Even though I’ve lived in Utah for years, I had never visited Capitol Reef National Park until this weekend. Probably the least known of the “Mighty 5” that also includes Zion, Arches, Bryce, and Canyonlands, Capitol Reef is often overlooked. During my visit, I hiked up to Cassidy Arch, which is accessed via the Grand Wash Trail. I visited the park during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the park and trails weren’t too crowded.

For the record, the formation takes its name from Butch Cassidy, who supposedly hid out in these slot canyons when he was a fugitive from the law.

The hike is an out-and-back, a three-mile round trip that begins at a dusty, unpaved road. You walk along the wash to the trailhead, then reverse direction and begin climbing steeply up the side of the cliff. For much of the way, the drop-off is sheer and a little breathtaking. Right off the bat, I saw a rattlesnake slithering into a crevice, though I it disappeared before I could snap a picture. I couldn’t resist photographing the rising elevation of the trail, though.

The trailhead begins deeper in the canyon than Cassidy Arch itself. As you climb, the path winds up and back toward the main road, providing views of both the cliff faces and the road. The park’s website says the climb is about 400 feet, and I didn’t track with my GPS so I’ll just have to take their word for it.

Along the trail, you can see the geological processes that created Utah’s famous arches. Looking at the photo above, you see that erosion has created an arch-in-embryo. If a crack forms behind that ledge, parallel to the overhang, the back-side of the nascent arch will erode, leaving a free-standing strip of sandstone. That’s exactly how Cassidy Arch was created.

Here’s another look at the same formation. This is from a relatively flat section of trail before it curves sharply to the right to negotiate a slot canyon.

Above, you can just view the opening into the wide valley through which the main Capitol Reef road winds. We’ll eventually get to a ledge that affords an amazing vantage point to view the whole valley. For now, though, there’s still some hiking to do.

Making your way up the slot canyon, you’re faced with some natural features that are beautiful in their own right. This one was particularly cool. You can see how the back of that mini-hoodoo is beginning to separate. Eventually, this will break free and topple onto the the trail (hopefully, when nobody happens to be standing there).

The last section of trail goes across the tops of the cliffs. It’s a tilted, rippled landscape of fissures and mounds, and there are several ways to get there. Luckily, the crowds gathered around Cassidy Arch in the distance make it easy to find your way across.

Here’s Cassidy Arch itself. Somehow, I managed to get a shot without a lot of people in it, but there were probably 30 or 40 hikers milling around. To the right is the sharp slope that leads down below. Half a dozen Asian tourists were perched right on the drop-off, a little further down than I would’ve been comfortable sitting. One of them set her aluminum water bottle aside, only to have it fall forward and bounce down into the rock bed below the arch. It’ll probably be there forever.

Some people had set up ropes and were rappelling down one side of the arch. I don’t know if this is strictly allowed, but the COVID pandemic meant there were no park rangers around. This young woman was clearly not comfortable doing what she was doing. Someone on the ropes above her kept shouting down encouragement, but she dangled there for a while before finally inching her way down.

Here’s another view of Cassidy Arch, with people standing on the bridge. The Chinese tourists were directly below the ledge at the bottom of the frame. I chose not to go out onto the arch … mostly because I was pressed for time and needed to get back to the trailhead.

Maybe a hundred yards beyond the arch was a lookout point that gave a great view of the main road through Capitol Reef. I stood in one place and snapped a series of photos, which Google Photos helpfully stitched into one big panorama. After a few minutes of gazing down, I headed back past Cassidy Arch and backtracked toward the trailhead.

On my way back down, I managed to get a shot of Cassidy Arch from a distance. You can’t see it from the road. If you could, I doubt anyone would actually bother making the climb. It really is a marvel of natural engineering. It’s amazing how many of these natural sandstone arches exist in Utah.