Public Involvement

Planning, Environment and Public Comment

The National Park Service prepares a variety of planning and environmental documents to help guide in managing park resources. The NPS Planning, Environment and Public Comment (PEPC) site contains all currently active plans and environmental documents for the National Park Service.These documents range from site-specific impact analyses on facility locations to broader park-wide plans for future use and management of a park. Your opinion does count, so please provide feedback and submit comments for any documents available for public review.

Current Capitol Reef Projects

Road and Parking Rehabilitation

The National Park Service (NPS), in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), is seeking public input on a proposed project to rehabilitate the Scenic Drive and multiple parking lots in Capitol Reef National Park.

Many of the park’s parking lots were originally designed and built in the 1960s when the park received about 160,000 visitors per year. Currently, more than 1.2 million visitors experience Capitol Reef National Park annually and improvements are needed for park infrastructure to accommodate the increased visitation. Parking lots are routinely overcrowded, resulting in visitors parking along adjacent roadways causing resource and safety concerns. The parking lot at Chimney Rock Trailhead and Scenic Drive show signs of pavement cracking, shoulder erosion, and damage to various drainage structures.

The project seeks to expand parking capacity and delineation of parking spots; improve drainage due to the area’s flood-prone landscape; widen roads especially in tight curve areas; and make accessibility improvements including additional accessible parking spaces, sidewalks, and low-slope grading. To complete this work, Scenic Drive would be closed for construction from approximately April to October 2024. The visitor center parking lot would be partially closed, and the Chimney Rock parking lot would be closed in the spring or fall 2024.

The public can learn more about this project and submit comments on the PEPC site. Public comments can be submitted through July 6, 2023. A recording of the public meeting held on June 21, 2023 can be viewed below.

Previous Projects

Orchard Rehabilitation Project

The orchards of the Fruita Rural Historic District are one of the largest in the U.S. National Park System and are significant to the park’s history and cultural heritage. They provide valuable fruit harvest and educational opportunities that can be enjoyed by all visitors.

The first orchards were planted in the 1880s by Latter-Day Saint pioneers. Thousands of fruit trees were planted in the fertile Fremont River Valley. Until the 1960s, these trees provided food and income to the families who called Fruita home. Apples, apricots, cherries, peaches, pears, and plums dotted each family’s orchards.

Park staff maintain the historic character of these extensive orchards using heritage techniques. The same flood irrigation ditches pioneers dug in the 1880s water the trees today. Pioneers sometimes lost trees and entire orchards to floods and droughts. Today, the orchards are preserved and protected as part of the Fruita Rural Historic Landscape listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The orchards contain approximately 1,900 trees. Several orchards have lost most of their original trees and with continued losses expected, replanting is needed to maintain their historic integrity.

Capitol Reef National Park is seeking public comments on an orchard replanting project to begin in fall of 2021. The project will initiate long-term rehabilitation of several historic Fruita orchards. The public can learn more about the Orchard Rehabilitation Project on the PEPC site.