THE GRAND CIRCLE
Part Three : Capitol Reef National Park
Ahh…. Capitol Reef. I did not expect much of Capitol Reef National Park, probably because I never heard of it and did not do my research on it. I did not know that it was a dark sky reserves until we arrived. Dark sky reserves is an area, usually surrounding a park or observatory, that restricts artificial light pollution. Man, I was so excited about this when we found out! The chances of you being able to see the Milky Way with the naked eye is pretty low if you are like me, a city boy. But as a city boy who is into astrophotograpghy, it was overwhelmingly exciting for me . We only had two days here so I had to choose my location wisely. I love astrophotography but I am still new to it. It’s hard to find a perfectly clear sky with no light pollution if you live in the city so I rarely get the chance to shoot the stars.
We were on our way to “Fruita” campsite when we stumble across Panorama Point. A stop where you can park your car and check out a panorama view of the national park if that wasn’t oblivious already. This is where I took a photo of that lone unique tree you seen at the start of the blog. It was such an interesting subject that I felt like it would make a great foreground subject for my astrophoto. So it was decided, I’m coming back here for my stars!
When we got to the campsite the sun started to set. The orange glow lit up the sky while the wind blew the cold air that made the trees rustle, it was a great way to set up camp. I decided to explore the sites around camp because you will never know what you’ll find if you don’t look and I’m glad I did. About a few minutes walk away from camp, facing the sunset was a herd of deer just chilling. It was magical! I tried to stay as quiet and respectful by hiding behind the bushes while snapping a few shots. After all, we were in their territory.
Photos looks nice and warm doesn’t it? I wish I could say the same that night. It was one of the coldest night I’ve ever camped in. There was frost inside our tent the next morning! Yes, ice built up from us breathing and I swear I couldn’t feel my toes till that afternoon. Later that day we found out that the temp dropped down to -11 degrees. Word of advice, always check the forecast before camping. If we knew we would have made ourselves some hot water bottles to keep us warm through the frosty night.
The hike we did that day was a loop from Grand Wash Trail to Cassidy Arch and back. It was an easy 3.6 km hike to Cassidy Arch trail head and 2.8 km of strenuous hike with 204 m of elevation to the top of Cassidy Arch. Remember me saying that I did not expect much? Well Capitol Reef delivered the goods and I was so happy to be there. It was beautiful and to think that it used to be underwater millions of years ago is mind blowing. The rocks are former corals and hiking through it shows how powerful and scary mother nature is.
As’ golden hour’ came by we made our way back to camp and all I had in my mind was a picture of the stars. Soon it was dark, the stars twinkled in the black sky like they were diamonds lost in space. This is by far the most stars I’ve seen. We left after dinner back to Panorama Point wearing full winter gear. I’m talking, thermals, gloves, puffy jackets, beanies and some of us double socks. The thing about astrophotography is that you need to be out there in the dark cold night for a long time and if you’re not prepared and comfortable, it won’t be a nice experience. That said, even with full winter gear it was still cold! We got there, set up our tripod and started shooting. Believe it or not we saw a few shooting stars as well. ‘
It is not the best astrophoto I’ve done but as I said, I’m still learning and I am very happy with how this turned out even with the blury background. I always keep this note to self that “you can only get better by doing it”.
What a great way to say goodbye to Capitol Reef National Park seeing both beauty from light to dark. We prepared hot water bottle before bed this time and it was fairly comfortable sleep. Back on the road again the next day to Moab! My favorite town of the Grand Circle.