Scenic Byway 12 to Capitol Reef National Park

Thursday, June 4, 2026

Wednesday, June 3 we left Bryce Canyon National Park en route to Capitol Reef National Park.  We were surprised and very pleased with the drive on Scenic Byway 12.  We drove 12 almost all the way to Capitol Reef.  We both agree that this is the best scenic highway we have experienced.  The scenery was amazing.  We can’t say enough good things about the drive.  Highly recommend!  We hope the pictures come close to what we actually experienced. We hope to return to spend several days driving and camping along Highway 12 between Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef national parks.

Arriving at Capitol Reef National Park we first stopped at the Visitor’s center with the next stop being the Bakery at the Gifford Homestead.  That’s where you purchase your pie or pies in our case.  Anything you read about Capitol Reef will surely make mention of the pies.  They sell out every day – usually before 3pm.  They also sell cinnamon rolls, but we had to wait until Thursday morning for those because they were already sold out.  They say you must be there before noon to get the cinnamon rolls so we were there by 10:00 on Thursday. Of course, Capitol Reef is much more than the bakery and we did some nice hiking and drove the scenic loop as well before departing for our next destination.

Our next few days are going to be heavy driving days hoping to avoid some of the heat.