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Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

Wow! Capitol Reef National Park has so many different types of mountains and so many beautiful colors.

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Capitol Reef is in Utah's south desert and it surrounds a long wrinkle in the earth known as the Waterpocket Fold which is a warp in the earth's crust that is 65 million years old. It is the largest exposed monocline, a step-like geological fold, in North America. In this fold, newer and older layers of earth folded over each other in an S-shape. This warp, probably caused by the same colliding continental plates that created the Rocky Mountains, has weathered and eroded over millennia to expose layers of rock and fossils. The park is filled with brilliantly colored sandstone cliffs, gleaming white domes, and contrasting layers of stone and earth. The park is filled with canyons, cliffs, towers, domes, and arches.

The area was named for a line of white domes and cliffs of Navajo Sandstone, each of which looks somewhat like the United States Capitol building. The fold forms a north-to-south barrier that even today has barely been breached by roads. Early settlers referred to parallel, impassable ridges as "reefs", from which the park gets the second half of its name.

Explore the quirky adventures and misadventures as I take you on a journey of the United States National Parks. These journeys inspired me to explore even more about the history of the United States, the good, the bad and the ugly. These journeys are encouragements to explore, or re-examine these beautiful lands. From mountain roads with hairpin turns to stunning seaside escapes to exploring good old American history, these areamazing journeys to take in this lifetime.

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