Capitol Reef National Park

A wrinkle in the Earth's crust nearly 100 miles (160 km) long runs through south-central Utah. The Waterpocket Fold, a monocline where rock layers bend sharply in a single step, exposes thousands of feet of tilted sedimentary rock in cliffs, domes and slot canyons. Capitol Reef National Park protects most of it in a long, narrow strip covering about 378 square miles (979 km²). Its name joins two images: white Navajo Sandstone domes that resemble capitol buildings, and the pioneer term reef for any rock barrier to travel.

Fremont people farmed along the Fremont River about 1,000 years ago and left petroglyphs on the canyon walls. Latter-day Saint settlers founded the hamlet of Fruita in the 1880s and planted orchards that the Park Service still tends, and visitors can pick fruit in season. President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed Capitol Reef National Monument in 1937, and Congress made it a national park in 1971. Utah Route 24 crosses the fold along the Fremont River, and the Scenic Drive leads south into Capitol Gorge.

• Utah
  The Beehive State, red rock and the Great Salt Lake located in
• Bryce Canyon National Park
  A natural amphitheater of red rock spires near
• Canyonlands National Park
  Utah’s largest park, carved by the Colorado and Green rivers near
• Lake Powell
  Glen Canyon Dam's reservoir on the Colorado River in Utah and Arizona near
• The Colorado Plateau
  The high red-rock heart of the Southwest part of