Utah Byways - The Most Scenic Drives in America: 120 Spectacular Road Trips - page 367

a detour for some small-town charm and visit the small farming communities of Loa, Ly-
man, and Bicknell.
2. Torrey
The high Southwest is a landscape of surprising transitions, where cool wooded valleys
can give way in a few short miles to otherworldly formations of sunset-colored sandstone.
Rte. 24 makes just such a passage from one terrain to another as it follows the Fremont
River,swinging south and east ofa great plateau crested bythe lofty ramparts ofThousand
Lake Mountain. By the time you see the ruddy shaft of Chimney Rock rising high above
the highway east of Torrey, the pine-scented woods surrounding Fish Lake will seem far
away indeed. You are now at the gateway to Capitol Reef National Park, where nature has
practiced the fine art of sculpture but has left the horticulture to humans.
3. Capitol Reef National Park
Named for a white sandstone dome that suggested the U.S. Capitol to approaching pion-
eers, Capitol Reef National Park is a 70-mile strip of stark and surreal terrain whose “reef”
is its centerpiece. The nautical term in fact was grimly metaphorical: This age-old aggreg-
ation of sheer outcrops, a result of the gradual creasing and folding of the Earth's crust,
blockedthewayforsettlers'wagontrainsjustasoceanreefsstymieseafarers.Still,ahand-
ful of hardy souls did penetrate these polychrome ramparts.
Vivid petroglyphs, drawings etched into stone that depict desert bighorn sheep along
with human figures holding shields and wearing headdresses, testify to the presence of the
mysterious Fremont Indians 1,000 years ago. Later came the Paiutes and the Navajos, who
gave the multicolored rock layers a name that means “sleeping rainbows.”
As the last century closed, Mormon families sought solace in the shadow of Capitol
Reef.Intheirtiny,optimisticallynamedcommunityofFruita,thesepeaceablesoulsplanted
orchards, tended farms, and grazed livestock for more than 50 years, until the hamlet's
utter isolation made living here intolerable. At the site of their abandoned community, a
restored one-room schoolhouse—empty since 1941—and other wooden structures tell of a
land brought to life by the Fremont River. Peaches, apricots, cherries, pears, and apples are
still here for the picking, for a nominal Park Service fee, from trees in orchards that have
long outlived the dreams of the men and women who once planted them.