The trail head for Upper Muley Twist Canyon and the Strike Valley Overlook both begin at the end of a three mile, rugged, high clearance, 4 wheel drive road.
There are at least four arches in Upper Muley Twist Canyon in the southern portion of Capitol Reef. The full loop hike of this canyon is a nine mile round trip. Today, our primary destination was the Strike Valley Overlook, which we had scouted earlier in our visit. We had just enough time before sunset to hike to the first arch, which is about a mile from the trailhead.
The first arch is easily missed. It is high up on the canyon wall, does not stand out sharply from the surroundings, and it is obscured by rocks and vegetation along the stream bed. We spotted the arch, though it was not easily accessible and we had no time today to try to find a route to a good vantage point for getting the best photos. The shot above is taken from a sandy bank surrounded by trees and brush just above the stream bed. We resolved to save any more exploration in this canyon for another day and hiked back towards the trailhead and the Strike Valley Overlook trail.
Strike Valley Overlook and Waterpocket FoldStrike Valley Overlook and Waterpocket FoldStrike Valley Overlook and Waterpocket Fold
There are high rock outcrops to the west of this overlook area, so the late day shadows encroach rapidly, putting much of the area and the valley in shadow well before the best of golden hour.
Strike Valley Overlook and Waterpocket FoldStrike Valley Overlook and Waterpocket Fold
This overlook area sits atop the geological feature called the Waterpocket Fold, which runs for miles in the park.
Strike Valley Overlook and Waterpocket FoldLinear Features on the Waterpocket Fold
This natural, linear, geological feature looks like a shrub lined walkway.
A Very Small Portion of the Massive Waterpocket FoldResting Place
This old tree remnant, resting at the base of a small rock drop off, reminded me of a line from a German poem that I had to memorize in college. Amazingly, I can still remember the complete poem decades later. The last line translated from the original German: Just wait, soon you too will rest.
Strike Valley Overlook and Waterpocket Fold
An old, dead tree and its shadow were good foreground objects, so this appears in a number of my compositions here.
Late one day we decided to shoot from one of the overlook areas near the visitors’ center. I shot from a little before golden hour until only the clouds on the distant horizon were illuminated and the color faded away. These are the best of the photos I obtained.
View from a Capitol Reef OverlookThe PathEarth and SkyPlanet EarthRed PlanetLate Day View from a Capitol Reef OverlookSky Mute
We returned to the southern portion of Capitol Reef National Park to photograph Strike Valley in the late afternoon with the intention of photographing from somewhere along the switchbacks (numerous sharp turns on the roadway as it climbs steeply from the valley). There were no safe and suitable places to park along the switchbacks, so we settled for shooting from an area above the switchbacks.
Strike Valley View, above the Burr Trail Road Switchbacks, Capitol Reef National Park, UtahStrike Valley View, above the Burr Trail Road Switchbacks, Capitol Reef National Park, UtahStrike Valley View, above the Burr Trail Road Switchbacks, Capitol Reef National Park, UtahStrike Valley View, above the Burr Trail Road Switchbacks, Capitol Reef National Park, UtahStrike Valley and BeyondStrike Valley View, above the Burr Trail Road Switchbacks, Capitol Reef National Park, UtahStrike Valley View, above the Burr Trail Road Switchbacks, Capitol Reef National Park, UtahTwisted 1Twisted 2
In viewing some of these photographs now, I’m thinking some could benefit from cropping portions of the sky, but when I edited these, I was wanting to show the big open sky. Maybe that was a mistake, but I’m not going to change these now.
I will continue to test my readers patience with even more photos from Capitol Reef National Park’s Cathedral Valley.
The photographs in this post are all taken around the features called “Temple of the Sun” and “Temple of the Moon”.
Monoliths, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, UtahMonoliths, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, UtahTemple of the Sun (in right background), Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, UtahDowncastTemple of the Moon, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, UtahTemple of the Sun framed by smaller rocks, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, UtahTemple of the Moon, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, UtahTemple of the Moon, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, UtahTemple of the Moon, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, UtahTemple of the Sun, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, UtahTemple of the Sun, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, UtahTemple of the Sun, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, UtahTemple of the Sun, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, UtahTemple of the Moon, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, UtahTemple of the Moon, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
These photos were all taken late in the afternoon. The high ridge to the west of these features blocked much of the golden hour light, so essentially all of the foreground objects were already in shadows by the time the best golden hour light illuminated the large monoliths.
Temple of the Moon, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, UtahTemple of the Moon, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, UtahTemples of the Sun and Moon, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Understanding the problem of gun violence in the U.S. and the fallacies of gun rights advocates’ proposals to cure the problem is not rocket science.
This graphic depicts the current status of gun violence in the U.S. compared to peer countries:
The Current U.S Guns and Gun Violence vs Peers
The horizontal axis represents the number of guns in circulation, increasing from left to right. The vertical axis represents gun violence increasing from bottom to top.
This simple illustration shows a direct trend of increased gun violence with increased gun ownership by the general populace.
The folks that are in the gun industry (guns, ammo, accessories, training, etc.) are smart people. They know how to make boatloads of money: sell more products.
Revenue vs Sales
This simple chart of Sales vs Revenue is well known to all for profit businesses, no matter the product or service offered.
The gun industry knows that anything that might adversely affect their bottom line is not good for their business. Hence, they oppose any measures that might limit their sales and they advocate for less stringent controls on what they can sell and to whom they can sell.
That is why the gun industry donates buckets of money to politicians. They are buying influence.
So, what do the gun advocates propose, when people complain about gun violence? Well, we simply need more guns available to the populace. This chart illustrates their claim for reducing gun violence via more gun sales:
Gun Advocate Proposal for Reducing Gun Violence
Somehow, contrary to the experience of our peers, who have seen gun violence decrease with fewer guns and more stringent gun control, the gun advocates claim more guns will result in less gun violence. But the U.S. has been increasing gun ownership for years and gun violence has increased, not decreased. I guess we are supposed to take for granted that at some point this trend will reverse, if we can just put enough guns into the hands of our citizens. Thus far there no reason to believe that claim.
Here is what will really happen with an increase of guns in circulation:
More Gun Sales, More Revenue, More Gun Violence
More product sales, more revenue for the gun industry, along with more gun violence.
Now that is easy to understand for anyone with basic reasoning skills.
Let’s consider the case of school shootings. Every one of these tragic events, brings out ludicrous solutions and causes proposed by the gun advocates.
Arm the teachers. Teachers are teachers, not police. Most are not mentally equipped to be hard killers. They do not want to assume security guard duty on top of their already heavy load, while being greatly underpaid. Will the state and local school districts double their pay? Highly, doubtful.
What will it cost to arm, equip and train just 50% of the current number of teachers in grades 1-12 in the U.S.? Considering the cost of a Glock 22, training cost, ammunition, accessories, etc. I estimate about $12 billion for the initial year, assuming all are prepared in the same year. In addition, there will need to be training of replacement teachers, due to turnover and continuation of training for all. Training is not just once and done. I estimate the yearly cost to continue the program will be about $10 billion per year. And this will increase with an increase of teachers, schools and inflation. Where does the money go? To the gun industry, which will increase their financial ability to continue to control the politicians and further limit gun control.
Arming teachers will not be effective, as the police have continued to prove, one armed with a handgun is no match for a shooter with an AR15.
A handgun can be taken from a teacher by a student, who then shoots the teacher and students. Again, more guns, more gun violence.
Make the school into a fortress. A shooter can shoot through a fence or shoot up a school bus. Will the next step be using armored buses? How much will that cost? What about school field trips? How can those all be protected? Do we really want to put our kids in armed, prison like camps? What phycological effect will this have upon our kids?
Other Reactions:
It is not the guns; it is mentally ill people with guns. Maybe so. Then why are mentally ill people allowed to purchase and keep weapons like an AR15? Superficial background checks are not working to prevent those with bad intentions from getting lethal weapons. There must be much more intensive background checks, mental evaluations, social media reviews, conversations with the would-be purchaser’s friend, colleagues, relatives, teachers, a waiting period, a justification for a weapon purchase, required training, a license, registration and more. Those already in possession of guns should also be required to undergo such screenings on a periodic basis to justify retaining their weapons. We all know law abiding gun owners are only law abiding up until they commit a crime.
Social issues, video game violence, movie violence, godlessness, etc. Blame anything other than guns and lax gun laws, so that the gun industry and unlimited gun advocates will continue to fund my re-election campaign.
There are sensible ways to address the gun problem in the U.S.; but first those that deny the problem must accept there is a problem and face it, just like an alcoholic must admit alcoholism, to get past it. And our lawmakers have to find the courage to stand up to the gun lobby.
There is so much more that can be said about this issue; but I promised to keep it simple.
Please exercise your influence on those in our government to fix this problem and stop the senseless killings.
I know these photos are similar, but those clouds that seem to be emanating from the monolithic rock, emphasizing its powerful magic had to be captured in numerous compositions (I have even more, that I will not impose upon the reader).
The Current U.S Guns and Gun Violence vs Peers
