Bentonite Hills 1, Desert, Bentonite Hills and Old Tree
On the final day of our time in Capitol Reef National Park, we photographed around some of the many bentonite hills in the northern portion of the park and/or along the roadway into Cathedral Valley. The area where we photographed may actually be outside the park boundary on BLM or private land. We had driven past these hills numerous times during out trips into and out of Cathedral Valley.
Bentonite Hills 2, Desert, Bentonite Hills and Old Tree
There were a number of old, gnarly trees in this area, so I used those and other desert vegetation as foreground for photographs of the colorful hills.
Bentonite Hills 3, Desert, Bentonite Hills and Old TreeBentonite Hills 4, Desert and Bentonite HillsScrubby Desert Vegetation, Rocks and Bentonite HillsHard Rock Desert and Bentonite Hills, Early Golden HourBentonite Hills 5, Bentonite Hills Golden HourBentonite Hills 6, Bentonite Hills Golden HourBentonite Hills 7, Bentonite Hills Golden HourBentonite Hills 8, Bentonite Hills Golden Hour
My readers have already seen many photos of some of the fantastic, massive geological features in the Cathedral Valley portion of Capitol Reef National Park. The long loop road through this area passes many such features. We did not have time to explore around all of these and certainly not time to visit each area for golden hour sunrise or sunset photography.
But we did stop and walk around at some of the more easily accessible areas near the roadway. Often, I would use my iPhone camera to capture the scenes, rather than lugging around a heavy DSLR and lens.
Magic Seeker, iPhone PhotoDesert Vortex – Sky and Earth, iPhone PhotoRock Power, iPhone PhotoCommander/Tower of Power, iPhone PhotoDesert Sentinels/Commander and Sidekick, iPhone PhotoCathedral Valley Scene, iPhone PhotoSky Partitioner, iPhone PhotoDesert Sun, iPhone PhotoSerpent Sky, iPhone PhotoHalo, iPhone Photo
As I was shooting the triple arch of the previous post, I noted an old tree on the sandy ridge below the arch. Readers will already know that I have a fondness for gnarly old trees.
This one reminded me of a weird looking creature crawling along the ground. After taking the photo above, I noted some interesting features of the tree that reinforced my impression that this looked like an unusual creature.
Tree Creature Eyes
This feature looks like eyes of a mysterious creature.
Tree Creature Eyes – Black and White VersionTree Creature Face
On the return from Upper Muley Twist Canyon trailhead towards the Burr Trail Road, we stopped at arches we had spotted along the 4 wheel drive road to the trailhead. There are no safe ways to get very close to these arches, but one can hike up sandy banks to find a number of vantage points from which to shoot from below the arches.
Double Arch
This is a double arch, which may not be readily apparent at first glance.
Double Arch
Small portions of blue sky are visible below the two back to back arches in the photo above.
Front arch in Double ArchDouble ArchFront arch in Double Arch
Nearby is a triple arch, which will be the subject of the next post.
Upper Muley Twist Canyon in Capitol Reef National Park is accessed via a three mile four wheel drive road from the Burr Trail Road west of the the point where that road climbs out of Strike Valley. A high clearance vehicle is recommended for this roadway, as it is rugged with some sizable rocks that one must navigate over. However, we saw one or two Subaru Outbacks, that are capable vehicles, at the trailhead. So experienced drivers might be able to safely navigate this road with such vehicles; but definitely, ordinary, low clearance vehicles should not attempt this roadway. The road is narrow in portions with room for only one vehicle.
We were on this roadway several times during this visit to Capitol Reef National Park. The trailheads for both the Strike Valley Overlook and Upper Muley Twist Canyon begin at the parking area, which is large enough to accommodate at least 4 vehicles.
The full loop hike of the canyon is a nine mile round trip. The canyon hike was secondary to our purpose for being here, so we never tried to do the full hike. According to the map of the canyon, there are 4 arches in the canyon. The first arch is about 1 mile from the trailhead. We hiked to the first arch, prior to going to the Strike Valley Overlook for late day photography. We did not have time to go any further on that visit here and still get to the Strike Valley Overlook.
We returned here to hike further into the canyon one day prior to a sunset shoot at a nearby location and again we did not have time for the full hike, so we settled for shooting at the first and second arches along the hiking route.
Hole Rock
The canyon wall has interesting features, such as the holes eroded into the solid rock walls. There were many of these similar to the one in the photo above.
Against the Wall
The canyon walls are steep and sheer rock along portions of the route with stains from water runoff. This green tree against the colorful canyon wall made an interesting photographic subject.
Saddle Arch, Upper Muley Twist Canyon
We hiked past the first arch to the second one that is know as Saddle Arch. This arch is easily visible from the canyon floor, as one rounds a bend in the canyon. It is high up on the canyon wall, requiring a steep climb up a sandy slope to get nearest to it.
I made a number of images from various vantage points. The time of day was not the best for great lighting, but it was the only time we would be here. The colorful sandstone layers add interest to the photos and geologists will enjoy viewing and studying such exposed features.
I suppose a well prepared hiker/rock climber could get to the area directly beneath and behind the arch; but that would be a dangerous undertaking for a most hikers.
On the hike out we stopped by the first arch to try to get closer photos. More on that in the next post.
After shooting at the Strike Valley Overlook, we retreated back to the intersection of the the 4 wheel drive road and Burr Trail Road to shoot a window in a rock near that intersection.
I hiked along a stream bed to get better views of the window.
Window in Rock, just off of the Burr Trail Road, Capitol Reef National Park.
The window is so far away from this shooting area that it appears to be much smaller than it actually is, so the foreground scene dominates these wide angle shots.
Window 2Highs and Lows
I scrambled up a very steep slick rock slope to get the photo above and a few of the others here.
Elemental Wounds
The canyon walls along the stream had some interesting texture and features.
Rock OnPillar of SupportSculptedEndurance
Back at the open area around a parking area just off of Burr Trail Road, I looked for foreground objects to include in front of the distant window.
High Desert ViewDesert RocksTree Bone Dry
None of these shots turned out to be outstanding (although, I do like the vertical composition that I had to work hardest to get, climbing a steep slope), so we abandoned this area and headed towards an area overlooking Strike Valley above the Burr Trail Switchbacks, hoping to get there before the sunlight disappeared.
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
