Capitol Reef National Park

Tracking down bad guys in the Old West usually required skill in following some literal footprints in the sand, but a case at Capitol Reef National Park with connections to some famous outlaws was recently solved by rangers adept at following a different kind of tracks—those left in cyberspace.

Utah's collection of national parks, monuments, and historic sites helped generate $6.5 billion in tourism spending for the state in 2010, an increase of nearly 5 percent, according to state calculations.

Finally, the most-anticipated month for visiting national parks has arrived. That's right, September, the month when apples ripen and are ready for picking. From Pennsylvania to Utah and on west to California, the desire to bite into a nice crisp apple, or pick a bag or bushel for pies and sauce, are luring visitors to parks.

A popular swimming hole in Capitol Reef National Park has been closed for the rest of the summer due to torrential runoff that has created extremely dangerous conditions for swimmers.

Backpacker magazine has devoted its June issue to the national parks, and the 112-page mag packs quite a lot of information -- including some great features on park destinations and a discussion-spurring list of parks the editor-in-chief would do away with in favor of new units -- between the covers.

If you want outdoor adventure in a Utah national park, but feel you don't have the necessary skills or local knowledge, it's time to call in a guide. Here's what you need to know to make the right choice.

There's good news and bad news from Capitol Reef National Park. The good news is that they're going to repair the entire 8-mile-long Scenic Drive that heads south from the visitor center. The bad news is that it could lead to delays of up to 30 minutes from now into July.

Capitol Reef National Park is far enough off most people's radar that they miss out on this red-rock paradise when visiting Utah's other, more famous, parks. In the wintertime? Capitol Reef becomes a virtually private playground.

Though summer draws the bulk of Bryce Canyon National Park's 1.2 million annual visitors, a strong argument can be made that winter is a more fascinating time to visit this red-rock icon. The sharp contrasts between fresh-fallen snow, cerulean skies, and the park's red-hued amphitheaters are spectacular. If you can manage a winter escape, here are some tips for touring Bryce Canyon.

Baked by time like some multi-layer geologic tort, Canyonlands National Park in southeastern Utah features a landscape cut by canyons, rumpled by upthrusts, dimpled by grabens, and even pockmarked, some believe, by asteroids.

There's a lot of history growing in the National Park System, some of which you can pluck off a tree. An apple tree, that is. Stroll the orchards of Capitol Reef National Park or Hopewell Furnace National Historic site and you'll be surrounded by the fruits of history.

An old myth took a different twist at Capitol Reef National Park recently when a canyoneer confirmed that getting into Pandora's Box can have unintended consequences, and it proved to be a lot easier to get into a tight spot that back out of it.

Long a bone of contention between state, local and federal authorities when it comes to public lands access is a nearly 150-year-old law initially passed to help advance westward expansion. Now Interior Secretary Ken Salazar hopes a pilot program in Utah can generate a solution to R.S. 2477 controversies.

If you had the option of either traveling to Utah for a swing through its national parks, or to California to sample its national parks, which would you choose?

Cherries bursting with flavor, juicy peaches and apples, pears and apricots. Those are some of the tasty treasures that await you at Capitol Reef National Park, and they're yours for the pickin'.

The term "living history" is often applied to programs using costumed interpreters, but it can also have another, more literal application: historic orchards. A recent project at Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area used some sharp instruments to apply some tender loving pruning to historic apple trees in the park.

Last year’s travels took me to half a dozen national parks new to my resume. This year there are five new ones and five old friends on the horizon. A guy could do worse.

Contrasting views on how public lands should be managed and enjoyed collided in a congressional committee hearing Thursday as distinct lines were drawn over whether more than 9 million acres of red-rock landscape in Utah's outback should be protected as official wilderness or left open for off-road vehicles, mountain bikes, and energy development.

Legislation scheduled to be taken up Thursday by a U.S. House subcommittee wouldn't create any national parks if passed, but it would go a long way toward providing some serious buffer zones around four national park units in Utah through the creation of officially designated wilderness.

Fall is one of the most gorgeous seasons in the National Park System. Trees are changing colors, the air is cooler and carrying scents of autumn, animals are on the move, and if you visit Capitol Reef National Park you'll find the peaches and apples are ripe for harvest!

Canyonlands National Park is one of the most rugged national parks, with a harsh summer sun that bakes the dry, canyon-riddled landscape. But those deep canyons’ steep rocky slopes, which offer ample grasses and shrubs, and an openness that puts predators at a disadvantage, are an optimal environment for bighorn sheep. In fact, Canyonlands’ bighorn population has been so stable that Utah’s wildlife biologists long relied on it for stock to re-establish herds elsewhere in the state.

How much have the national parks changed since you were a kid? Have they changed? When you return to a park that you haven't been to in decades, is it like returning to an old friend, or visiting someplace totally alien?

Think of Capitol Reef National Park and, if you're familiar with this isolated outpost in Utah's canyon country, you'll likely envision soaring reefs of rock. But few would even imagine battles between mountain lions and lynx.

If you want to enjoy some of those iconic views from places like Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park, you might want to plan your trip sooner rather than later. While most Americans and their elected officials have been mesmerized by the economic crisis and the upcoming election, enormous changes in the management of public lands in Utah are afoot. The effects on a number of national parks could be substantial.

Sweeping panoramas, fluted slot canyons and fossilized sand dunes are among the subjects that Jon Ortner brings into focus with Canyon Wilderness of the Southwest, an expansive coffee table book.