Welcome back to National Parks and other public lands with T!
We saw the Bentonite Hills while touring Cathedral Valley with Jen Howe from Red Rock Adventure Guides. After photographing the sunrise at the Temples of the Sun and Moon, we drove part of the Cathedral Valley Loop towards Caineville. Here and there we stopped to admire the scenery.
The official stop for the Bentonite Hills is at the beginning of the Cathedral Valley Loop on Hartnett Road. These round, multicolored hills form a painted desert. The bands are mud, silt and volcanic ash deposited in layers during the Jurassic era. We saw some of these hills on Cathedral Road as we we were exiting the park to head towards Goblin Valley.
Capitol Reef Posts►
- Cathedral Valley
- Hickman Bridge
- Scenic Drive
- Panorama Point
- Temple of the Sun
- Temple of the Moon
- Petroglyphs
- Factory Butte
- Nielsen Wash
- Bentonite Hills
Location: Wayne, Utah
Designation: National Park
Date Designated/Established: 12/18/1971
Date of my visit: 4/13/2017
What a stunning place this is. Those colours and shading…
Thanks! Yes, this was probably the best day of our Utah trip
Wow! What a beautiful place to see!
Thanks! It sure is!
underrated national park!
Yeah, we loved it. Needed more time there
Amazing striated formations, T, that remind me of the Badlands. I’m embarrassed to admit I didn’t see these when we did a quick drive through Capitol. Must go back!
Thanks! You wouldn’t have seen this from the main park road or the 10 mile drive. This was up in the Cathedral Valley area as I recall…dirt roads
Nice! I was down there last week. I wanted to see some desert bighorn sheep – but no luck this time.
Thanks! You’ll have to go back then 🙂
Is that a dessert ? Btw beautiful!
Definitely not a dessert, lol, but could be considered high desert, I suppose. 🙂