Capitol Reef is a wintertime treasure

CAPITOL REEF NATIONAL PARK — One car comes over a series of hills west of the park, then finally tops the last rise to see marigold cliffs and castoff chunks of rock yards from Highway 24.

It is late afternoon, and the car is the only vehicle in sight in both directions. Views of Capitol Dome, Chimney Rock and The Castle are for its occupants alone — a rare treat in a national park but routine for a late winter visit to southern Utah.

Empty parking lots, deserted trails and the full attention of park personnel belong to offseason visitors to any national park, but especially Capitol Reef, which has the second-fewest visitors among Utah's five national parks (only Canyonlands is fewer). This scraggly finger in south-central Utah has only one through road that skips across a central portion of the park. Roads that access the southern and far northern parts are often impassable in summer and nigh impossible in snow.

December, January and February are the slowest months for Capitol Reef, when there are a fraction of the summer visitors that pour through the park in peak months — April through October. School schedules and tempestuous weather discourage winter visits to Capitol Reef, but those who visit will find a park with all the grandeur of warmer weather without the RVs.

Capitol Reef's 241,904 acres hold the Waterpocket Fold, an upward thrust in the Earth's crust that resulted in dramatic cliffs and varied rock colors and formations that stretch from no-man's desert south of Interstate 70 to Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

The only winter brown in the park comes from a few patches of grass that will green just before the first wave of visitors hit Capitol Reef, or sometime around Easter weekend. Fruit trees, planted by descendents of Mormon pioneers decades ago, still thrive, but point empty branches to a cobalt sky. Puddles from recent snowstorms fill depressions in a dirt road, and the water coats the undersides of cars with coppery mud. But that's only when looking at the ground — the wrong spot for scenery at Capitol Reef.

Brilliant orange cliffs are highlights of late winter; the snow consolidates and hides in the nooks of shadow cast by towering hoodoos. Ice patches collect on slickrock paths and bounce reflections of contoured rock into hikers' eyes.

Temperatures are chilly during the day in shadow but pleasantly warm in the sun. The cool air is a gift after climbing the more strenuous trails in the park, most of which top the cliffs for pure vistas of the area.