Capitol Reef National Park

Along the main road.

Capitol Reef has a 50 mile back road that is lightly used. It's called Cathedral Valley and has lots of colorful and interesting rock formations. If you plan to take the road, you will want a high clearance or four-wheel drive vehicle. You start the trek by driving down a river for 30 to 50 feet and then crossing it.

Along the main road.

Hover flies and flowers

Capitol Reef has an apple orchard right along the main road that the mule deer just love. Amazingly, very few people stop or even slow down by the orchard to see the deer. Yes, it is a wild deer. How did I get so close? I was using a 75-300 zoom and I stood behind a fence for a half hour watching and taking pictures. Slowly, the deer got bolder and came closer. The previous year, my son and I stood in a field watching 15 deer feeding about 100 yards away. We stood talking and shooting and eventually several does came close. The real hard part was trying to delete some of the pictures we had taken to make room for more.

Another mule deer

Canyonlands National Park     Parks     Dead Horse Point State Park
All photographs on this page are Copyright 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007 by Roger Tuttleman
Roger & Marian's Web Site, last modified 06/16/09