Capital Reef

Leader: Ann Weiler Walka and Don Keller
Dates: September 9–14 (5 days / 4 nights)
Cost: $835 Members / $895 Nonmembers
Difficulty: Moderate to strenuous

Cost includes transportation, meals, and group gear.

One of the great striking stretches of landscape on the Colorado Plateau, Capitol Reef and the Waterpocket Fold appear as a massive wave of uplifted sandstone above the surrounding desert. This formidable structure, composed of sand and silts originally deposited in the Mesozoic era and later pushed up in the geologic turmoil that produced the Rocky Mountains, sweeps for a hundred miles from Thousand Lake Mountain down to the Colorado River. The Fold has always been a barrier to travel across the region and the southern district of Capitol Reef National Park still sees relatively few visitors.

On this Venture, offered for the first time in 2008, we will day hike from base car camps to explore a range of landscapes, especially the colorful narrow canyons deeply cut into the east side of the Fold. Sheer sandstone walls, lush spring lines, rock art of the Archaic, Anasazi, and Fremont cultures, and traces of early European settlers will stimulate conversations about the remarkable geology and the natural and cultural history of this terrain. Day hikes to places such as Muley Twist, Sheets Gulch, the Circle Cliffs, Pleasant Creek, and beyond will be challenging exploratory walks relished by the adventurous at heart.

Pre-Trip Information Packet (PDF Downloads)

» Medical/Waiver [31 KB]

Don Keller and An Weiler Walka Don Keller strives to help participants understand the landscapes, the resources they contain, and how these resources have been used over time to create human settlement... Read more…

A writer, naturalist, and stubborn generalist, Ann Weiler Walka is intrigued by a landscape’s weave of geologic processes, natural histories, ecological relationships — the patterns and surprises that make up the world. Read more…

“Yes-indeed. [I] plan on doing another trip next year.”—J.J.

“Everything was well-thought-out and organized.” —Anonymous

“Don and Ann are why your trips are so outstanding and worthwhile…” —M.S.