Happy Earth Day!
Early this year, my oldest son and I made plans for a late March trip into Arizona. We were initially planning to spend several days in Tuba City, Arizona, photographing at Coal Mine Canyon and exploring the surrounding area. Then we would travel to Marble Canyon, Arizona and spend several days there, traveling miles of BLM dirt roads to get to locations along the canyon.
I did considerable research via online maps and Google Earth, picking out potential places for photography. A number of the places that I found promising near Marble Canyon were on Navaho Reservation land. Knowing that permits might be necessary to access some of these areas, I began looking into permits for those areas and I found that those areas were closed by the Navaho Nation, due to the lack of respect shown to the area and failure to abide by access requirements by previous visitors. While it would be possible to join an official Navaho tour for some areas, those tours are too restrictive for our purposes. So I began to look into non-Navaho Reservation areas to visit and photograph.
During this process, my son called to inform me that he had heard from a friend that Tuba City had a very high crime rate and was not safe. His friend had encountered problems there while stoping at a filling station and had to leave very quickly. My son researched his friends claim about the high crime rate in Tuba City and verified the validity of that report. I already had lodging reservations in Tuba City that I canceled and began looking into alternatives.
From earlier visits near Page, Arizona, we knew there were areas of photographic interest nearby. So I made lodging reservations in Page, Arizona and began researching that area, finding many possibilities, some easy to get to and others that required longer and more careful travel on unmaintained roads.
Links to photos from a 2010 visit to areas west of Page, Arizona:
Hoodoo Area West of Page, Arizona
Toadstools West of Page, Arizona
XXX Hoodoo West of Page, Arizona
When the 2010 photos were taken, I was much more interested in hiking and seeing unusual geological features than in photography, so those images are not what I would expect to make today.
After all this planning, the Covid-19 pandemic became much more of a concern and we decided it best to cancel our plans. I had not only been looking forward to seeing and photographing new landscapes areas, I also needed new photos for this blog. So now I have to either dig up old photographs to continue a regular blog or suspend regular blogging, until such a time that I can get out and about safely to gather new materiel.
I am including a few links to sites with information about places we had hoped to get to and a few teaser photographs from the general areas.
Coal Mine Canyon by Jeanny Muller.
Marble Canyon by Dave Coppedge
On the positive side, I have plenty of research on these area and will be prepared for potential visits in the future.
Best wishes to you all and stay safe,
Ken
Who would have thought that your travel plans would be disrupted by a virus? It has disrupted the entire world in one way or another. Those places will be waiting for you when all of this is over.
This is a most unusual time in our lives for sure, Shutterpug. I’m getting really eager to get out into the wide open spaces again.
I do understand!