Cathedral Rock

Author's Comments

There is the photograph, and there is the place, and at Cathedral Rock these are not quite the same thing. The photograph is the one you already know - the twin spires reflected in Oak Creek from Red Rock Crossing, the water still, the sandstone going coral as the sun drops behind you. I have made that photograph. So has everyone. It is still worth making. What I will tell you is that the hour matters more than the day, and the day matters more than the season. Cathedral Rock photographs well in every month, but the reflection only happens when the creek runs low and slow - usually late spring through early fall, sometimes into a dry winter. After monsoon storms the water moves and the mirror is gone. Check the creek before you commit to the composition. Arrive at Crescent Moon Ranch ninety minutes before sunset. The lot fills, especially on weekends, and the Red Rock Pass is non-negotiable. Walk past the first obvious vantage and keep going downstream until the cottonwoods frame the formation the way you want them to. There is a stretch of bank where the foreground rocks lead the eye into the reflection, and that is the composition I would wait for. The light moves quickly here. The spires catch direct sun first, then the wall behind them, then the whole face goes the color of a struck match for maybe four minutes. After that it cools fast. Stay through blue hour. The reflection holds longer than the warm light does, and the formation against a deepening sky is the photograph most people leave before making.

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