After an uphill ride from Hanksville, I found the apricots to be quite tasty. A big personal thank you to whoever planted those trees.

I also found Capitol Reef easy to get into, and out of, bike-wise. Unlike my previous visits to Arches and Canyonlands, which required leaving the main state road, Capitol Reef is on the road. You can't miss it — at least you can't miss the small part of the park that state Route 24 runs through. It's how you get from Hanksville to Torrey, and vice versa.

To properly see the geologic phenomenon that created the park, however, you'd have to leave the road and board an airplane. As a ranger explained it to me, the only way to really appreciate Capitol Reef in its fullness is from the air.

At nearly a hundred miles in length, and at some points barely four miles wide, the park encompasses the bulk of a geologic anomaly called the Waterpocket Fold — a giant wrinkle that occurred after a major buckling of the Earth's crust some 65 million years ago.

The result of this buckling are the numerous massive domes that look more or less like the U.S. Capitol and the even more numerous rugged cliffs that look like reefs on the ocean — but without the water.

These features are what gives this place its name — but it's the old ghost town named after fruit trees in the middle that continues to give it life.

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Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.