Capitol Reef National Park dayhikes April 16-18, 2013

[John Morrow]

I must have been tired from Zion because my energy was low here at Capitol Reef. It was bitter cold, too! Lowest temp at the visitor center was 14 degrees! So I did a few dayhikes, one of which was an interesting crosscountry route up the low angle inclination of the reef from east to west on wonderful sandstone parklands.


April 16: Chimney Rock Trail


After a morning lounge in camp with a couple new friends, I went to the 3 mile Chimney Rock Trail loop to the top of the Mummy Cliffs with a detour of a side joint canyon for a further exploration on another occasion.




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April 17: Capitol Gorge to its south rim up to the top of the Navajo Formation at Point 6700'.


I awoke to an inch of snow on the tent and temps in the teens! This was a fun exploration. First I failed up a side canyon of Capitol Gorge so I then hiked the easy Gorge 1.5 miles to its east mouth. Here I turned southwest to the rim of the canyon and followed a long sloping ridge between canyons back up to the top of the reef on Gorgeous Navajo Sandstone slabs! The finish to the 6700 foot highpoint had a strange pinnacle with a great 15 feet of solid class 3 or 4 chickenheads to climb to gain it.




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April 18: Cohab Canyon Trail-rim walk-Fryingpan Trail Loop


After a lazy morning I left the car in the campsite and went out of camp to the Cohab Canyon Trail. I wanted an interesting variation of the maintained trails so I gained the rim of the reef above the vertical Wingate sandstone and enjoyed a view filled rim walk on slickrock (mostly) south to the highpoint between Cohab Canyon and Grand Wash: Point 6520'.




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I enjoyed a nice campfire evening with my new friends Nancy and Celine from Humboldt, CA. Two new friends and contacts to meet up with on another southern Utah sojourn!


Time to head for Natural Bridges.