One of my favorite overnight stopping places on the way to other locations in Utah is the Salt Valley near Arches National Park. In this case, I was on my way to St. George, Utah.
The improbable landscape of Klondike Bluffs area
(Click on photos for a larger view.)
I’ve said before that southern Utah may as well be on another planet.
I had heard about the upcoming eclipse, but I hadn’t realized until Friday morning that it was a full annular eclipse near this part of the world. So I started researching where I needed to go to see the whole thing.
The red line was the center of the eclipse. The blue lines denote the limits of where the moon was visible entirely within the outline of the sun. (Click for larger.)
I wanted to be somewhere south of the upper blue line. In the hopes of somehow combining some interesting scenery with the eclipse, I finally settled on going to Valley of the Gods in southern Utah (pink dot on the map).
By the time I finally got the Xterra loaded with camping and photography gear, it was raining/snowing around noon on Saturday. I knew I wasn’t going to make it all of the way to the Valley of the Gods, so my first night was spent in one of my favorite places near Arches National Park, Klondike Bluffs.
Klondike was warm and clear. Once I settled on a camping spot (there was no one around for miles), I set up my camera and did a few test shots of the sun. Overall, an idyllic evening.
The sun before the eclipse, with sunspots visible on the surface.
One thing I like about the trains that run through the mountains here, is that it’s living history. The Union Pacific Moffat Subdivision (as it is known today) was originally built around 1903 and is still in use today. That makes it roughly 110 years old.
On September’s outing with Rob and Sherrie (I’m a little behind in updating this blog), we picked up where we left off from our July outing when we explored the eastern side of Moffat Tunnel (6.1 miles long, under the Continental Divide) and the old route over Rollins Pass.
East Portal Moffat Tunnel, November 2010
We headed over to the west side of the Moffat Tunnel, in Winter Park. As luck would have it, we caught Amtrak’s California Zephyr emerging from the tunnel. (It helps to have a scanner radio to hear the train communications.) Compared to the east portal of the tunnel with is large concrete structure and huge venting system, the west portal is unassuming.
Amtrak #5 "Califorina Zephyr" emerging from the Moffat Tunnel
Because this is a photo heavy post the rest are behind the cut. And some of these photos benefit by clicking to see the larger versions.
