We haven't done any overnight stuff yet. We usually fly in from the East Coast and so have to limit how much gear we bring with us (not that we actually own the gear for overnight stays). We're in the process of relocating to California and, once we're settled in there, we hope to buy the requisite gear and start honing our overnight backpacking skills in Yosemite (hopefully with the help of some of the kind folks on this board! I find the notion of doing my first overnight in the Yosemite wilderness without the guidance of someone experienced a bit daunting
As for the NPs in Utah, we've been to all of them (although, if you count Canyonlands as 3 distinct parks (Island in the Sky, Needles and The Maze), we still haven't ventured into the Maze). I love all of them but, if I had to pick one favorite, It would be Zion (of the 18 or 20 US NP's we've been to so far, I think Zion comes in second on my overall list (in case you have to ask, Yosemite is number one by a landslide (hmm...maybe not the best choice of words!)). That much said, I DO love them all and I think Capitol Reef is a really terrific little park. There's a good chunk of the park that you can't get to unless you're doing multi-day backpacking trips (or have a high-clearance 4WD vehicle). We've done most of the day hikes in areas that are accessible via a typical rental car and found them quite wonderful. Minimal crowds, beautiful views and a real variety of landscapes to choose from...all the more impressive given how small an area they all fit into.
If you're just day-hiking (as we were), food choices in the area are VERY limited, especially if, like my wife and me, you don't eat red meat (it seemed that the majority of restaurants in town give you a choice of steak, steak, steak, prime ribs, hamburger or steak). We stayed in a lovely cabin just outside of Torrey when we were there but only found 1 restaurant we liked (Cafe Diablo on the western edge of town) but we liked that one a LOT and, once found, we were happy to go there for dinner every night (when we go on our trips, we pick up some breakfast and salad stuff. We go out for dinner most nights, order enough that we have leftovers to bring home. The next day, we'll make breakfast in our room and then mix the leftovers up with some salad fixin's and that'll be lunch on the trail. The only problem we had with Cafe Diablo was that the food was SO good that it sometimes took a LOT of discipline to have leftovers to bring home!
FWIW, we also really liked Castlerock Coffee & Candy on the eastern edge of Torrey and managed to stop there for breakfast, afternoon snack or just a cup of coffee a number of times.
