Frommer's National Parks of the American West - Don Laine [98]
One recommended trip is the Cathedral Valley Loop. It covers about 60 miles on a variety of road surfaces, including dirt, sand, and rock, and requires the fording of the Fremont River, where water is usually 1 to 1½ feet deep. The reward is beautiful, unspoiled scenery, including bizarre sandstone monoliths and majestic cliffs, in one of
the park's more remote areas. There's a small primitive campground (see "Camping," below). Access to this loop is from Utah 24, just outside the park, 11¾ miles east of the visitor center on the River Ford Road, or 18½ miles east of the visitor center on the Caineville Wash Road.
Wild Hare Expeditions (see above) offers mountain-bike and four-wheel-drive tours into the national park and surrounding areas. Full-day tours, including lunch, cost $80 to $125 per person; prices for a variety of other guided trips, including multiday excursions, start at $125 per person per day. The company can also help arrange mountain-bike rentals. Four-wheel-drive tours, including multiday trips to petroglyph and pictograph sites in the area, are also available from Hondoo Rivers and Trails (see "Horseback Riding," below). Those wanting to go four-wheel-drive touring on their own can rent a 4WD for about $89 per day at Thousand Lakes RV Park & Campground, and ATV guided tours and rentals (call for current rates and schedules) are available from Wonderland Inn. See "Camping," below, for contact information for both businesses.
Horseback Riding. Horses are welcome in some areas of the park but prohibited in others; check at the visitor center for details. Guided horseback trips are offered by Hondoo Rivers and Trails, P.O. Box 98, Torrey, UT 84775 (☎ 800/ 332-2696 or 435/425-3519; fax 435/425-3548; www.hondoo.com). The company's goal is to provide comfortable and informative backcountry experiences for small groups. Scheduled trips include 1- to 5-day excursions into the backcountry of Capitol Reef National Park, nearby Boulder Mountain, and the canyons of Grand Staircase– Escalante National Monument. Trail rides are aimed at wildflower or wildlife viewing. Full-day trips cost $125 per person, multiday trips cost $1,125 to $1,775, and custom tours can be arranged.
Wildlife Viewing. Summer in Capitol Reef is hot and sometimes stormy, but it's a good season for wildlife viewing. In particular, many species of lizards make their home in the park; you will probably catch a glimpse of one warming itself on a rock. The western whiptail, eastern fence, and side-blotched lizards are the most common; the most attractive is the collared lizard, which is usually turquoise with yellow speckles.
Watch for deer and marmots in Fruita, especially along the path between the visitor center and Fruita Campground. This area is also where you're likely to see chipmunks and white-tail antelope squirrels. Although they're somewhat shy and only emerge from their dens at night, ring-tailed cats (part of the raccoon family) also call the park home, as do bighorn sheep, bobcats, cougar, fox, and coyote.
If you keep your eyes to the sky, you may see a golden eagle, Cooper's hawk, raven, or any of the many other types of birds attracted by the park's variety of habitats. Year-round residents include chukars, common flickers, yellow-bellied sapsuckers, horned larks, canyon wrens, rock wrens, American robins, ruby-crowned kinglets, starlings, and American kestrels. In warmer months you're also likely to see yellow warblers, red-winged blackbirds, western tanagers, northern orioles, violet-green swallows, white-throated swifts, and black-chinned hummingbirds. Bird-watching is particularly good along the Fremont River Trail in the spring and early summer.
Camping
INSIDE THE PARK
The pleasant Fruita Campground, located along the Scenic Drive, 1 mile south of the visitor center, has shade trees and modern restrooms and is within walking distance of the Fruita School and other historic attractions.
Capitol Reef also has two primitive campgrounds. To reach Cedar Mesa Campground,