miles into the drive, stop for an easy hike along the Hickman Bridge Trail. This trail winds along the Fremont River and into a dry desert landscape. This trail leads to the Hickman Bridge, one of the largest arches in the national park. You will also catch glimpses of the ‘Capitol Dome’ along this hike which is the geologic feature from which this national park got the “Capitol” part of its name. This hike is about 1.7 miles long (round trip) with 416 feet of elevation gain. This was one of my favorite hikes!

Travel tip: Make sure to hike only on the official established hiking trails, and don’t wander off trail. This area of Utah is home to “biological crust” which is an organism that lives on the surface of the soil, and it does a remarkable job preventing soil erosion. One careless footstep can erase 10 years of soil crust growth in an instant!

Stop at the Navajo Dome

At mile 2.3 on the drive, a small unsigned pullout along the side of the road leads to a parking lot where you’ll have a viewpoint of the Navajo Dome. This dome was once a gigantic sand dune that solidified into the sandstone feature you see today. Geologists think this was once part of the largest sand sea in Earth’s history!

Visit the remnants of an old homestead

At mile 6 into the drive, pull off to the right side of the road to see an old homesteading cabin built by the Behunin family in 1882. This one room cabin housed 12 family members at one point – tight quarters! The family quickly abandoned the home when a flood from the Fremont River wiped out a large portion of it – a true testament to the power of that small river nearby! 

View huge sandstone hoodoos

At mile 17.6 into the drive, you’ll see some impressive sandstone ‘hoodoos’ (sandstone rock towers) off to the side of the road. This was a quick stop for us, and not necessarily the most impressive, but it was an excellent example of the sandstone and mudstone layers that shaped this area eons ago when the area was once covered in water. It was interesting imagining a much wetter environment in this otherwise very dry landscape!

Enjoy views of the Henry Mountains and Waterpocket Fold

At mile 24 into the drive, you will notice the Henry Mountains (often snow-capped) to the left and the Waterpocket Fold to the right. You’ll be driving between two distinct geologic features here! The Waterpocket Fold is the major geologic feature that defines Capitol Reef National Park. It is a giant buckle in the Earth’s surface, almost 100 miles long, running north-south.

Find 95 million-year-old oyster fossils

32 miles into the drive, you’ll begin to notice a small ridge to your left running parallel to the road for a couple miles. This ridge is about 50 feet off the road and is about 15 feet tall. This ridge holds the fossilized remains of ancient 95 million-year-old oyster fossils! There are millions of fossils here! There are no formal pull-offs, so we pulled over in a wide area of the road, and hiked in on a cattle trail (without crushing the vegetation).

Travel tip: Hike only on pre-established trails here. Cattle roam this area, so we hiked to the fossil beds on the cattle trails so that we avoided crushing the biological soil crust. 

View the Waterpocket Fold

Between miles 39 and 42, you will continue to get excellent views of the Waterpocket Fold – which is characterized by a steep escarpment of red and white angular cliffs. This feature was called a “reef” by the early settlers since it was a formidable barrier to transportation, and is how this national park got the second part of its name (capitol REEF). We didn’t stop here, but had great views of this feature as we drove along this stretch of road. 

Travel Tip: At mile 42, just before the Burr Trail Switchbacks is the 2.6 mile Headquarters Canyon trail. The park ranger and several locals recommended this hiking trail to us, but we were short on time and didn’t have a chance to hike it! This hike can take 1-2 hours to complete. 

Drive up the infamous Burr Trail Switchbacks

At mile 43 on the drive you’ll come to the Burr Trail Switchbacks. The road is a well-maintained gravel surface, but it becomes steep and narrow here as you drive up the face of the sandstone cliffs! As a precaution, vehicles over 24 feet long (including trailers) should not drive this trail due to the sharp turns of the corners. Along the drive up, you’ll start to see sweeping views of the valley below!

Take a Geology Stop

At mile 62 on the drive, park at the large pull off to your left. A short 20 foot walk to the edge of the “cliff” will offer great views of the multi-colored Chinle Formation clay hills beneath you – with alternative stripes of red and white mudstone. This reminded me a lot of the Painted Hills in the John Day Fossil Beds in Oregon!

Come to a fork in the road and end your tour

After a full day of driving, you’ll reach mile 78 on the drive just at sunset. We parted ways with the auto tour at this junction and drove into Boulder, Utah as we made our way to Bryce Canyon National Park. However, if you continue on the self-guided driving tour loop, the guide booklet has several other stops as you make your way back to the Visitor Center. These additional stops include more archaeological sites, scenic view overlooks, hiking trails, and geology stops!

Looking for more Mighty Five itineraries? Click here! I especially recommend our 3 day itinerary for Zion National Park, which is located relatively close to Capitol Reef.