Tag: Rocks

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, March 2022, Part 13 – Return to Strike Valley and Upper Muley Twist Canyon

Arch in Upper Muley Twist Canyon

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 Fold
Strike Valley Overlook and Waterpocket Fold
Strike 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 Fold
Strike 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 Fold
Linear Features on the Waterpocket Fold

This natural, linear, geological feature looks like a shrub lined walkway.

A Very Small Portion of the Massive Waterpocket Fold
Resting 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.

To be continued,

Ken

 

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, March 2022, Part 10 – Cathedral Valley

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, Utah
Monoliths, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Temple of the Sun (in right background), Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Downcast
Temple of the Moon, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Temple of the Sun framed by smaller rocks, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Temple of the Moon, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Temple of the Moon, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Temple of the Moon, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Temple of the Sun, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Temple of the Sun, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Temple of the Sun, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Temple of the Sun, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Temple of the Moon, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Temple 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, Utah
Temple of the Moon, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Temples of the Sun and Moon, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

Until next time,

Ken

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, March 2022, Part 9 – Cathedral Valley

Even more Cathedral Valley photographs,

Pyramid

This is not really a pyramid shape, but it looks that way from this point of view.

Emerging

Sometime in the distant future there will be more monoliths here.

Big Brother
Three Rocks
Monolith Production Line
4 Rocks

Until next time,

Ken

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, March 2022, Part 8 – Cathedral Valley

More Cathedral Valley photos,

Emanating
Wondrous Desert
Dominant Power
Magical Desert

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

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, March 2022, Part 7 – Cathedral Valley

Continued,

Cathedral Valley Overlook

The loop road through Cathedral Valley climbs up out of the valley into higher elevations, giving overlooks of the valley and surrounding area.

Unanswered Plea
Forsaken
Finality

Ok, so I find these old trees intriguing.

Cathedral Valley Eroding Geologic Feature
Slowly Weathering Away
Mystical

More later,

Ken

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, March 2022, Part 6 – Cathedral Valley

Continued,

Volcanic Ridge beneath Blue and White Sky
Volcanic Ridge Blues
Crooked Sky
Volcanic Ridge and Rock Layers

Even more Cathedral Valley to come, but I will be traveling for awhile, so there may be some breaks in my posting schedule.

Ken

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, March 2022, Part 5 – Cathedral Valley

This is a continuation of photographs shot in Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park shot in March of 2022.

Temple of the Moon
Temple of the Sun
Desert Dry
Temples of the Sun and Moon
Pandemonium
Serene Blue and Red
Gypsum Sinkhole

This sinkhole is deeper than this photo makes it appear.  Falling in would be undesirable.

Sky Line

To be continued,

Ken

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, March 2022, Part 4 – Cathedral Valley

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.

Cathedral Valley

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.

Cathedral Valley Monoliths
Cathedral Valley Monoliths

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.

Desert Shadows – Black and White
Desert Sand, Vegetation and Shadows – Black and White
Desert Life – Black and White
Dead Grass and Shadows – Black and White
Sunburst – Black and White

Enough for now, more later,

Ken

Palo Duro Canyon State Park, Texas, July 2021, Part 2

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.

Golden Hour, Palo Duro Canyon

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.

Cacti and Red Hill, Palo Duro Canyon

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.

Tiny Desert Tree and Red Hill, Palo Duro Canyon

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.

Late Day Deep in Palo Duro Canyon

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

Boulders and Red Hills, Palo Duro Canyon
Moon over Tilted Hoodoo, Palo Duro Canyon
Desert Evening

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

 

Palo Duro Canyon State Park, Texas, July 2021, Part 1

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.

The Sportsmobile in Palo Duro Canyon Campsite.
Small Cacti in Palo Duro Canyon

As in most western US deserts or arid places, cacti abound and one needs to watch where one steps.

Dinosaur Grafiti, Palo Duro Canyon

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.

Rock Grafitti, Palo Duro Canyon

Many of the boulders near the campsite had graffiti, initials, names and/or other scratched in symbols.

Rock Signings, Palo Duro Canyon
Boulders and Hillside, Palo Duro Canyon
Boulders, Palo Duro Canyon

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.

Palo Duro Canyon Scene
Palo Duro Canyon Topagraphy
Life on a Rock, Palo Duro Canyon
Cacti and Red Hill, Palo Duro Canyon
Cacti and Red Hills, Palo Duro Canyon
Scrubby Vegetation and Red Hills, Palo Duro Canyon
Tilted Hoodoo, Palo Duro Canyon
Tilted Hoodoo Palo Duro Canyon
Hilltop view near campsite, Palo Duro Canyon
Palo Duro Canyon Pano

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.

Rock Registry, Palo Duro Canyon

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