UTAH: Cathedral Valley
One of our main goals for our trip to Capitol Reef was to go see Cathedral Valley. I did a lot of reading before I went and it is a long dirt road journey to do the loop and to get to the main attractions which are Temple of the Sun and Temple of the Moon.
The car we usually take on trips is Aaron's old Honda Civic but basically all the reviews I was really about the valley said we would need 4WD. So my grandparents let us use their truck with 4WD. On our journey out to the road, it was down pouring and I was getting a little nervous that the road was going to be horrible or we wouldn't be able to make it. But luckily once we got to the road, it stopped pouring and the road wasn't even wet at all... so I guess it wasn't raining over where we were headed which was awesome!
Our Route: We decided to do the route opposite from what people normally recommend. So we started at Caineville Road access. We would highly recommend this to anyone not wanting to do the entire loop or anyone without a 4WD car who is nervous about the route. This route is considerably shorter (we just went in and came back) and you can still get to the Temple of the Sun and Moon fairly easily. another bonus is you do not have to worry about crossing the river/water levels. You get to Cainville road through going a little further down HWY 24 and then turning left onto the road. There is a sign clearly marking the road. You will then follow this for _ miles.
Our Advice: Aaron's old Honda Civic could have made the trip so most cars I think can make the trip regardless of having 4WD. Though I am sure 4WD makes the ride much more enjoyable :) but you could easily do the trail from this access point with most cars and be able to see the sights and enjoy this beautiful back country.
The ride there is filled with really beautiful sites. Like this painted dome, black mountains and many other interesting formations. It is a long journey but the view is really worth it.
Eventually you will get to Temple of the Moon and Temple of the Sun!
The weather was a little bit funky for pictures. We tried to take some sunset pictures but no luck. So we enjoyed the night eating pizza, playing Spot it and Monopoly Deal and going to bed relatively early :)
We chose a random spot to camp where we could get some good night pictures of Temple of the Sun. We woke up at 12pm to try to take some pictures but it was still too cloudy so those didn't turn out very well. But on a good note, we got new sleeping pads from Costco and they are a real game changer. We were literally sleeping on bushes and those pads made it feel like you were sleeping on a normal mattress. I have been camping with no pad and Aaron had been camping with this tiny little guy so we were very excited about our new pads.
We woke up before sunrise the next morning and took a few pictures because the sky had finally cleared up! We then packed up and headed out. We loved Catherdral Valley and want to go back again to get some better pictures and Aaron wants to go crazy cruising out there in a Jeep so we will see about that.
