[Jonny V]

A few months ago I got one of those Northwest travel magazines in the mail. It didn't really have anything of much interest except for one page that caught my eye called "Beyond the Northwest". The page had a photo of a really cool looking sandstone spire that reminded me somewhat of Badlands National Park. The short little blurb that went along with it gave the name as Cathedral Gorge but it didn't even specify what state it was in. A Google search and a couple of YouTube videos later and we added it to the itinerary for our southwest trip. The place is incredible! From the John Day we drove east over the Blue Mountains to Ontario and connected up to I-84 and made it to Twin Falls, Idaho. The next morning we headed straight south through town on 93 which we took all the way to the entrance to Cathedral Gorge State Park just south of Pioche, Nevada. Basically the middle of nowhere. Along the way we drove past the beautiful Ruby Mountains and Great Basin National Park, both of which I have never been to but have on the list. Cathedral Gorge has a small campground (24 sites, no reservations). We arrived on a Friday around 11:30AM and got the last spot. We stayed three nights and each morning the place cleared out and then filled up again by the afternoon. How do I describe Cathedral Gorge? It is basically a vee shaped gorge, with the open end where the day use area is. It has several trails, none of which are very long. One leads up the center of the gorge to a high point above the gorge called Miller's Point. Another, the Juniper Draw Trail goes up a huge wash to the left of the wall of the gorge. But what really makes the place so special is the rock. Water erosion has carved the rock so that it looks like a series of giant cathedral pipe organs. These cathedral walls are very high and a myriad of slot canyons (which they call caves) are cut deep into the columns. They aren't true slots but more like fissures in the sandstone walls. Some are obvious to find and hike into and others require climbing high up on the rocks and dropping into them. Some are extremely narrow and then might open up into a large room beyond the narrow spot. It is a total playground and if you were a little kid it would be heaven on earth! We hiked the trail up the gorge to Miller's Point and then once on top the Eagle Point Trail doubled back along the top of one of the walls to an overlook of the valley high above the campground. Both trails aren't much more than a mile or so long but have incredible bang for the buck. The other great thing about Cathedral Gorge is that the rock is of a color that lights up an amazing orange color in the late afternoon. Inside the slots the light makes the walls glow as if lit from within. There is also some historical buildings there including a picturesque old stone water tower. Bridgit and I went over to the day use area one of the nights at 2AM and played around with some night photography. Cathedral Gorge is about a two and a half hour drive north of Vegas and only twenty miles west of the Utah border. It worked out great for us since we planned to head east to Utah anyway.

[awilsondc]

[RichP]

I visited this area earlier in the year and enjoyed it. Nevada has some really nice state parks.

[Nancyann]

Spectacular photos! I wish I would have been aware of this State Park when we drove through Nevada last month. This was the first time I have seen the Great Basin National Park also, and it looks like it has a lot to offer for an early season visit.

[cascadetraverser]

Really nice and unique; looks like nothing I have seen in Utah or Arizona.

[Jonny V]

Thanks. The clouds were really cool that day.

[puzzlr]

That's unreal! And your photos make the most of it. Added this to my "Travel" idea folder in case I'm ever in the area.

[Anne Elk]

Those "fissure" photos play interesting perspective tricks. I like the staircase to the elevated UFO landing pad, too.