Editors note:
All images below correspond to the same frame as shot, with white balance changes only, except the final one that included a slight curves adjustment to the one with the highest temperature, out and up of the working range of AUTO.
Location: ANPAT 11, at Bryce Canyon NP, Utah
Camera and Lens: Nikon D2X, 12-24mm f/4G AG-S DX Nikkor, no ND Grad filters
Exposure: f/5.6, 1/25, ISO 400, Matrix Metering
Color settings: Color Mode III (sRGB), Color Space sRGB.
All changes to white balance were made on Nikon Capture NX2 V2.2.8

Conclusion for this set of white balance adjustments
Nikon AUTO White Balance does a very good job even in tough light conditions, however it has its limits. The original AUTO frame is almost as good as the one with temperature set at 8,000°K, but to get the whites white, it was required to go to the highest allowed for this image-camera combination, or 9,090°K and adding a curves adjustment, raising the actual temperature to it's top end of 10,000°K.

Follow this link to see white balance settings for an stage example