Ken's Photography and Travel Blog

Utah – March 2026 – Part 17

A brief look at my camera screen in the early morning, showed that I at least got star photos during the night. I always have some concerns that the program worked as planned, after setting up the camera to shoot well after dark and then retiring to bed. Unfortunately, upon reviewing those images on a big screen it was obvious that the stars were big blurry bright spots. So apparently I either accidentally shifted the focus a little, during the final set up or maybe I forgot to switch off auto focus. I think it was most likely the first, since I vaguely recall having to shift the lens back into auto focus mode for early morning sunrise shots, after realizing the first shot was not in focus. I don’t completely trust my eyesight to get really good focus, when in manual mode.

But I still have two batches of star images to process, which I will have to get to soon.

After shooting a few early morning images, we decided it was time to move on and headed towards the Moab area. Moab has become much more popular than it was during my first few visits here. Now it is very crowded all the time it seems and the rapid growth rate is highly evident. We considered several possibilities for finding a campsite in this high demand camping area, finally selecting a small public land camping area not very far from Dead Horse Point and we were lucky enough to have two or more empty sites from which to select.

After setting up camp, we did a bit of exploring in the local area, stopping by Dead Horse Point to scout it briefly.

This scene reminded me of hiking in Canyonlands NP many years ago.

After this brief visit to Dead Horse Point, we will return later for sunset photography.

Thanks for following,

Ken

Utah – March 2026 – Part 16

I’ve fallen behind in my normal blog post schedule, being preoccupied with other summer time activities. I’ll try to get back to a more regular schedule.

I used this geological feature as a foreground for star photography. As usual, I’m slow at processing those night images, so the star photos will have to be in a later post.

Most of the golden hour light was gone by the time I made ‘Early Morning Light’, but I really like the light and shadows on the undulating foreground.

After shooting sunrise from our campsite, we explored more of the local area, driving a number of side roads into the desert.

These rock shapes remind me of crowns that might be worn by kings and queens.

‘Sand, Plants, and Hills’ is a paraphrase from the Eagles’ song ‘A Horse with No Name’.

As evening approached, we set up for more night sky photography.

Thanks for following,

Ken

Utah – March 2026 – Part 15

There is an arch on a bluff just off of Buckhorn Draw Road, which we stopped to check out on our way back from Little Grand Canyon.

As we drove back along the route we had taken to get to Utah’s Little Grand Canyon, we stopped to check out a side road near a large campground, where we were considering staying; but as we explored the side road, we discovered more interesting scenery and plenty of open campsites at which to enjoy the scenery.

Our Campsite off of Mexican Mountain Road, Utah

Look closely and my Sportsmobile can be spotted near the center of this image. If just glancing at the image, the Sportsmobile might be mistaken for a natural feature.

This zoomed in image shows the campsite location a bit better.

Mexican Mountain Road, Utah, Landscape Pano 1

This pano, made from our campsite, is of geological features across the roadway.

We will shoot star photographs at this location. These images were taken not only to show the local scenery, but to select compositions for night sky foregrounds.

More local images and exploration images to follow,

Ken

Utah – March 2026 – Part 14

We retrieved our cameras, after leaving them out at night, programmed to shoot the night sky, in the early morning and proceeded to shoot sunrise photos at Utah’s Little Grand Canyon.

Sunrise Golden Hour, Little Grand Canyon, Utah

It was a cloudless morning, so the sky was bland and the sunrise was not at a good angle to illuminate much of the geological features in and around the canyon. This limited the possible compositions. Perhaps another time of the year might work better for sunrise at this location.

Sunrise Golden Hour 1, Little Grand Canyon, Utah

Sunrise Golden Hour 2, Little Grand Canyon, Utah

After a brief and limited golden hour sunrise shoot along the canyon, we drove back to The Wedge and shot a few images there. The smoke from a distant wildfire lingers in the canyon, giving this image a “misty/foggy” appearance.

It was the long, curvy root of this tiny tree on the edge of the canyon that motivated me to compose this image.

These two Smoky Morning images were shot from the same spot, I just zoomed in a little more and shifted the camera more to my right, eliminating most of the glare from the sun, emphasizing the big round rock in the middle, creating leading line features with the sunlit rocks on the bottom right diagonal and keeping the smoky effect in the canyon.

This concludes my photography (except for the yet to be edited night time photographs) at Utah’s Little Grand Canyon. Now it is time to move on and find another location.

So stay tuned to see what we found,

Ken

Utah – March 2026 – Part 13

This is the second part of Golden Hour Sunset photography at Utah’s Little Grand Canyon.

I used this old tree skeleton as a foreground in a number of compositions as the sun set and light moved up the tree leaving the base in shadow.

Only the rocks on the distant horizon have golden hour light in ‘Golden Hour 16’, but the sky is gaining color.

When shooting at golden hour, it is rewarding to look around and towards the western sky, as the setting sun often creates wonderful colors in clouds, which might go unnoticed if one focuses too much on the eastern sky.

After sunset, we set our cameras up to shoot the night sky. As usual, I’m slow in processing those many, many images. So I’ll have to postpone the night sky blog and move onto sunrise images in the next post.

Thanks for following,

Ken

Utah – March 2026 – Part 12

The previous post contained a few of my pre-golden hour images at Utah’s “Little Grand Canyon”. This post has a few of the golden hour images.

That bush skeleton was mostly in shadow before golden hour, so only a tiny portion of it is illuminated and the same is true for the tree skeleton in the image below.

Sometimes it appears the best of golden hour is over, then it comes again, as clouds move on the horizon or the sun dips below clouds.

Stay tuned for part 2 of Golden Hour at Utah’s Little Grand Canyon,

Ken

Utah – March 2026 – Part 11

My son and I began shooting at Utah’s “Little Grand Canyon” ahead of sunset golden hour. This post contains images from that portion of time. The next post will contain golden hour photos.

I like the way the late day light highlights the grass growing in the cracks between the rocks in ‘Late Day Shadows 4’, but I like the bigger picture image ‘Late Day Shadows 5’, made just a little later, when the highlights were almost gone, more. That small tree and the grass anchor the image in ‘Late Day Shadows 4’,

but somehow getting more of the rocks into the foreground appeals more to me.

Note that ‘Late Day Shadows 6’ is composed very much like ‘Late Day Shadows 3’, but the shadows are deeper and the highlights look a little brighter in contrast to the shadows. Golden hour is close now. Stay tuned for golden hour images,

Ken

Utah – March 2026 – Part 10

After miles of travel on gravel backroads, we arrived at Utah’s “Little Grand Canyon” or the “Wedge” as one viewpoint is called. This canyon does look similar to Arizona’s Grand Canyon, but on a much smaller scale. There are campsites (dry, and there were a few car/tent campers here) on the North end of the area and at least one pit toilet. The roadway through the camping area is rocky and rough, but nothing a normal passenger vehicle can’t handle.

The haze in the canyon is from a forest fire somewhere in the larger area.

On the Edge 2

After scouting, we returned to our base camp and relocated here for sunset, night sky and sunrise photography.

Thanks for following and stay tuned for more of Utah’s “Little Grand Canyon” photos.

Ken

Utah – March 2026 – Part 9

In addition to the impressive Buckhorn Wash Pictograph Panel (previous post) there is another panel with petroglyphs that is not well marked and not as visited. These petroglyphs are on a rock face a few meters removed from the roadway, requiring a short hike, part of which is moderately steep, but not difficult.

These panels are often not easily photographed such that the images are clearly depicted, requiring some excessive editing to bring out the details.

A little further down the roadway, there is an exposed dinosaur footprint on a ledge above the road. One has to know where to look to find this print, but it is obvious when found, as someone has surrounded it with rocks

This final image is a view of Buckhorn Wash Road from the ledge where the dinosaur footprint is located.

Now on to Utah’s “Little Grand Canyon”,

Ken

Utah – March 2026 – Part 8

In reviewing a map of the area near our base camp, we discovered a place referred to as Utah’s “Little Grand Canyon”, along the San Rafael River. So we set out to check out that site. Along the way we found other interesting places and sites. This post and following ones will showcase our finds.

The drive to the “Little Grand Canyon” was along maintained gravel backroads, although most of the roadways were washboarded, rocky and rough, but scenic for long stretches with exposed geological features.

There are a couple of easily accessible Native American artwork panels on rock faces along this drive. One requires walking up a slight incline to reach, but the most impressive one, Buckhorn Wash Petroglyph Panel, has a large parking lot and is literally right at the edge of the parking lot.

The Buckhorn Wash Petroglyph panel is long. Much longer than this panorama might indicate. I made this panorama with my iPhone by walking fast from one end of the panel to the other, trying not to trip and fall on the rocky, uneven surface. I was inspired to do this, after watching my son do it. Otherwise, I might never have thought to do a pano in this manner.

The following images are shots of small portions of the panel, showing details of some of the pictographs.

There are a number of signs placed in front of this panel with information and questions about what these images mean and how newer cultures came along and modified the older pictographs. And, yes, even modern day vandalism. In fact much damage to this panel was partially repaired in 1995.

Information Sign at Buckhorn Wash Petroglyph Panel

Please refrain from defacing such ancient records. These are already fading away due to natural weathering. Don’t accelerate the loss.

Ken

Ken's Photography and Travel Blog

Utah – March 2026 – Part 17

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