Burr Trail Road
Friday 17 September, 2021
Singing Canyon.
Burr Trail Road travels 108 km/67 mi from Boulder, UT, through Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, across Capitol Reef National Park (where it becomes unpaved) to Bullfrog, UT. Some or all of this route would allow us to spend some more time in Grand Staircase Escalante, add a new national park to our list, and, hopefully, successfully find some slot canyons!
We had been able to get to bed early enough that we could get out for a sunrise shoot. We set off down Burr Trail Road around 6:30, and found a pullout with some interesting formations around us.
We weren't the only ones who had this idea. A few minutes after we set up, two vans arrived, full of photographers on a workshop, climbing up on the rocks and setting up with their cameras and tripods.
Eric got some nice sunrise pictures just with his pocket camera.
Eric spotted a tree growing on the harsh rock
Alpenglow on the ridge.
Bee on a sunflower. Do bees sleep? It didn't move for a long time, even when I moved my lens fairly close to it.
We set out before the photography workshop. Eric took this picture of the road from an overlook.
As soon as we parked at the slot canyon entrance, the two vans of photographers pulled up behind us. They jumped out of the vans and started into the canyon much faster than I would have though such a sizable group would be able. We decided to let them get ahead of us a little, and took our time, taking pictures of the larger canyon around us.
Eric took one of his "Subaru commercial" photos of Mather.
Eric photographed honeycomb weathering in the canyon walls.
Eric photographed the sun rising falling over the canyon walls.
Eric photographed the fascinatingly curly leaves of this paintbrush.
We entered the beautiful slot canyon, with these lovely trees.
We had to work around the other photographers, but they were very polite, and we managed to get some good shots.
The end of the canyon, just a couple of minutes' walk in.
The steep walls of the canyon.
Eric took a picture looking back out toward the road.
As we were leaving, one of the other photographers came over to meet us. She told us they had been out on this workshop for five days, and that these were their last two sites; they were not going to follow us any more today. She was very friendly and told us about her photography group. All the same, we were relieved to proceed to the next sites without so many others.
Distance hiked: Virtually none
Distance driven: Only a few so far
Caches found: None
On to Capitol Reef National Park.