2021 Spring Tour of the Southwest, 3.31.21 - 4.14.21, Part 3 of 11, Cathedral Gorge State Park (con't)
I was so glad we opted to stay at Cathedral Gorge for three nights. It really allowed us to fully explore the place at all times of the day and night. After having so much fun exploring the caves on the day we had arrived, the following morning I got up and shot the sunrise from up at Miller’s Point. This is a lookout above the end of the central gorge and you can hike there from below or drive up there from the state highway. For the sunrise I drove up. When I got back Bridgit got up and after a leisurely breakfast we headed back over to the day use area and took the short hike up the gorge to Miller’s Point. There is another trail up near the point called the Eagle Point Trail which we also took. It basically goes along one edge of the gorge up on top and looks down on the Juniper Draw (good mountain biking trail) and the campground from high above. That afternoon I went back to shoot the late afternoon sun again from the day use area and found some slots I hadn’t seen the previous day. Such an amazing place!
The walls near the day use area
Late afternoon light by day use area
Sunrise light from Miller’s Point
Cool arch on the hike to Miller’s Point
Miller’s Point from the trail
Can you spot the entrance to the slot in this one?
Total playground
After dinner we went to bed early with a plan to get up at 1:30AM. I have been studying tutorials on Milky Way photography and wanted to give it a try. I knew that my window was still a bit early due to the fact that the core of the Milky Way didn’t rise until 2AM but the moon rises over the horizon at 2:15AM. My main efforts at Milky Way photos were slated for the following week when it would be a new moon but for this night we wanted to play around with what is called light painting. Light painting is basically using artificial light to illuminate a subject. It can be a headlamp, car lights, flashlights or whatever, but it allows you to be as creative as you want with your photos. It takes some practice to figure out how long to light something up so it is visible but doesn’t wash out your subject.
We went over to the day use area at 1:30AM and of course no one else was over there. We brought an LED panel, an LED flashlight, two headlamps that also had a red lamp mode and an inflatable lantern that has ten different colors. We would place some lights in certain spots to light up one thing and Bridgit would “paint” something else, all the while hoping to also capture the Milky Way or at least some stars in the photos. This was our first attempt at this type of photography and we were pretty pleased with the results.
The Pillar
For this one, we hung an LED light inside the stone water tower so the light would come through the window and doorway. Our inflatable globe was set to purple and placed outside aiming at the tower to light it up. Bridgit was hiding behind the tower painting the rock wall with an LED panel. This was a 30 second exposure.
This one had Bridgit barely lighting the top of the pillar with an LED flashlight. I couldn’t see it with the naked eye, but at a 30 second exposure I think the moonlight coming from behind the rock wall was illuminating the background hills and turning them orange. This was my favorite of all our efforts.
On this shot we used the red light on her headlamp to paint the rock for about five seconds of a 30 second total exposure for the rock.
Part 4 is next up.