My list of landscape photography locations I want to visit grows practically daily.  I see lots of places which I know I’ll never go.  However, there are attractions which are much more doable.  Such is the case for this local tourist attraction.  The Moqui sand caves provide quite the experience for those seeking a bit of adventure and danger at the same time.  I decided I needed to attempt the photo shoot myself.  I came back with a bit of a story too.

So, I started off by checking out the museum in the main cavern.  It holds dinosaur tracks, phosphorescent rocks, and local history.  It was once a bar for the Hollywood movie stars filming in the area.  That was a nice little stop and interesting to check out the old bar as a museum attraction.  I personally found the atomic slag the most interesting glowing rock of the collection.  Who can resist seeing some local dinosaur tracks either?

From the museum, I moved on to the trail up to the high caverns.  It’s a short trail but requires some steep rock scrambling partway through.  It’s the only way up to the old sand mine caverns.  Sadly, I made the mistake of climbing with no less than 4 loosely slung heavy objects around my body: a full water bottle in sling, my camera, camera bag, and tripod bag.  Juggling those up the steep slopes made things tricky and perhaps a bit dangerous.  Still, I managed to make it up the face of the cliff.  I did lose my hat to the wind though.  It blew right off the edge.

The caves themselves were interesting, if shallow.  The deepest hole started off with a decently high ceiling.  However, it left about 5 or 6 inches above my head at the end.  The light was terrible but I didn’t plan on staying till it improved.  I didn’t fancy climbing back down those cliffs in the dark.  That was more danger than I wanted to face that day.

You could tell this site is a rather popular tourist attraction by the sheer amount of graffiti carved into the rocks along the trail and into the caves, even the museum cave.  As there’s no one currently overseeing and regulating the upper caverns, tourists feel free to deface the area and do so in droves.  Perhaps you can catch a glimpse of some of the graffiti in my photos.

After exploring the tourist attraction of the Moqui caverns, I climbed back down the slope carefully.  It was easier going down than going up for me.  Not quite sure why.  I also recovered my hat.  Thankfully, none of the other tourists decided to pick it up and claim it for themselves.  So, now I managed to scratch another landscape photography location or tourist attraction off of my list.  I don’t think I’ll go back because I came back with a scuffed wrist, elbow, and knee.  My pants are undamaged though.  If I ever do consider going back, I’ll probably leave my tripod behind as I didn’t use it.  Also, I’ll attend to the loose slinging equipment which unbalanced me more than once.