Friday afternoon we hit the road for fall break in Utah. We stopped for dinner at Amigo Cafe in Kayenta, drove up the Moki Dugway, and camped at Muley Point (gorgeous spot to wake up!). On Saturday we drove scenic highway 95. This highway might be short on services (the signs reminded us several times there were no services for 93 miles), but it is long on scenery and geology and we made several stops to explore on our way to Capitol Reef. Our first stop was Leprechaun Canyon, a slot canyon easily accessed from the highway. While the full canyon route is technical (Steve did this years ago with Brad), it is possible to make a short hike to the bottom of the canyon and experience a small section of beautiful narrows. Slot canyons are my favorite and even though this one is short, it’s a great reward to effort ratio since it is a short hike for such gorgeous views.

We had to go a little further afield for our next stop. To reach Arsenic Arch we drove about six miles down North Turkey Knob Road (BLM 15210, across from the road to Little Egypt) - which doesn’t sound like a lot, but it really felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. Arsenic Arch sits in Poison Spring Canyon, surrounded by slickrock with views of the Henry Mountains. From the road we hiked down to the rim of the canyon then skirted along the edge until we found the entry point to drop down (the arch sits about 100 feet below the rim). The whole time you are thinking “how in the world do we get down”, but the entry point was obvious when we got there and it was not difficult to get down. Not only was Arsenic Arch a cool little arch in a scenic setting, we had it to ourselves (I doubt this arch gets much traffic).

Our third stop along Highway 95 was Little Egypt Geological Area. This is another spot that is easily accessible - it is a short drive from the paved highway, requires only a short walk to see the hoodoos, and is free to enter. It is similar to Goblin Valley, but smaller and less well known (we only saw a few other people when we visited). Little Egypt has a narrow band of entrada sandstone below a low mesa that has been exposed and eroded into interesting hoodoos and pinnacles. We wandered around checking out the rock formations and made our way to a ravine west of the main parking area where the largest hoodoo is located. This nicely rounded out our stops on Highway 95 where we got to see a slot canyon, arch, and hoodoos.

We stopped in Hanksville for burgers and shakes and continued to Capitol Reef. Steve was able to snag a few nights in the campground from cancellations and we checked in after a stop at the visitor center. Fruita Campground is located in Fruita Historic District in the heart of the park and is a lovely little campground - a little oasis of green surrounded by beautiful red canyon walls. We didn’t linger for long though because we had one more hike to do before sunset. We drove to the Chimney Rock trailhead just inside the west entrance on Utah 24. There is a loop hike here that is only 3.5 miles and 580 feet elevation gain, although we didn’t do the full loop - we went to the right at the junction and climbed to the highest viewpoints before returning the same way. This is another hike with a great reward to effort ratio - it’s a relatively short and nicely graded hike to reach wide open views overlooking Capitol Reef. It was a great first look at Capitol Reef!