Lady in a Tub

Lady in a Tub

The last leg of our Escalante loop found us in the Valley of the Gods, just outside of Mexican Hat, Utah.  It's a great place to get the feel of Monument Valley, without the crowds.  It's a sixteen mile loop that winds through red sand stone monoliths.  You can take a self guided tour and drive the loop in about an hour, or stay in one of the few campsites overnight. Since we were coming from the Burr Trail up north we had to progress down the perilous switchbacks called the Moqui Dugway. Just at the bottom of the hill is the road to Valley of the Gods.  Of course the sign only faces the opposite direction so we soon discovered that we past the turn off.  We realized after consulting the GPS and map that we had to turn around. We were running out of time,  the sun was going down,  already making the most beautiful glow on the rocks. It wasn't long until we found a great campsite at the edge of a mesa.  I took the opportunity to capture some sunset images.  After a little dinner and campfire, we settled in this gorgeous area.  Just as dusk had fallen I began to realize the 3/4 moon was beginning to become visible along with Venus.  It was a large orb floating in a beautiful gradient blue sky, perfectly aligned with one of the famous monoliths, the so-called Lady in a Tub.   I snapped images, as Kristi watched the moon slowly lower itself below the horizon.  The light was such that I was able to capture some detail in the moon's shadow.   The moon travels quickly and I had to find a shutter speed that froze the motion, and capture enough light to keep it from being blurry.  We left the next morning during the sunrise, but I captured some more images on the way out. Only having spent one night in the Valley of the Gods, I was blessed with a spectacular display of light for the duration. My only regret was that we didn't spend another night there.  We definitely will be back though.

Valley of the Gods