Even more Cathedral Valley photographs,
This is not really a pyramid shape, but it looks that way from this point of view.
Sometime in the distant future there will be more monoliths here.
Until next time,
Ken
More Cathedral Valley photos,
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).
More later,
Ken
Continued,
The loop road through Cathedral Valley climbs up out of the valley into higher elevations, giving overlooks of the valley and surrounding area.
Ok, so I find these old trees intriguing.
More later,
Ken
Continued,
Even more Cathedral Valley to come, but I will be traveling for awhile, so there may be some breaks in my posting schedule.
Ken
This is a continuation of photographs shot in Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park shot in March of 2022.
This sinkhole is deeper than this photo makes it appear. Falling in would be undesirable.
To be continued,
Ken
One of the most fascinating areas in Capitol Reef National Park is Cathedral Valley, located in the northeastern portion of the park. There are two access routes into/through this area from Utah Highway 24. The access closest to the visitor center requires a river ford, while the other, nearer Hanksville, does not require a river ford and gets into the most scenic portion much sooner than the river ford access point.
The geology in this area is varied and great for photography. We visited numerous times and only scratched the surface of the photographic opportunities here. I will devote a number of post to this area.
Initially, we hit the most popular areas in this very large valley and scouted for the places we wanted to get to at golden hours, which was a challenge, given the many miles of driving to get here from our lodging and the limited time we had to work this very large area.
I see opportunities to organize my photographs of this area into themes, but rather than take the organizational time required for that at this time, I’m posting images in the order that they were taken.
Enough for now, more later,
Ken
As sunset approached, I hiked back into the area around my campsite with my DSLR for a sunset shoot. As usual, I went out earlier than I thought necessary. Even so, my timing was off. Some of the features that I had anticipated shooting, were already in shadow, well before sunset. So I had to give up on some of the preplanned shot locations.
My first stop was at this vey tilted rock or hoodoo nearest to the campground. It was in full late day sunlight and I could see that there were already shadows on the big hillside in the distance.
I found this batch of prickly pear cacti that were still getting some late day rays, with the red hill behind them mostly in shadow.
Even though the light was much less than I had planned to see, I like this composition with the small, weakly lit tree and the big red hill in the background.
I like the sinuous leading line formed by this drainage with green grass contrasting with the red earth and the change in lighting from the right side to the left of this image
I converted this final image, made from the top of the hill from which I had photographed during my scouting hike, to black and white, to get a more dramatic late day image.
I tried capturing more images of the moon over this hilltop, shooting from a location on the side of the hill with tilted rocks pointing at the moon, but I could not get a good image with the lens I had chosen to use today.
Thanks for following,
Ken
On my return trip from the Grand Canyon North Rim, my first overnight stay was near Gallup, New Mexico at Red Rocks Park. There were large red rock formations around the park and I thought this would be a good place to check out. It was not a bad place to stay for one night, but much less interesting than I had anticipated. At least the weather was mild, due to overcast and rain during the day, just before I arrived at the park, then a booming thunderstorm at night.
My second overnight was at Texas’s Palo Duro Canyon State Park near Amarillo. I had been through the park many years ago, but never spent much time here. My campsite was deep into the canyon. Even though it was late July, the weather was only mildly hot in the day and cooled down nicely at night.
After settling in, I walked around the area to scout potential locations for sunset and possibly sunrise photography. All of the scouting images in this post were made with my iPhone.
As in most western US deserts or arid places, cacti abound and one needs to watch where one steps.
Visitors to this area have a penchant for carving into the rocks, which I assume must not be very hard rocks. I found this image of a dinosaur in a narrow space between large boulders.
Many of the boulders near the campsite had graffiti, initials, names and/or other scratched in symbols.
I captured images, testing compositions and to use as reminders, at locations that I thought might be good to return to with my DSLR at sunset.
I posted this panoramic image to Flickr, not because I thought it was a great image, but to share with others that may want to know what the area looks like and because I intended to use it in my blog and wanted to have a link to a larger image. Much to my surprise, this image was chosen for Flickr’s Explore page and is now my most viewed and faved image on Flickr. Maybe I’m just physically abusing myself carrying around that heavy DSLR camera and other gear, when a simple iPhone image garners this much attention.
Apparently, lots of people have scrambled up the steep slope to the top of this hill, since the boulders there all had some initials, names and dates carved into them.
Stay tuned for the sunset shoot here,
Ken
Prior to going to our selected view point for sunset photos, we stopped by Roosevelt Point again. We had scouted this area on a previous day. Today we hiked the trail as far as it was safe to go, this time with our DSLR and gear.
Those with acrophobia or anyone not sure footed should not go here.
As is apparent in these photos, it was mostly cloudy with some breaks in the clouds in the distance.
When I was shooting here, I was thinking the first image, with its wider view across the canyon, was going to be my best shot, but now I think the second one is the better of these two.
Final sunset shoot, coming up,
Ken
I continued my whirlwind tour of the Petrified Forest National Park, driving the park road and stoping at a number of pull outs, trail areas and overlooks.
It was monsoon season in this part of the country. There was evidence of recent rains, heavy water runoff, cloudy sky was common. Distant rainfall is seen in the photo above.
Mineral crystals replaced the original tree fabric, often preserving the detail of the original tree.
This is a vast park with wide open desert vistas and colorful geological features.
The view from this pull out might be the most beautiful within this park.
It was getting late in the day and I had seen numerous signs in the park reminding visitors of the closing time. It was already past the time suggested for visitors to head for the exits.
As I approached the south exit, I saw that the gate was already closed and for a moment I was concerned that I was going to be stuck in the park. However, the gate would open for those approaching from within the park, so I could get out after hours, but not get back into the park, outside of the open hours. I had wondered about the possibility of remaining within the park for sunset or night photography, but apparently the rangers make a sweep through the park to be sure no one remains for long after the closing time.
I arrived at my RV site and found that no one else was there and it was past the gift shop closing time, so I assumed I would be alone here tonight. Although it was not excessively hot, the sun was still high above the western horizon and it was apparent that my vehicle would heat up quickly with no shade and would require some time to cool to a comfortable temperature for sleeping. So I decided to drive the twenty plus miles into Holbrook, find a place for dinner and maybe a beer.
I had noted a restaurant called the Butterfield Stage Co Steak House as I was passing through on my way to the park. So I decided to check it out.
It was warm in the restaurant, so apparently they either did not have A/C or it was not working well or to save on electricity it was set to a rather warm temperature.
The staff (only seemed to be two) were friendly and courteous. I had my mind set on a steak, but when I looked over the menu, the steaks were all much larger than I could possible consume, so I decided upon Shrimp Scampi, house salad and bottled beer. I had hoped to find a local brew on draft, but only common bottled beers were available. The beer was good, but not as cold as I liked. The food was good and more expensive than I expected. The online reviews were mixed, some raved about this place other condemned it. I liked the western decor, folksy feeling, friendly low key staff and the food. I would give it a high rating, except for the prices, uncomfortably warm temperature and cool beer.
After dinner, I topped off my fuel tank before heading back to my RV site. When I arrived at my site, the sun had just set with a good sunset view from the parking lot. At first, I thought I had pulled into the wrong site, since there was a young female having lunch at the picnic table at my site. I double checked the site number to be sure I was at the right place then got out and greeted the picnicker. She asked if I had this site reserved. When I affirmed that I did she apologized, saying she just wanted to watch the sunset, while having her dinner. I assured her that I was not bothered by her having her meal there. As she gathered her food, I suggested she might as well use one of the other available picnic tables, since no other RVs were there, but she moved back to her vehicle. Maybe I looked like a really scary person, but I think she was just being careful, as one traveling alone should be. She was apparently car camping and her vehicle was still there in the early morning, as I headed out on the last leg of my journey to the Grand Canyon North Rim.
Next up: Grand Canyon North Rim.
Until then,
Ken
