A 100 mile wrinkle in the earth’s crust—a Waterpocket Fold that extends from Fishlake Mountain in Central Utah to Lake Powell in Southern Utah. Capitol Reef National Park was established to protect this land the Navajo call the “Land of the Sleeping Rainbow”. A beautiful landscape of multi-hued sandstone rock layers, cliffs, reefs, canyons, arches, spires, and domes with a wide range of diverse plants and animals. One of the roads you can explore in the park is the Capitol Gorge Spur Road. This road was traveled as a through road from 1884 until 1962 but now it is only two miles long. While driving this road you can view the most dramatic sandstone erosion in the park. Today, just like the wagon masters a century ago, you need to consider the weather before you proceed into the gorge due to dangerous flash floods that occur with little warning. |
