I had visited Cathedral Gorge State Park back in the early 80s, when I lived in Ely. The Park is a bit of of the main routes and you sort of have to head that way intentionally. If you are in the Ely or Great Basin National Park area and are headed to Las Vegas or Valley of Fire State Park or Lake Mead National Recreation Area, or other points south, or, if you are near one of those points south, and headed north, try driving Highway 83 through Caliente, Pioche, and Panaca instead of the more direct route through Lund. You will be rewarded by some fascinating canyons in the Caliente area and some great views of the Great Basin along the way. And Cathedral Gorge will be a great place to stretch your legs, use the rest rooms, grab a quick picnic lunch, and view some other-worldly erosional formations.

Our second visit to this small gorge came on a wet Veteran's Day holiday, on our way to the Valley of Fire, near Overton.

12:45 p.m.
We reached the Miller Overlook above Cathedral Gorge State Park, where we used the vault toilets and took several photos of the gorge from above. There is a stone and wood gazebo near the south end of the parking lot, as well as a sturdy looking set of steel stairs that lead down into a narrow canyon through the fairy land below.

We started getting rain as the wind came up. We contemplated eating our picnic lunch under one of the covered tables, but the wind was cold and cutting. We decided to head down into the main part of the park to see if the tables there were perhaps less exposed.

We drove south about one mile and entered the Park at its main entrance. There is a Regional Information Center near the entrance, but it was closed, probably because of the holiday. The rain started picking up, and it was mixed with sleet.

About a mile into the Park we came to a pay station, on the honor system. We paid the $4.00 required for day use, stuck our pass in the window, and drove to the main day use area, where there is a covered group of picnic tables. There were three vehicles parked there and a group of people using the tables. They obviously were not interested in sharing, so we drove back down the paved road and entered the campground. There is also a large day use area there, with several covered tables, fire pits, running water, showers, and restrooms. However, on this day, the showers and restrooms were locked. But, we did have our choice of covered tables and enjoyed our picnic lunch while visually exploring the walls of the gorge. The clay sediments here are not as colorful as in some other parks, but the many natural sculptures and spires left behind are well worth the time to visit. If the Sun were shining the shadows playing across these surfaces would have been a photographers dream.

As it was, we enjoyed the setting as much as we could, stayed dry, curse the damp, cold wind, and finished our lunch as fast as we could.

After packing up we drove through the campground, checked out the sites, and used the restrooms there. These were modern units with flush toilets, electrical outlets, heaters, and showers. The campground is nice, with some tall trees, but many of the sites would still be exposed in the Summer months. The campground fee is $14.00 per night. There is a sanitation station near the entrance.

2:15 p.m.
We drove back to the first day use area, which was now abandoned, and, since the rain had stopped, we poked around there for a few minutes. We quickly found that, as we had suspected, the wet clay was not easy to walk on. It stuck to everything. I snapped a few quick photos, we promised ourselves to come back to camp some Spring or Autumn and explore the site more thoroughly.

We left the park and continued south through Panaca and Caliente and to our day's destination in Overton.