Saw this area in the fall. It was bursting with golden yellow. A lovely little side trip to see…read morethe largest living tree/organism.

What an amazing natural wonder!! Pando is a single male Aspen clone - it spans 108 acres and has…read moreover 40,000 trunks all on one giant shared root system - one giant tree!! It weighs 6000 tons and is the heaviest known organism in the world! And if all that isn't interesting enough, the root system is estimated to be several thousand years old!! :-o Pando used to be the largest known organism in the world period - but was booted from the top spot by the discovery of the Oregon fungus mats lol. Still the heaviest though and well worth a visit. Pando is a "quaking" or trembling Aspen and is also known as The Trembling Giant. The leaves will tremble collectively, sometimes even without wind - very interesting experience!! (See my video attached to the review). You can find Pando just south of Fish Lake near Richfield Utah. There are some viewing pull-offs on the way in, small parking areas and campgrounds nearby with restrooms and a few hiking trails. Fish Lake is also a great place to explore - the whole area is just gorgeous - Highly recommend!!

Incredible state park in Utah…read more As part of our family trip to Utah's National Parks, we stayed at Utah State Parks since they had openings. It was a good choice. This is a nice state park with friendly staff and clean facilities. There are clean restrooms with showers and even a laundry room. Just be sure to bring quarters if you arrive after the visitor center closes. In addition, the park itself has some recreational activities available and is located on historic land with pictographs to find. Very good state park.

Do you like petroglyphs? Do like short and reasonable hikes? Then Fremont Indian State Park is for…read moreyou. As a solo traveler with some mobility issues, I was worried about how much access I would have to various stops on the map from the visitor center. The crew in the gift shop were delightful! They high lighted the ones I could definitely do and I did!! I loved the paved little loop at the visitor center itself that is ADA approved. My favorite was probably the 100 Hands Cave. Just a neat little walk by the creek and a small hill to get to the sight. I forgot my binoculars, so if you go bring some with you! I went on the second weekend in May, so not quite the summer season yet, so it wasn't crowded at all and I spent a couple of hours there.

TOILET LEAKS: Water leaks out of toilet all over floor. If staff were cleaning the bathrooms...at…read moreany point, they would have certainly noticed the toilet leaking water all over the floors after every flush. Bathroom hasn't been cleaned in three days we've been here. Extremely dirty. No shower curtain so water floods the whole bathroom leaving floor ready to slip and fall on. I cannot recommend this facility. Drive somewhere else. Poorly managed park that could be amazing. ADDITIONALLY: My water line for the RV is 100+ feet from RV parking spot. I don't know of any RV'er who carries a 150' hose.

Beautiful sunrises and sunsets and starry nights. Water is nice for swimming and has floating docksread more

Came here with some family members to go Tubing. Pretty laid back company that was ran by younger…read morekids. They do a pretty good job with taking care of customers. They supply life jackets and a ride up river for $18 a head. Once in the river you float about an hour & half back to their base. This time of year the river is basically a shallow canal. They call it the Lazy River Float and that's what you get. Fun for younger members and relaxing for the rest. We had a good time and we had about 25 others that seemed to echo our experience too. Tubes & Life Jackets were in good condition. They have a raft trip that goes also. Zip line & endurance course too. You can rent UTV's too.

We were at Big Rock Candy Mountain staying at Caboose Village and booked a Lazy River Float Trip…read more Myself my wife and our grandson were on the trip. Our guide Jordyn was the best. She was good to give us directions and she she even inflated a tube by mouth so my wife could have the tube she wanted. The trip was fun and it was very reasonable price. Next time we may do the whitewater rafting. If you are in central Utah and need an activity look up Big Rock Adventures. 10 out of 10 recommend

We had an absolutely amazing time on our Cathedral Valley tour today. Not only did we have perfect…read moreweather, we had a perfect guide in Tallon. Tallon is an excellent driver, on roads and most especially off road. In addition to taking us to breathtaking views(which we expected), we had the really interesting conversations, which was not really expected. Tallon shared his knowledge and love of Capitol Reef...from the views to the geology to the history. We've been on a number of tours across the States and we've been on ones we wushed we could end early...but not this one! We were in a comfortable enclosed jeep, had water and snacks, and a great guide. Thank you, Sleeping Rainbow!

We had a great Jeep tour with Sleeping Rainbow Adventures. It was easy to book and the person we…read morebooked with answered all my questions and was very friendly and helpful. The driver was very knowledgeable and told us all about the geology of the area and historical facts. She was also fun and funny. She stopped lots of places for us to take photos. I really appreciated having an experienced Jeep driver navigating the mountain switchbacks and knowing where to go. I would not have felt confident doing that drive on my own. I highly recommend them.

Cassidy arch is one of the most popular hikes in CRNP and for good reason! It's a very memorable…read morehike. Kind of nebulous at one point in the first 1/3 of it when you reach this kinda rocky/brushy clearing (I lost a good 30 min wandering around in that area trying to find the actual trail) but once you figure that out it's easy to follow the rest of the trail. The views along the way are lovely and of course the vista at the end is stunning!! I had no issues with parking, there was plenty at the trail head on a week day in April. Just come prepared for finicky weather; I got lucky that it was just cloudy and only misted for like 10 min before stopping but it definitely could rain/get cold quickly.

This review is for Cassidy Arch Trail which was a ~3.1 miles round trip that took ~2 hours to…read morecomplete. Steady inclines mostly near the beginning. Follow the rock cairns for the last stretch to the arch. Amazing views throughout the hike! Required to drive ~1 mile on dirt road to reach the trailhead. Short video of the hike for those interested! https://youtu.be/4rdkNmKmd5M

MY PHOTOGRAPHS. Attached are photos showing panoramic views of Maple Canyon, where I took these…read morephotos from either Vista Peak Loop Trail (located on southern slope of Maple Canyon) or from Ziele Creek Trail (located on northern slope of Maple Canyon). Also attached are photos of trees covered with an awesome evening gown consisting of bright green moss. In addition, attached is a photograph of my assistant, Strawberry Shortcake, standing next to a little waterfall in Ziele Creek. NAMES OF THE TRAILS AND THE CREEK. For orientation, I first describe the trail that runs from east-to-west and resides on the slope to the NORTH of Ziele Creek, and regarding the trail that runs from east-to-west and resides on the slope to the SOUTH of Ziele Creek. The trail to the north is Ziele Creek Trail, and the trail to the south is Garin Woods Trail. These two trails form a stringed bean-shaped loop trail with Ziele Creek running through the center of the stringed bean. I walked in dry parts of the streambed of Ziele Creek and, in this way, explored all of the areas within the stringed bean loop trail. A bridge is easy to find at the eastern tip of the stringed bean loop trail, but I was not able to find any bridge at the western tip of the stringed bean loop trail. STARTING YOUR HIKE. The views of Maple Canyon from trailhead (located at the end of Calhoun Street) and from the nearby parts of Vista Peak Loop Trail are magnificent. Part of my day's hike was also along Ziele Creek Trail, which is located on the northern slope above the creek. In some parts, Ziele Creek Trail is forty meters above the creek, and this provides a splendid view of the tree-covered center of Maple Canyon and of the little groves of deciduous trees that find a home in isolated spots of Maple Canyon. The lowest parts of the canyon takes the form of a shady forest, and the surrounding areas take the form of a vast field of light-colored dried grasses. For starting my hike, I used the trailhead located at the eastern terminus of Calhoun Road. I parked in the dirt at the side of the road. Starting from the trailhead at the end of Calhoun Road, after a couple of minutes hiking to the southeast on Vista Peak Loop Trail, I arrived at a fork in the trail, and I took the downhill fork. After a minute on this downhill path, there is another fork in the trail, where there is a choice between taking a higher elevation trail called Garin Woods Trail and a lower elevation trail, also called Garin Woods Trail. The lower elevation trail is located deep in the canyon, and about thirty feet above Ziele Creek. SCENERY IN THE SHADE. Ziele Creek resides at the lowest point in Maple Canyon. Ziele Creek flows from east to west. Garin Woods Trail provides a view of many ferns and of trees covered with bright green moss and, here and there, you can see Ziele Creek between the trees, where the creek is about thirty feet below Garin Woods Trail. After hiking eastwards for 30 minutes on Garin Woods Trail, I decided to go off-trail and hike down the slope, and then hike westwards in the stoney stream bed for about 30 minutes, taking photographs of parts of the creek that contained pools of water, and that contained a tiny waterfall. The map on mapcarta.com shows the part of Garin Woods Trail that is near the stream, and it also shows the part of Garin Woods Trail that is higher up on Vista Peak. Google maps completely disregards Garin Woods Trail, and it gives you the false impression that the only trail near Ziele Creek is the one called, Ziele Creek Trail. Google maps shows only the half of the stringed bean-shaped loop trail that runs parallel to and is close to the north bank of Ziele Creek. PARKING AREA WITH MANY MORE PARKING SPOTS. Park on Thorup Lane or on Ziele Creek Drive. Trailhead is where these two small streets meet each other. COMPLETING THE STRINGED-BEAN SHAPED LOOP TRAIL. On two occasions in January 2021, I hiked the entire stringed bean-shaped loop trail (described above). The following problem applies to the western end of the stringed bean-shaped loop trail. On both occasions, I was not able to find any bridge that allows you to get from the northern slope of Maple Canyon, and then over the creek, and to the southern slope of Maple Canyon. Instead of taking any trail that crossed the creek with a bridge, I hiked down the northern slope of Maple Canyon, jumped over a shallow part of the creek, and then left the creek area by crawling up the southern slope of Maple Canyon. Because the southern slope that rises above the creek is steep, I crawled up using an improvised zig-zag path. Actually, I walked up (I didn't crawl up) and I grabbed any available roots and nearby branches in order to pull myself up the steep slope. In this way, I easily got back to Garin Woods Trail, and from there returned to my parking spot at the end of Calhoun Street. I hope some that that I can find a bridge across this part of the creek.

Definitely a strenuous hike on the way up, but totally do-able and worth it for the views. We were…read moreon a time crunch, so we didn't do the full hike - we just hiked up to chimney rock and back down instead of doing the full loop. So I imagine if you did the full loop the views would have been even more beautiful, but even the modified hike we did was amazing. Whenever I looked up hikes for Capitol Reef, this one was often overlooked, but after experiencing it, I feel it's one that should be included much more often. We did read in a couple places that this was good for sunset - we didn't get that chance, but I imagine it would be beautiful. Trail was not crowded at all, but there is little shade cover so be prepared with plenty of water and a hat.

I am very excited to talk about Chimney Rock Trail!!! Alright, I have been on hikes throughout the…read moreUnited States within all sorts of national parks, etc...but, I need to urge everyone who visit Capitol Reef...it is imperative for you to hike this Chimney Rock Trail! I am serious. Although I don't have an official ranking system, I'd place this hike at least within my Top 10 - 15 BEST HIKES OF ALL TIME! Everything about being here was simply epic. If you want to immerse yourself and understand the true power of what makes the state of Utah so famous for its colorful landscape terrains, then hiking Chimney Rock Trail will give you everything you could possibly ask for! Besides Angels Landing at Zion or the Queens Garden/Navajo Loop at Bryce...I'd then put Chimney Rock just behind them. It's a MUST SEE AND DO while here at Capitol Reef! Alright, enough gushing let me just go into details and what makes Chimney Rock special... Chimney Rock Trail is a very accessible and convenient 3.5 mile loop gaining almost 600 feet in elevation. I believe 3.5 miles is ideal in distance...not too long and not too short. Then, the maybe 580 feet in elevation is also perfect. It's not really difficult whatsoever but at the same making it to the plateau area along Chimney Rock instantly provides you with stunning views of the Capitol Reef landscape. Basically, you don't have to work hard along the hike. You're not huffing and puffing. It's extremely manageable. While reading the park pamphlet and hiking guide about Capitol Reef...it mentioned that coming here to Chimney Rock was worthwhile for hiking in late afternoon and during sunset time. I couldn't agree more with that! When I arrived, the sun was at my back which allowed for very clear photo taking opportunities of the grand setting from high above. Plus, when I was here back in late July of this year, 2021, the daytime temperatures were brutal ranging in the mid to upper 90's. Having the chance to hike here when things cooled down made a huge difference. Btw, I'd also like to point out the trailhead. Finding the start to Chimney Rock was very simple. It's located right off Highway 24 (the main road that cuts through the heart of Capitol Reef) as you're heading west from Torrey, UT going east. When I arrived in late afternoon the parking lot was empty and quiet. I was surprised by this because it specifically stated Chimney Rock was appropriate for hiking during sunsets. Good thing, better off in my opinion not having other tourists around. And, that was also another terrific aspect about exploring Chimney Rock. I was virtually the only hiker here! I had the entire trail to myself. I was grateful for this as it just allowed me to collect my thoughts and feel totally separated from reality. Before I give my interpretation of what Chimney Rock is all about...I'll just take a little highlighted piece from a page I found at americansouthwest.net/utah/capitol_reef/chimney-rock-trail.html... "Chimney Rock Trail is perhaps the best short path in the national park, as it is relatively short, not too steep, provides the shortest hike to a high elevation viewpoint, and passes varied surroundings; besides Chimney Rock itself, an eroded pillar of red sandstone, the trail encounters colorful badlands, tall cliffs, and the mouth of a narrow canyon." I really liked this introduction/description. Along the 3.5 miles...I couldn't stop taking pictures. Each curve I passed, each winding turn I crossed, each climb or descent I made...was another humbling chance for picture moments. I couldn't stop, like an addicted kid at a candy store, lol. Over the course of the hike it covered every nook and cranny within Capitol Reef Park you could ask for. Granted, I did the 8 mile Scenic Drive, I hiked other trails, I ventured all around... But coming here and along Chimney Rock I felt like I had found my calling, like I discovered true fulfilment and better understood why Capitol Reef is part of Utah's "Mighty 5". I'll admit, I had moments where I felt tears of joy because here I was standing high above the ground looking down upon glorious Capitol Reef, feeling like I'm a small piece in the big scheme of history. Having infinite time made me feel like I had paused all my worries and troubles and was living in a "dreamland of sandstone cliffs, badlands, multicolored boulders and vertical walls!" And eventually the pathway leads back down to the flat base section but you're still afforded more stunning mounds of colored shades of purple, red and brown. Every step along the way felt like a new adventure. I can't say enough good things about here along Chimney Rock Trail. And because I was so infatuated with the hike, I used every last bit of fading sun to enjoy my time. I probably stayed along the trail for at least 3+ hours until it was pitch dark out before returning back to the parking lot. Lastly, that's it. Can't say anymore. Chimney Rock Trail, memories that will live with me forever.

A new hiking, mountain bike, equestrian trail, about 3 miles East of Beaver, Utah on UT-153…read more This First 3 mile trail starts at the parking lot/trailhead area, goes about 1 mile, then loops around the summit, to make a total of a 3 mile out and back. There is a bicycle repair station at the trailhead/ parking lot. A nice easy trail, with a lot of switchbacks, that is easy hiking on cooler days, or early morning.