The Valley Walls
Reaching the Temple of the Sun and The Moon was a process. It was my final day in the park, and I had a long drive ahead of me. I had all of my belongings for two weeks on the road packed into two mid-sized backpacks. After all, they had to fit on a plane. The “road” to the destination was an hour away and was meant to take around another hour and a half after that on the “road” to the temple, so I left well before sunrise. This morning was especially tough as I didn’t know I was going to be going here until late into the night before.
Location:
Capitol Reef National Park
Date:
Fall, 2023
Camera:
Fujifilm GFX100S
As I was driving there it was quiet – there weren’t many people up in this part of the world at the time I was up at. It was nice.
Eventually though – I reached the “road”. It was a non-maintained dirt road known for being washed out and requiring a high-clearance vehicle. I hoped my CRV could hang. As I began driving I wasn’t a mile into the road when there were large boulders set-up along the road. Faced with a choice I had to either see the sign from God warning me and turn around – or press on, taking a risk and ignoring the boulders potentially telling me to stop.
As I drove past them all I could hear in my head was the voices of fear and dread warning me, “you’ll lose cell service miles from civilization” “what are you going to do if your tire pops”, etc. But I kept going. Eventually after a long and slow drive I reached my destination. Two stunning obelisks jutting out of the ground and just waiting to catch the early morning light. I even got to see a desert fox. It was unforgettable.
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