This blog covers three of our backpacking trips in 2025 and 2026 in Capitol Reef National Park in southern Utah. It would be possible to link these together but due to weather and time contraints, we did three seperate trips. “The Reef” is a long thin national park that follows a geological feature called the Waterpocket Fold and walking here involves hiking in and out of beautiful coloured layers of tilted rock in and out of layers of deep time.
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 Pleasant Creek to Hwy 24 via Ferns Nipple: Capitol Reef National Park was in fact one of the first places we ever visited in the South West in 2004 (Ferns Nipple, Burro Wash and Sulphur Creek). We had driven through on Hwy 24 a number of times since and spent considerable time in the Southern part of the Waterpocket fold but never backpacked overnight in the northern part of the Reef. The sea of slickrock domes and canyons looked intriguing, so in 2025 we planned a 3 night hike in the north of the park.
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).
We went to the excellent shop/diner in the town of Torrey for lunch and then headed to the Park Office in Fruita to pick up our free backcountry permit and parked our rental car a few miles east where Highway 24 meets the Notom Bullfrog road at the park boundary. The reason for that was that we were planning to finish the hike on Hwy 24 due west and this way would have an easy hitch-hike back to the car at the end of the walk when we were dirty and tired.
That meant that Stage 1 was to get a lift up the Notom Bullfrog road to our trail head at Pleasant Creek. Luckily after 20 minutes of encountering no cars at all the first car appeared and took pity on us looking semi-melted in the noon-day sun. A lovely couple from the midwest stopped and gave us a lift to the trail head at Pleasant Creek.
We started hiking up a jeep track for just under an hour, looking for Pleasant Creek itself and a landmark penstock and irrigation ditch. From there we followed a colourful Navajo sandstone drainage system to the crest of the Reef. Along the way we stopped to admire a few healthy ponderosa pines growing next to water pockets with little sandy beaches and whopping huge dragon flies. We were aiming for the rocky ridge rising above us to the west at the top of the Waterpocket Fold.
On our ascent we collected enough water to last of over night and half the next day, knowing there was reliable water to be found around lunchtime next day. As the sun set down, the horizon the rock started to glow orange and golden.
We stopped right on the ridge where the sandstone formed an accomodatingly broad saddle with views over to the Henry Mountains in the east and the green ribbon of Pleasant Creek below cradled by steep sandstone domes on the other side. Here we cooked our pasta and made tea and watched a spectacular sunset in the west and a majestic full moon rise in the East.
Day 2 North to Ferns Nipple The sun hit us at breakfast sitting out on the slabs next to the tent. Our route took us along the ridge north, following the line of least resistance in the relative cool of the morning, to reach a high point at a yellow rock spire.
From there we descended a similar drainage to the one we had come up on Navajo sandstone checkerboard slabs to reach more 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 which is one of the two main canyons that run straight through the reef east to west. Once we were in the Wash, we stopped at a big concrete dam holding back no water at all at that time of year and took off our bags to look for a cool old rusted National Monument car, half buried in the sand. Found it, too. The Wash had at one point been used as a road throught the park.
Now the Wash is one of the main short hikes for visitors and has a big carpark on it’s west side. For us that meant a spell of easy hiking on well trodden canyon floor and also meeting some people. We detoured to a water source in a side canyon just above the canyon floor which is also popular with day hikers and hoped nobody had just swum in the very small pothole that was going to be our overnight water. A quick stop in the shade for lunch here and then onwards on to the carpark on the other end of the Wash. By that time it was getting mid-day hot again. Our route took us up the park trail towards the Golden Throne.
At the end of the park trail (a sort of viewing area into the valley below) we picked up a faint track on shelves just under the rock walls of the Golden Throne that rounded the head of a distinct steep gully. There were two potholes with water in the gully but we had all the water we needed so left them untouched. No tracks other than animal tracks after this.
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’ on the maps, ever heading towards the distinctive rocky pyramid of Ferns Nipple.
We knew we wanted to camp somewhere around the base of the Nipple. The terrain got very cut up with small but sometimes steep criss-crossing gulleys and we fanned out to scout the best route. Eventually we descended round to the right of the Nipple into quite a deep gully and scrambled out again (hopeing it would go) to its eastern col. It did go and by the time we got out the sun was going down, a wind had picked up and we were tired. We scouted around for 20 minutes and eventually decided on a nice slabby area with some pinyons for shelter from the wind and enjoyed our well earned tea.
[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 any camp would have been rather exposed to the wind].
Day 3 Ferns Nipple descent to Grand Wash In the morning we scrambled up from camp onto a technicolour rocky shelf area that appears to encircle the sharp summit of Fern’s Nipple itself (I guess you could call it Fern’s aureole). We pottered around the beautiful coloured slabs to the South and took in the stuning views over canyons and sage meadows up to golden (Aspen!) Boulder Mountain, where we had been 48 hours earlier.
Narrow ledges on the east allowed us to traverse round to the north side of the Nipple. Dark clouds were gathering in the sky to the north east and the low morning sun cast the landscape of little domes between us and the horizon in dramatic light and dark. Because of the impending weather change being so obvious and so close, we decided not to attempt to climbing the Nipple. We had climbed previously it in 2004 with park ranger Ho.
Because it is a fairly popular climbing peak there are plenty of cairns marking the northern route to Ferns Nipple. They are mostly inobtrusively and subtly placed and it was fun spotting them and following the excellent scrambling route down into Grand Wash, the other big canyon and day hike route through the Reef. The scramble was great fun, cutting in and out of side gullys and we even got our short rope out to lower our big bags down some rocky ledges to make life easier. In particular, the bottom section was really twisty and we were happy to have a rest just above the canyon bottom of Grand Wash.
The plan had been to hike out of Grand Wash to Hwy 24, cross it and then hike up into Lower Spring Canyon. However we knew weather was on the way and did not fancy getting caught in narrow Lower Spring Canyon in a flash flood (we have seen flash flooding on the Paria River and have deep respect for the dangers). So when we got back to Hwy 24, instead of crossing it, we stopped our trip early and got a lift back to our car at the east entrance to the National Park. Even though it was a short backpack, it felt like one of the all-time great super scenic short backpacks we have done.
Because it hadn’t started to rain yet when we got to the car we drove back to the west entrance and did a little a bonus hike near ‘Chimney Rock’ which was on good trails. Different rock types here and lovely red rock walls (and blue and purple Chinle type rock). Just after returning to the car about 5pm the heavens opened, heavy rain and lightning and we drove through sheets of water, canyon walls gushing forth, to Hanksville for dinner and showers (and a cabin)!
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. So in order to hike somewhere reasonably cool, we returned to Capitol Reef NP. We started just below the remaining snow line at Lower Bowns Reservior, 7,500ft. Our target was again Pleasant Creek but this time approaching from the west. First hiking down hill with the flow of the water and then connecting with the southern start of our Capitol Reef backpack in October 2025, followed by a loop back to the car via Sheets Gulch which we had seen in one of Jamal Green’s videos.
The hike started with geese on lake shore and a gentle downhill walk on tracks and through sage meadows 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 as we dropped altitude and the day progressed of course. By the afternoon the valley opened up to near an old farmstead with old farm machinery, a dirt road trailhead and a research station. We also passed a large petroglygh panel on the canyon walls. Near the pannel the character of Pleasant Creek changed completely as it then enters the tilted up sandstone layers of the Waterpocket Fold and very suddenly we were in a narrowish gorge cut by the stream. Blue and cool shade crept up the walls around us as the sun went down. We had seen this canyon from our campsite above on the ridge the years before!
We fancied camping with a view so we took water from the Creek and carried everything up to the nearest flat saddle above the canyon and pitched there and watched the sunset.
Day 2 Sheets Gulch narrows and scrambles In the south of Utah after a sunny day a sudden wind will often start gusting in the evening and then calm down again once the land has cooled down in the dark. So when after dinner the wind picked up, we had no concerns. However through the night, it just got stronger and we had a restless night hoping our body weight was going to be enough to keep the tent in place.
In the morning it was still blowing a hoolie so we packet up and descended back into the canyon and walked along the Creek for 30 minutes before sitting down under sheltering trees for breakfast. More petroglyphs were found, albeit quite heavily vandalised. We followed the Creek back to the diversion and penstock we had used to navigate last year and from there on the same dirt road to the tarmack of the Notom Bullfrog Road. We could have walked along the road to our next trailhead but when a car (the first after 15 minutes) passed us, we put out or thumbs and they stopped and we got a lift with a lovely young couple (BYU, “Hold my Rootbeer”) to where we were planning to leave the tarmac again.
The Notom Bullfrog Road was actually insanely scenic and would have been nice to walk in the cool temperatures of the morning, but the hitch allowed us to climb higher and get into deep canyon shade before the possible extreme heat of the afternoon.
After about a mile of walking from the trailhead up 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. Due to the time of year, the canyon wrens were in full throat and at every bend we heard their beautiful little decrescendo songs.
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 and sticking to our soles (and souls)! 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. A bald eagle flew off from the edge of the water- an unusual sight for us in southern Utah! 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 and rounded by a few million years being tumbled down by silty rivers.
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!
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 (in the opposite direction from last year) and then up the Cassidy Arch trail to the spectacular Arch. It was busy with other visitors but definitely worth going to see and the view over the main valley from there is stunning. Then we took the Frying Pan trail which was decidedly less popular with day hikers. Wonderful panoramic views to domes and knobs and pillars all around. Finally we descended onto the 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
