National Parks – Page 7 – Ken's Photography and Travel Blog

The Grand Canyon, North Rim, Arizona, Part 1

Leaving Holbrook, Arizona, I traveled I40 west to US 89 near Flagstaff. The drive on US 89 north is scenic with views of mountain ridges in the distance for long intervals. The scenery gets better on US 89 A with good views of the Vermillion Cliffs. I stopped by the Navajo Bridge over Marble Canyon, walked across the pedestrian bridge and made a few mid-day photos, none of which turned out very well.

The drive westward from the Navajo Bridge has good, close up views of the Vermillion Cliffs. I did not take time in the mid-day to stop for photographs. I hope to get back to this area in the future and have more time to linger and perhaps get a few photographs, when lighting conditions are more favorable.

About 30 miles from Marble Canyon, Arizona, US 89A begins to climb into a mountainous area. The road becomes steep and curvy, requiring reduced speed.

I arrived at Demotte Campground in the Kaibab National Forest early, but my reserved site was empty, so I was allowed an early check in.

There are no electric or water hookup in this campground. There is potable water available in the campground, so one can fill water containers via those water spigots, but not RV tanks. I had plenty of bottled water and a full water reservoir, so I had no reason to use or to check out the local water.

Since there was no electric, I installed my solar panels on my roof rack, mounting them flat this time, rather than trying to angle them in any particular direction. It was cloudy and rainy much of the time that I was there, so the solar panels did not keep the house batteries fully charged all the time. A few times, I had to resort to running my engine either early in the mornings or late in the day to top off the batteries and/or to run the inverter for short periods of time. My batteries are also several years old and I suspect they do not hold a charge as well as new ones would and I will probably have to invest in new batteries within a year.

The campsite hosts were friendly and helpful, they kept the campground looking good and the restrooms (no showers, just pit toilets) were perhaps the cleanest and best maintained that I have seen. Although, I have to say that all of the campsites at which I’ve stayed in U.S. National Forest have been well maintained.

The campsites are closer to each other than I like, but the campsites on either side of mine were often vacant.

The weather was mild during our stay in this area with cool nights and warm, humid days. The nighttime temperatures were mostly in the upper 50s (degF) and the daytime high temps in the 70s to low 80s.

My son and DIL arrived not long after I got set up. After they settled in and had dinner, we drove into the park. The campground was about 12 miles outside of the park boundary and the park is large, so it required fairly long drives to get to anywhere in the park. Staying within the park would have been preferable, but one has to reserve the park facilities far in advance, as this is a very popular place.

Our first stop was at the visitor center area, where we took a short, steep hike down a trail from the parking lot. I made several photos during the hike, but only one looked worth sharing.

This bare, dead tree with sunlight highlights made a stark image with the background clouds.

My experience along this short trail revealed that getting good photographs of the canyon would not be easy. One would think that something as grand and scenic as The Grand Canyon would be an easy place to get great photos, but the vastness of the canyon and the limited, accessible places for getting a clear view of the canyon with interesting foreground, makes it difficult to photograph well.

More later,

Ken

Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona, July 2021, Part 2

I continued my whirlwind tour of the Petrified Forest National Park, driving the park road and stoping at a number of pull outs, trail areas and overlooks.

It was monsoon season in this part of the country. There was evidence of recent rains, heavy water runoff, cloudy sky was common. Distant rainfall is seen in the photo above.

Mineral crystals replaced the original tree fabric, often preserving the detail of the original tree.

This is a vast park with wide open desert vistas and colorful geological features.

The view from this pull out might be the most beautiful within this park.

It was getting late in the day and I had seen numerous signs in the park reminding visitors of the closing time. It was already past the time suggested for visitors to head for the exits.

As I approached the south exit, I saw that the gate was already closed and for a moment I was concerned that I was going to be stuck in the park. However, the gate would open for those approaching from within the park, so I could get out after hours, but not get back into the park, outside of the open hours. I had wondered about the possibility of remaining within the park for sunset or night photography, but apparently the rangers make a sweep through the park to be sure no one remains for long after the closing time.

I arrived at my RV site and found that no one else was there and it was past the gift shop closing time, so I assumed I would be alone here tonight. Although it was not excessively hot, the sun was still high above the western horizon and it was apparent that my vehicle would heat up quickly with no shade and would require some time to cool to a comfortable temperature for sleeping. So I decided to drive the twenty plus miles into Holbrook, find a place for dinner and maybe a beer.

I had noted a restaurant called the Butterfield Stage Co Steak House as I was passing through on my way to the park. So I decided to check it out.

It was warm in the restaurant, so apparently they either did not have A/C or it was not working well or to save on electricity it was set to a rather warm temperature.

The staff (only seemed to be two) were friendly and courteous. I had my mind set on a steak, but when I looked over the menu, the steaks were all much larger than I could possible consume, so I decided upon Shrimp Scampi, house salad and bottled beer. I had hoped to find a local brew on draft, but only common bottled beers were available. The beer was good, but not as cold as I liked. The food was good and more expensive than I expected. The online reviews were mixed, some raved about this place other condemned it. I liked the western decor, folksy feeling, friendly low key staff and the food. I would give it a high rating, except for the prices, uncomfortably warm temperature and cool beer.

After dinner, I topped off my fuel tank before heading back to my RV site. When I arrived at my site, the sun had just set with a good sunset view from the parking lot. At first, I thought I had pulled into the wrong site, since there was a young female having lunch at the picnic table at my site. I double checked the site number to be sure I was at the right place then got out and greeted the picnicker. She asked if I had this site reserved. When I affirmed that I did she apologized, saying she just wanted to watch the sunset, while having her dinner. I assured her that I was not bothered by her having her meal there. As she gathered her food, I suggested she might as well use one of the other available picnic tables, since no other RVs were there, but she moved back to her vehicle. Maybe I looked like a really scary person, but I think she was just being careful, as one traveling alone should be. She was apparently car camping and her vehicle was still there in the early morning, as I headed out on the last leg of my journey to the Grand Canyon North Rim.

Next up: Grand Canyon North Rim.

Until then,

Ken

Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona, July 2021, Part 1

The last stop on my route to the Grand Canyon North Rim in July 2021 was the Petrified Forest National Park. There is an exit to this national park from I40, but I elected to go into Holbrook, Arizona and go to the south entrance, since there is an RV site just outside the park entrance there. That RV site does not take reservations, so I wanted to be sure to get there early to increase my chance of getting a site. There are actually two places across the road from each other here, where RV’s can park. One site is free, first come, first serve, but has no hookups. The other has electric hook up, but no water. I did not need a water hookup, but I wanted electric, since I expected it to be hot and I wanted to be able to use my A/C or, or at least a fan.

I pulled into the Petrified Forest Gift Shop and RV Park and went into the gift shop to secure a site. Some of the reviews that I had read about this site said the staff were unfriendly, but I did not find that to be the case. Instead, I would characterize the two staff/owners as matter of fact and business like. They were not the bubbly personality types we’ve all come to expect at tourist lodgings, motels and hotels, but they were not unfriendly.

I jokingly requested a site with shade and was matter of factly told that there was no shade. I had noted that fact already. There are scattered trees around the edge of the RV parking area, but the vegetation on the trees is insufficient to provide any significant shade at any time of the day.

After getting my assigned site, I drove into the park for a quick tour. This park has gates at the entrances that open at 8AM and close at 5PM, so there is no way in the summer to be anywhere in this park for sunset or sunrise photography.

The visitor center is not far from the entrance and I stopped here, but I did not go in, since I was practicing “social distancing” during the COVID-19 pandemic. I picked up a guide brochure from an outside location behind the visitor center and proceeded to walk the paths. There were a substantial number of visitors, but not so many that one could not maintain a suitable distance from others.

Since it was mid-day with harsh overhead light, I elected not to carry around my heavy DSLR and to shoot with my iPhone camera. I do not even pretend to have great photos from this park.

There appear to be educational opportunities here and this seems to be a good place for lessons in the geological history of this area.

The base of the petrified tree in the photo above is about 10 feet in diameter. This is a clear indication of the size of the trees in the prehistoric forest that was once here.

Indeed, the size of the petrified logs here is impressive.

What a magnificent forest this must have been!

I noted a little girl and her dog watching me, so I had to include them in a photo.

Satisfied that I had seen everything behind the visitor center, I decided to hike to the “Agate House”, which was mentioned in the brochure. The Agate House is little over a mile from the visitor center. It was hot, but, with the temperature in the low 90s, not nearly as hot as I had expected for this time of the year. I took a bottle of cold water with me to be sure I did not get dehydrated. The hike is an easy one and is on a paved trail. The first portion of the hike is on the remnant of an asphalt road, which ends at what used to be a parking area, then the trail continues on a narrower path to the house.

Along the route, I caught a glimpse of a colorful desert creature moving amid the rocks beside the trail.

Fortunately, this colorful lizard remained perched on a rock just long enough for me to get a good photo before it disappeared into the jumble of broken petrified tree pieces.

The Agate House is actually a partially restored Native American dwelling. The restoration was done via a works program during the Great Depression. Current practice is to leave ruins as they are found, rather than to attempt reconstruction.

I returned to my vehicle at the visitor center parking lot and continued my quick tour of this park.

More later,

Ken

The Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado, March 2021, Part 5

There was a brief sleet storm just after I went to bed the second night of our stay near the Great Sand Dunes National Park. It was going to be a very cold night, so I wondered how the sleet and cold would impact our morning photography.

We arose before daybreak to get into the dunes before sunrise. It was 17 degF, the coldest morning we had experienced during this trip.

The dunes were dusted by the overnight sleet. This added interest to the landscape, but the sleet and cold temperatures preserved footprints from the previous day.

At least the footprints were somewhat muted, but there seemed no way to avoid getting footprints into photographs. I might have removed these in Lightroom, but I’m sure the results would not have been satisfactory.

In a valley between dunes, I found interesting patterns, where there either were no footprints or I could easily exclude those from my photos.

The sleet dusted, frosty sand dunes with snow covered mountains and clouds over them were good for making black and white images.

Snow and Sleet on the Great Sand Dunes, Colorado, March 2021

This wraps up the highlights of my March 2021 photography in the Great Sand Dunes.

Thanks for following,

Ken

The Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado, March 2021, Part 4

We returned to the dunes in the early evening for sunset photography and I struggled to find satisfying compositions. Maybe we were not in the optimal location for this shoot. There were low clouds on the western horizon, which also blocked the sunset light.

As we were giving up and beginning to hike back towards the parking lot, there was a sudden and brief break through of light. My son, being much younger and more fit than I, ran to the west to catch the fleeting light, while I walked as fast as I could, hoping to get to a good vantage point before the light was gone.

I think the image above is the best one the I got during this outing. I was still far from the best vantage point for the best light, but I knew the light was fading fast and I had to stop and shoot now. I got low to catch the dim light in this grassy patch of sand with the fading light on the dune in the background and the interesting clouds over the dune.

After the light faded from that dune and illuminated the mountainside to the east, I pointed my camera in that direction to get this final shot.

Stay tuned for our final morning in the dunes,

Ken

The Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado, March 2021, Part 2

I continued to wander around in the Great Sand Dunes early the first morning of our March 2021 visit, looking for good compositions.

The icy rim along the ridge in this dune caught my eye. I like the way that icy ridge leads the eye from the left corner of the frame to the long ridge, which in turn leads the eye into the upper part of the image.

I’m always looking for objects with distinct shadows and these chunks of frozen sand, that lie along the edge of a dune, add interest to this image. The edge of the dune acts as a leading line from the lower right towards the upper left. This line is more brightly lighted than other portions of the image and acts as a diagonal dividing line in the image. Notice how the sand details, visible texture and light change as the eye crosses this diagonal. The darkness in the clouds and the shadowy, distant mountains create a strong contrast with the sunlit sand.

A series of circular features breaking the ripple patterns in the sand made me stop to take this photo. I’ve converted the original color image to monochrome, since I think this image with these features is more dramatic in black and white.

This small piece of “driftwood” breaks up and modifies the wind created ripples in a dune. I put quotes on “driftwood”, since I’m not sure that this is the proper term for how this chunk of a tree got here. Maybe it blew in via wind or maybe it was washed here by water?

I’ll have more to say about making this image in a subsequent post.

Until then stay well and safe,

Ken

Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado, March 2021, Part 1

We were in the sand dunes before sunrise of the first morning of our March 2021 visit. Hiking in sand requires some effort, but at least during the winter, some of the sand is frozen on the surface, making it a little easier to walk on.

Photographing the dunes in the early morning has the advantage of overnight winds wiping away or muting the footprints of the previous days’ visitors. Still one might have to hunt for places to avoid remaining footprints. Caution is also required in approaching an area to photograph, so one’s own footprints are not ruining the scene.

Those lumpy looking features in the left center of the image above are frozen parts of the sand dunes and make good foreground objects in the vastness of the dunes.

These dunes cover a vast area and we are barely in the edge of the dunes and well below the highest peak.

It was good to have early morning clouds over the mountains to the east of the dunes.

I varied my compositions by moving around slightly or carefully approaching foreground objects, so as not to trample the natural patterns in the sand as the sunrise light progressed over the dunes.

The photo above is nearly the same composition as the first image of this post, but the light has changed with the rising sun and the shadows are longer and more pronounced.

Moving just a few feet can make a dramatic difference in an image in the dunes, as does the changing light conditions.

Death Valley’s Racetrack

There is a remote playa in Death Valley National Park nicknamed “The Racetrack“. On this broad, flat, mud playa rocks move and leave trails in the mud. I visited The Racetrack with two of my sons in March, 2013. At that time no one knew how the rocks moved and no one had ever seen them move. I often wondered why someone had not put up video cameras to monitor the playa and observe the movement. I suppose the remoteness of the area, the lack of continuous power for a camera system and park regulations had prevented this. But, eventually, researchers did just that and finally discovered the secret of how the rocks moved in December, 2013, two years after the study began.

The most prevailing theory of how the rocks moved, prior to that research, was that strong winds moved these heavy rocks across the playa, when it was wet, since the mud is very slippery after a rain. This seemed like a stretch, but winds can be very strong in the wide open valley where the playa is located.

The details of the experiment that revealed the secret of the rocks’ movement can be found on the NPS website.

The experiment also revealed why there are track with no rocks at their ends. Previously, everyone thought that rocks had been removed by visitors from such tracks. Be sure to visit the NPS website via the link above to read about this experiment and the discovery of the real way the rocks move. This might serve to illustrate that scientific theories are not always correct and have to be verified by actual experimentation and observation. So whenever you hear those famous words “scientific consensus is that…”, please bear in mind that until there is actual proof, a theory or consensus of thought is just speculation.

One of the rocks and its trail left in the playa at Death Valley’s Racetrack.

A large rock and its trail on the playa at Death Valley’s Racetrack.

Another view of rocks and their trails in the playa at Death Valley’s Racetrack.

A long exposure night image of intersecting trails of moving rocks on the playa at Death Valley’s Racetrack.

If you visit this area, please heed the warning on the NPS website, regarding the long drive to get here, safety precautions and do not venture onto the playa when it is muddy. We saw evidence of people disregarding these warnings and prohibitions. There were footprints and tire trails, obviously made when it was muddy, in the playa. These defacing scars will last for a very long time in the desert, ruining the natural appeal of this area.

Thanks for reading,

Ken

Yellowstone National Park 1

Yellowstone National Park is a truly amazing and one of a kind natural wonder. I’ve only passed through it briefly on a couple of occasions, when the primary objective was Glacier National Park in Montana. Yellowstone and Grand Teton were in the road travel path, so passing through those, it made perfect sense to utilize a stop over at one or both of those parks on the way to Glacier and back.

Spending only a day or two in this very large park in no way allows one to see all that it has to offer; but it is possible to see most of the commonly visited sites. In addition to the really big features and geysers, there are small features that are interesting and hardly ever mentioned and I expect not observed closely by most visitors.

This post is about one of those minor features, which can be observed from the safety of board walks. There are areas where the hot water and steam escaping from underground creates mud puddles that are dynamically pulsing, but in a much smaller way than the eruptions of the major geysers.

It is fun to watch these tiny eruptions of mud spewing just a few inches into the air. The expelled mud takes on random, fleeting, geometric shapes. These shapes can be captured in photographs, if one has patience to spend a few minutes observing and learning how to time shots. I think the best approach is to watch and anticipate the eruptions and shoot in burst (continuous) mode with a fast shutter speed, capturing a quick series of images during the eruption. Thumbing through the images one may find really interesting and intriguing shapes.

Here are a couple of the best ones I managed to capture in the few minutes I had to observe and shoot.

Mud Geyser. This eruption produced a linear series of geometric shapes.

Mud Alien. This small mud eruption took on this whimsical shape that appears to have an alien looking face.

These small features are so fleeting that one usually does not have time to mentally process the shapes as they appear and evolve so quickly, but photographs freeze the shapes, allowing for a greater appreciation of natures temporary artwork.

So, if you get a chance to visit Yellowstone, enjoy the big geysers and colorful pools, but don’t forget to observe the smaller events.

Ken

Guadalupe Mountains National Park – Spring 2019 – Day 2 – Sunset Photos

After scouting about a mile along the Tejas trail earlier in the day, I went out again late in the day, planning to be near the far end of my scouting hike to get a shot of the most prominent feature on the mountainside east of the trail. After arriving at that point on the trail, I very soon realized that the sunlight was not going to illuminate that feature as I had hoped. Only a small portion of the intended subject would be highlighted with most of it being in shadow. So I began hastily backtracking down the trail to check out other possibilities. The next pre-scouted site that I attempted did not work out either, so I continued back along the trail.

I arrived at another pre-scouted site that looked more promising and proceeded to make a number of shots, none of which were greatly impressive. However, I managed to get one that I could edit and make look presentable.

A late afternoon scene along the Tejas Trail, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, f/11, 1/10s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom, DXO Nik Viveza 2 and Color Efex Pro 4.

There was good light on the mountainside, but the shadows were quickly encroaching upon the scene. If not for motion in the vegetation, I could have tried creating an HDR image or stacked a number of images. In this image I applied color, contrast, brightness and structure adjustments in DXO Nik software via numerous control points. Then more adjustments in DXO Nik Color Efex Pro 4. I added a vignette frame around the edges to eliminate an obvious vignette in one corner of the original image that was caused by my filter holder.

Moving a bit more back down the trail, I stopped to shoot in another location, before the light disappeared completely. Again I had to make a number of exposures, trying to balance the shadows and highlight, but none came out really well and HDR was, again, not an option.

Late day sunlight along a mountain top in Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 42mm, f/11, 1/20s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom, DXO Nik Viveza 2 and Color Efex Pro 4.

One can see how far the shadows have moved up the mountainside in just a short time interval. This image is edited in a very similar fashion to the previous one. I could have brought out more detail in the shadows, but chose not to do so in this case.

I tried a few more shots as I moved back down the trail, but none worked out very well. The evening was pleasant and there was a full or near full moon that evening, so the walk back to the RV parking lot was quite pleasant and well lit by moonlight, so I did not have to get out my headlamp.

This photo shoot did not turn out as well as I had hoped, but at least I got a couple of reasonable images and had a pleasant moonlight hike back along the trail.

I had picked out a few possible places for sunrise shots the following and last morning of my visit, but none of those were really appealing, so I decided to forego getting up early for a morning shoot and get an earlier start on the road to the next destination.

This park has much more to see than I had time to get to. In particular, McKittrick Canyon is reportedly very nice in the fall, so maybe I can make another visit one fall. I would also like to get into the gypsum dunes in the Salt Basin. So I really need to find time to plan another visit.

Ken

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Category: National Parks

The Grand Canyon, North Rim, Arizona, Part 1

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Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona, July 2021, Part 2

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Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona, July 2021, Part 1

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The Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado, March 2021, Part 5

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The Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado, March 2021, Part 4

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The Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado, March 2021, Part 2

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Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado, March 2021, Part 1

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Death Valley’s Racetrack

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Yellowstone National Park 1

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Guadalupe Mountains National Park – Spring 2019 – Day 2 – Sunset Photos

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