Arriving at the area above the Burr Trail Road Switchbacks, overlooking Strike Valley, we hastened to find quick compositions before the late day light disappeared.
Strike Valley, above the Burr Road switchbacks near sunset.
We were fortunate to get golden hour sunset light on portions of the foreground rocks for a brief interval, before the foreground went entirely into shadow.
A La Georgia O’keeffe
The repeating Vs in the image above remind me of themes or patterns often seen in Georgia O’Keeffe’s artwork that she did in in the New Mexico area near her home. The Vs begin in the old dead tree, continue with the intersection of the rock formations behind it and at the notch in the opposite valley wall in the background.
Strike Valley, above the Burr Road switchbacks near sunset.
The gnarly, fallen old tree in the foreground seems to mimic the rock layers behind it.
Strike Valley, above the Burr Road switchbacks near sunset.Strike Valley, above the Burr Road switchbacks near sunset.
I made a number of images with these rocks in the foreground. I’ve only included a couple of those in this post.
Strike Valley, above the Burr Road switchbacks near sunset.Strike Valley, above the Burr Road switchbacks near sunset.
Likewise, I captured a number of images similar to these two, getting a portion of the Burr Trail Road, going down into the valley. As a reminder, clicking on the photos with embedded links will take you to the photo on Flickr and viewing on a large screen will better show the details in the images.
Strike Valley, above the Burr Road switchbacks near sunset.
This is a continuation of a late afternoon shoot at Strike Valley Overlook in Capitol Reef National Park.
The EdgeUndulationsShadow Remains
This old tree skeleton provided a number of compositional possibilities. I think this one is the best photo I got here. If there were only a few clouds in the sky…
Evening RestLife on Edge
I had hoped to get some of these compositions with sunset light on the foreground, but this area very quickly went into shadow before the best of the late day light.
Rock ClimbersStrike Valley Overlook and Waterpocket FoldStrike Valley Overlook and Waterpocket FoldFadingDay’s EndReceding
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.
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.
Capitol Reef National Park in Utah is a narrow, but long park. During our first visit here years ago, we saw a limited portion of the park centered near the most visited area around the park headquarters. We were determined to see more during this visit and consequently had to spend much more time driving many miles to and from others areas of the park. So much of our time here was spent in a scouting mode, rather than being in a particular place at the best time for landscape photography.
Strike Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
This view of Strike Valley is in the southern portion of Capitol Reef National Park, accessible via a 3 mile, rocky, 4 wheel drive road, followed by a 0.3 mile hike through forest and over slick rock. The photos taken here were during a scouting visit, when it was mostly overcast with rain threatening, so the light was uniform with interesting clouds.
Strike Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
I paused along the quick hike back to the trailhead to snap photos of the clouds overhead with occasional drops of rain coming down.
