Category: National Parks

A Photographer on Vacation – Part 2: Utah Scenic Byway 12 and Capitol Reef National Park

Published on by rdmegr

[This is the second installment of a travelogue from our recent trip to national parks and one state park in Utah and Colorado. More installments will follow. You can find the first installment here.]

If I had any regrets about our recent trip, it would be that we did not plan enough time to enjoy this next segment of our journey. We traveled Utah’s Scenic Byway 12 from Bryce Canyon National Park to Capitol Reef National Park on our way to Moab, Utah. I had heard that the Byway was one of the most beautiful roads in the country, and after driving it, I would concur.

With an altitude ranging from 5,223 feet to 9,636 feet above sea level, the Byway passes 124 miles through a diverse, remote, and rugged landscape. Soon after leaving Bryce, we were climbing up, up, up through a canyon. We didn’t pull over while we were in the canyon, but we did so soon thereafter to embrace this view of Powell Point (elevation 10,188 feet) at the Blues Overlook. Powell Point is named for John Wesley Powell, who led expeditions to map this area in the 1880s.

Back on the road, we passed through the town of Escalante before hitting “the Hogsback.” The Hogsback is a stretch of road known for its hairpin curves that drop off drastically into deep canyons 800 to 1,000 feet below. It’s a beautiful stretch of road, but one where you keep both hands on the wheel and your attention on the road in front of you. As we got to the end of the Hogsback, we stopped at the Head of the Rocks Overlook. From the overlook, slickrock stretches as far as the eye can see.

Shortly after getting underway again, we stopped at the Kiva Koffeehouse, a unique structure built into the side of the Escalante River Canyon. You park on the roof of the Koffeehouse and walk down a set of stairs …

to a semi-circular dining room …

with a spectacular view of the canyon.

After passing through the Hogsback, Scenic Route 12 eventually begins to climb Boulder Mountain. The scenery changes from canyons to Aspen an pine groves. The road reaches the Larb Hollow Overlook at 9,200 feet. At the Overlook, we could see the Waterpocket Fold, a 100 mile-long fold in the earth’s crust where the earth has been pushed up. In this photograph, you see the fold running along the base of the mountains in the background.

The Waterpocket Fold is the unique feature of our next stop, Capitol Reef National Park. From the overlook, the road descends back to the desert and ends at the park, near Torrey, Utah.

President Franklin Roosevelt designated Capitol Reef a national monument in 1937. In 1971, President Richard Nixon signed the legislation that made it a national park.

With its high cliffs and red rock, Capitol Reef is stunningly beautiful.

The Waterpocket Fold reveals layers in geologic time.

The area that encompasses Capitol Reef was home to nomadic people for thousands of years. From 300 CE to 1300 CE, the area was home to the Fremont Culture. They were indigenous farmers who settled along the Fremont River and grew corn, beans, and squash. They left behind petroglyphs and pictographs.

In the 1870s, Mormon pioneers settled along the Fremont River in an area of Capitol Reef they called Fruita. In 1880, Nels Johnson moved into Fruita and planted the first orchards. Orchards of apples, apricots, cherries, peaches, pears, and plums provided food and income to residents of the Fremont River Valley into the 1960s. When the national park was established, the Park Service began managing the orchards, which remain productive to this day.

We picked apples in one of the orchards and had a picnic lunch in Fruita before heading on our way to Moab, Utah.

If I were to do it again, I would have planned more time to spend on the Scenic Byway and at Capitol Reef National Park. Both deserved more attention than we could pay them as we passed through on our way from Bryce to Moab.

A Photographer on Vacation. First stop – Bryce Canyon National Park

Published on by rdmegr

[This is the first installment of a series of posts of photographs from a recent trip out west. Additional posts will follow.]

We just returned from a two week trip through Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. Traveling with my wife of 50 years, I was mindful that the purpose of the trip was not photography, although we saw lots of beautiful country and between us took lots of photos. I am reminded of the poem “The Vacation,” by Wendell Berry. It begins, “Once there was a man who filmed his vacation.” It recounts the story of a photographer who flew down the river in a boat, his video camera to his eye. “He showed his vacation to his camera, which pictured it, preserving it forever.” When the trip was over, he could show his vacation at the flip of the switch, “But he would not be in it. He would never be in it.” I was bound to be in my vacation and not let photography get in the way of enjoying the experience with my wife. Oh yes, I took photos. But I took photos like a tourist rather than like a photographer. (There’s a difference.)

After flying to Las Vegas and picking up a rental car, we drove to Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. President Warren G. Harding proclaimed Bryce Canyon a national monument on June 8, 1923. One year later, Congress passed legislation to establish Bryce Canyon as a National Park. The park officially became a national park in February 1928.

Bryce is actually not a canyon. It is an amphitheater. The difference? A canyon is a deep valley with steeps sides usually carved by a flowing river. A natural amphitheater is a wide, bowl-shaped depression formed by erosion, rain, and ice. In Bryce Canyon, that erosion has created the largest collection of hoodoos in the world.

We arrived in the early evening and, after a quick dinner, went to Sunset Point to watch the sun go down. We arrived too late to see the sun hitting the hoodoos. Nonetheless, even in shadows the view was awesome.

In my photography, I am drawn to the roots and fallen trees. So this tree, perched on the precipice of the amphitheater caught my attention, of course.

Situated at 8,000 feet and far from any major city, Bryce Canyon is a Gold Tier International Dark Sky Park. The day we arrived there was a new moon and an opportunity to see the core of the Milky way, the center of our universe. This was the only photograph I planned, researching the location and the method of capturing a photograph of our galaxy.

The next morning, we were up early and on the rim of the amphitheater to catch an amazing sunrise.

In this next photograph, Navajo Mountain, 82 miles from the edge of the amphitheater, glows in the predawn light.

Closer by, Powell Point also glows.

As the sun crested the horizon, the hoodoos and walls of the amphitheater came alive.

In this next photograph, a hoodoo known as “Thor’s Hammer” catches the morning light.

The main road in the park leads 18 miles to Rainbow Point, elevation 9,115 feet. There, we hiked on the Bristlecone Trail, which promised bristlecone pine trees at the halfway point. Bristlecone pines are among the oldest organisms in the world. The oldest bristlecone tree is estimated to be over 4,700 years old. With my taste for gnarly trees and roots, I was looking forward to actually seeing a bristlecone pine for the first time. Let’s just say, the trees at the halfway point didn’t live up to my expectations.

As the trail circled back to Rainbow Point, we could see a storm rolling through the park in the distance.

Driving back along the main road, the dark sky made for dramatic views.

Of course, the park itself has plenty of dramatic views, like this arch along side the main road.

On our last morning at Bryce, we hiked the Mossy Creek Trail before heading on our way. The trail begins in the bottom of an amphitheater, so it required no huffing and puffing to ascend. It was a different experience to look up at the walls of the amphitheater rather than down from the rim.

The trail leads to a small waterfall

and, not surprisingly given its name, a cave (if that’s what you want to call it).

For me, a bonus along the trail was this tree, with its outstretched roots.

Once done with the Mossy Creek Trail, we headed north on Scenic Route 12, which is touted as one of the most beautiful roads in the country. I became a believer. But that is for the next installment. If you have made it this far, thank you for taking the time to look at my photographs. I tried to pare them down, but I am sure there are too many. Thank you for indulging me.