Cathedral Valley
If you're looking for the definition of a gorgeous fall day, you can simply refer to October 15, 2016, in Capitol Reef National Park. The sky was blue, the clouds white, and a slight breeze swirled the falling leaves from the campground trees. It was short-sleeved T-shirt weather, but the falling leaves reminded us that winter isn't far away.
My favorite place in Capitol Reef is Cathedral Valley; three areas of sandstone temples scattered across the valley floor. Lower Cathedral Valley is the most famous area and the one that we visit. The Temple of the Sun and Temple of the Moon are only about a 1/4 mile apart and abruptly rise out of the valley floor. When the rising sun hits the eastern faces of the temples, the red sandstone seems to glow.
Our plan was to drive out to Cathedral Valley, shoot sunset, shoot the temples by the light of the full moon, sleep in the Explorer, and then shoot the temples again tomorrow at sunrise. Our first task was to move all our gear out of the back of the Explorer and into the motorhome. Then, we had to re-fill the Explorer with our "overnight gear." The drive to Cathedral Valley was 19 miles on the wonderfully smooth, re-surfaced Highway 24, followed by 26 miles of high-clearance dirt roads with washboards and wash crossings that guaranteed a slow drive. We had hoped to do a little exploring of Upper Cathedral Valley, but we ran out of time and had to hustle back to Lower Cathedral Valley to shoot sunset. I had hoped to re-shoot Temple of the Sun with a sandstone rock in the foreground that I found back in the 90's. I had no trouble finding the rock, but I barely had enough time to get a shot before the sun dipped behind a ridge and painted my rock with shadows.
We walked back to the Explorer and drove around the area looking for the best place to shoot moonset at sunrise tomorrow. As we drove back to the Temple of the Moon, the full moon peeked over the horizon. Even though it was too dark to get pictures of the supermoon, we grabbed our tripods and tried anyway. The moon was so yellow that it looked fake. Our images don't show it, but it was a gorgeous moon. When we got back to Temple of the Moon, we ate our gourmet peanut butter sandwiches while we listened to a Carl Hiassen book on the iPod. Do we travel in style or what?
As the supermoon climbed higher in the sky, it lit the entire area. When we saw the shadow of the Explorer, we knew it was time to go out and shoot. The light of the full moon was so bright we could walk around the area to get our shots without flashlights or any other light. It was magical shooting Temple of the Moon and Temple of the Sun by the light of the moon with stars twinkling above them. There was complete silence.
By 10:00, the moon had risen higher in the sky, and the light on the temples had lost its intensity. That was our cue to pack up our gear and settle in for the night. We made ourselves as comfortable as we could be and listened to the book on the iPod until we started nodding off. The wind blowing the fine white silt vetoed our idea of sleeping in the back of the Explorer. That would have required putting our extra clothes and gear in boxes sitting outside the Explorer. It soon became obvious that the front seats of an Explorer aren't designed for a comfortable night's sleep.
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