This blog covers three of our backpacking trips in 2025 and 2026 that link together in a beautiful area of Capitol Reef National Park in southern Utah. The park mostly stretches north-south as a long narrow strip following an amazing geological feature called the Waterpocket Fold.
1 October 2025 Pleasant Creek north to Hwy 24 and Fremont River
2 March 2026 Pleasant Creek and Sheets Gulch loop
3 March 2026 Lower Spring Canyon to Fremont River loop
7 October 2025 Starting out from Pleasant Creek Despite this park being one of the first places we visited in the US south west in 2004 (Ferns Nipple, Burro Wash and Sulphur Creek), we hadn’t ever backpacked overnight in the northern part of the Reef. The sea of slickrock domes and canyons looked intriguing, so in 2025 we planned a mostly cross country northbound hike over 3-4 days…
Boulder Mountain But first, we had a dawn start on a side trip hiking high up to Bowns Point at almost 11,000ft on the nearby Boulder Mountain plateau. Crisp frosty conditions, a sunrise over the Henry Mountains, and a band of golden aspen trees were all stunning. The top provided a panoramic view back south down to the Escalante river catchment, scene of our previous week’s hike (…and lots of others).
Back down to the town of Torrey for lunch, we planned our Capitol Reef hike which was to start and finish in different places. So after picking up our free backcountry permit at the Fruita visitor centre, we ‘hedged our bets’ and parked our rental car a few miles away from the middle of the hike at the eastern National Park boundary on Highway 24.
It was early afternoon and getting a bit hot as we stood by the road waiting for a hitch south on the ‘Notom Bullfrog’ road. …..if only there was any traffic… Luckily after 20 minutes, the first car appeared and, probably taking pity on us standing in the sun, stopped and gave us a lift to our intended start near Pleasant Creek – thank you!
Our general aim was to hike north following a line near to the crest of the slabby, rocky ridge rising above us to the west at the top of the Waterpocket Fold. After about an hour walking west on jeep tracks we reached Pleasant Creek at the foot of the ridge, but were disappointed to see that the creek water was diverted here into an irrigation channel just outside the National Park.
Off trail now, we were able to climb up a gravel drainage which soon turned into a lovely slabby Navajo rock basin dotted with ponderosa pine indented with some deep water potholes. We collected water here – to cover an overnight camp and well into tomorrow.
This was a great open valley as we meandered upwards on a line of least resistance and mild scrambling over colourful white, yellow, orange and red rock slabs and steps.
Reaching the top looking down to the continuation of Pleasant Creek to the west, we were delighted to be able to camp on the slickrock ridge with views all round. What a spot, especially with first a sunset, then a moon rising over the Henry Mountains to the east.
Day 2 North to Ferns Nipple The sun hit us at breakfast sitting out on the slabs, and we headed north undulating around the east side of the slabby ridge to reach a high point at a yellow rock spire.
Our initial descent was down a scenic wide area of checkerboard slabs to reach some ponderosas and small water potholes (there had been rain 10 days before). More viewful hiking along a gravelly ridge brought us back down into Capitol Wash where we had a look at a cool old rusted National Monument car, half buried in the sand.
The going was easier as we cut back west along the Wash where we saw some people (Capitol Wash is a popular short hike) and collected more overnight water from big, slightly dried out potholes. Splitting from the wash and following the Golden Throne trail north made for easy scenic hiking in theory, but we now had heavy packs and boy was it hot.
After resting in the shade under a pinyon pine at the top of the trail, we were glad to head out again in now cooler air. We had a faint tracks to follow on shelves just under the rock walls of the Golden Throne to round the head of a distinct steep gully. There were two potholes with water in the gully but we didn’t need to access them.
The way ahead looked rough, going westward up steep bushy slopes, but turned out to be easier following grey slabs much of the way to the top of cliffs. From there we just hiked a meandering sandy wash northwards, then more steeply over a broad shoulder of the hill enigmatically named ‘George’ and on towards the distinctive rocky pyramid of Ferns Nipple.
Reaching the southern edge of Fern’s rock slabs, we descended round to the right and then steeply up a bushy scrambly gully to its eastern col and another grand dry campsite. We pitched on rock slabs again, but this time under pinyons to shelter from the now strong winds.
[In retrospect we might have been better tackling Ferns southern ridge to camp on higher slabs – more direct and aesthetic but would likely involve some scrambling, and for us would have been rather exposed to the wind].
Day 3 Ferns Nipple descent to Grand Wash We scrambled up from camp onto a technicolour rocky shelf area that appears to encircle the sharp summit of Fern’s Nipple itself. An explore to the south revealed more beautiful coloured slabs and views up to golden Boulder Mountain, scene of our walk two days ago.
Narrow ledges on the east allowed us to traverse round to the north side of Ferns and we were treated to some spectacular views of domes in light and shade from gathering clouds. Sadly we ditched our ideas of climbing to the top this time (we did it in 2004) due to high winds and likelihood of an incoming storm.
We soon spotted cairns marking the northern route to Ferns Nipple and making for a superb link up on our hike by allowing a descent north to the next deep valley – Grand Wash. We had been here in 2004 but couldn’t remember too much. It turned out to be a great tenuous line, cutting in and out of side gullys with the odd scramble down rocky ledges. In particular, the bottom section was really twisty and we were happy to have a rest just above the flat Wash.
Torrential rain was predicted for the late afternoon and, as our next stage was to hike up Lower Spring Canyon which could be prone to flooding, we decided to bail out at Highway 24. On the way we chatted to two people from Montana who graciously gave us a lift back to the car. This was still a fantastic, super scenic, short backpack.
It hadn’t started raining yet though, so we did a bonus hike near ‘Chimney Rock’ which was on good trails and again with really vibrant colourful rock walls. Just after returning about 5pm the deluge did start with bucketing rain and waterfalls pouring off the cliffs. We made the right decision but need to come back to finish our planned hike and explore further!
References
More pictures here at our Pbase site
We followed the Beehive Traverse for part of the way (but our hike past Ferns Nipple avoids the most exposed scrambles of the Beehive)
And also this excellent Backcountry post route by Trailscot
March 2026
20 March 2026 Pleasant Creek and Sheets Gulch loop It’s normally cooler at this time of year in early spring in southern Utah, but our visit coincided with a record breaking heatwave with 30C+ forecast. We ‘re-jigged’ our plans to return back to Capitol Reef NP area to start high at Lower Bowns Reservior, 7,500ft and hopefully bearable temperatures. Our aim was a loop of Pleasant Creek (connecting with the southern start of our Capitol Reef backpack in October 2025) then return via Sheets Gulch – an interesting looking canyon with narrows.
Our road access to the hike was along Highway 12 round Boulder Mountain with big snow banks amongst the bare, wintry aspen trees. Setting off from Lower Bowns reservoir, we had a gentle downhill start for a few miles along jeep tracks before dropping into the shaded valley of Pleasant Creek. This upper part of the valley, with its flowing stream and broken rocky slopes clad with ponderosa trees, was very ‘pleasant’ and rather well named.
The heat crept up into the afternoon as the valley opened up to near a dirt road trailhead where we visited a petroglygh panel on the canyon walls. The character of Pleasant Creek changed completely as it then entered a gorge, the flowing stream cutting through the distorted rock layers of the Waterpocket Fold itself. We hiked through, now in the shade and peered up to the north rim identifying the spot where we had camped last October.
Camp this time was found just above the gorge on some beautiful slick rock. A great first day.
Day 2 Sheets Gulch narrows and scrambles Often after a sunny day, the wind will gust around after dusk, then settle down in the dark. This time though the gusts just got stronger through the night so we had a somewhat broken sleep with our tent mostly held down onto the rock slabs with our body weight! Anyway it was still a unique, excellent camp.
We walked east out of the gorge to exit Pleasant Creek onto jeep tracks and back retreading our steps from last October. Our loop was to continue south down the Notom Road for about 7-8 miles to Sheets Gulch trailhead. But we ‘caved’ after a couple of miles of road walking when a car passed and we hitched the remainder. The road was actually pretty scenic looking across the wide valley with cool temperatures of the morning, but the hitch allowed us to climb higher and into shade before the possible extreme heat of the afternoon.
After about a mile of walking an open sandy wash, we entered the rocky narrows of Sheets Gulch. And this turned out to be a long scenic, entertaining hike through the everchanging twisting canyon with the odd scramble for interest.
There was one tricky short scramble over a chockstone which required a bit of a push up and clamber to surmount, but it was all over quickly and the pool underneath had dried up which helped. Higher up, the narrows opened up to a wide rocky canyon with Douglas Fir dotted around the steep cliffs and a high mountain ambience. There was one final small amphitheatre with an impassable dryfall at its head, but with an easy bypass on the left.
The character of the Gulch changed from here to a wider, but steep sided valley following a trickling stream. It proved tough in the afternoon heat with the saturated sandy creek bed acting like treacle sucking on our feet! We were glad to escape the trudge as we left the water flow when Sheets turned north just east of ‘Nicks Peak’. Steepening to a dry gully it became an enjoyable cross country route up the through some colourful ‘Chinle’ gravel slopes.
It was mid evening before we almost completed our loop back to Pleasant Creek at Tantalus Flats – collapsing after a long sweaty but great day at a lovely rock slab to pitch the tent.
Day 3 Exit from Pleasant Creek Our final day started up past a wonderful rocky water gorge at Pleasant Creek before hitting the jeep tracks and some cross country through grazed sagebrush back to Lower Bowns reservoir. That was another varied and wonderful short hike!
25 March 20226 Lower Spring Canyon backpack We made it back to this canyon after deciding against it in October due to an impending storm. Parking at Chimney Rock trailhead at lunchtime, it was hot but bearable and we set off into Chimney Rock Canyon with its streaked vertical walls.
At the junction with Spring Canyon we headed north upstream on a side trip for a while to have a look around and were pleased to see flowing water appear within 1/2 mile or so. There was also an array of black volcanic basalt boulders on the canyon floor, presumably deposited from Thousand Lake Mountain, the high ground to the west.
Continuing down stream, Spring was a cool ever changing, twisting canyon with high steep walls of striped Navajo rock. There was a narrower section which had a trail bypass leading soon to pools – complete with resident snake!
Downstream, a trickling stream flow started up before we stopped to camp on top of a flat boulder near an abondoned meander (rincon). Echoing sounds of canyon wren serenaded us in the evening followed by bats swooping over our heads. Another marvellous camp.
Day 2 Linking up park trails Absolutely lovely hiking down canyon in the cool morning air with more great scenery at every turn. We reached the end of the canyon all too soon and the fast flowing muddy Fremont River. We sidled upstream for a bit to find an easy wade and then crossed Highway 24.
We continued looping back west by combining a few trails, firstly by heading up the well travelled Grand Wash and Cassidy Arch trails, Frying Pan trail was empty with panoramic views and finally Cohab Canyon trail looking down to the tree lined valley around the campsite at Fruita. All and all a mellow finish to another excellent short backpack.
We chose to hitch back to the car and lucked out again as the first car stopped (thank you!) in Fruita and took us back to Chimney Rock. We could easily backpack here again many times, especially with the possibilities of extending to the hike to the north and south.
References
More pictures here at our Pbase site
Jamal Green 2022 ‘Zion to Green River’ hike Great inspiration for our hike