Fruit Campground is a great place to stay while you are visiting Capitol Reef.  I was happy to see very tall cottonwood trees at almost every site.  Fruit and nut trees are in the surrounding orchards and you are free to pick the fruit with some exceptions and rules.  Please check with the Visitor Center on current fruit picking rules before you start filling up sacks of apples and pears.  The Visitor Center gift shop had an assortment of jams and salsas all made from produce here in Fruita.

The campground used to be first come, first served, but due to the influx of visitors, you must make reservations beforehand.

https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/272245

The campground has three loops: A, B and C.  I stayed in Loop A at site 22 which was close to the flushing bathrooms and dish washing area.  I wanted to be close because I’m usually the guy that has to wake up at 2am to go to the bathroom.  I was pleasantly surprised to find CLEAN bathrooms and facilities!

All of the flushing bathroom buildings had a dish washing area on the outside and also a drinking fountain and pump where you can fill up your water bottles or canteens.  The water was nice and cold and didn’t taste bad at all.

The campground roads are paved with cement and asphalt with each spur in each site also paved so you could easily back up your RV or vehicle without kicking up dust and dirt.  Most of the sites have flat areas for tents and chairs too.

I really enjoyed spending a few nights here and when I come back to Capitol Reef National Park I will be staying here again.  It was nice and quiet and at least during my stay all the other visitors were respectful.  I arrived around 6pm and there were about 15 spots left open so I quickly got one.  I left the campground around 10pm to try and take some night photos of the area and when I came back around 11pm all the rest of the spots were taken.  The next morning I woke up just before 8am and found that most of the campers had already left or were in the process of packing up and leaving!  That was way too early for me!

Each morning I found several dozen wild turkeys roaming through camp picking up food off the ground.  They would also fly in the cottonwood trees to eat the seed pods.

Even though the campground allows RVs, trailers and generator use, there are established generator non-use hours which I believe were from 10pm to 8am so it was very quiet at night except for the occasional mule deer walking through camp.

Also, if you are going to camp, make sure you have the experience of making your own food!  Don’t just go buy a bag of donuts (even though I’ve done that plenty of times!), bring some potatoes and some meat or whatever and make a good meal!

While you are here, check out the historic buildings that are spread around Fruita including the old schoolhouse and Gifford house and barn.  I didn’t get to see any of these because I came one day after most of them closed for the season.  But it is truly incredible that Mormon pioneers built a sustainable society here starting in 1880 that included apple, pear, cherry, apricot, plum, mulberry and peach trees and even several varieties of nuts including almond and walnut.  There are around 3,100 trees in the orchards here.