Travel – Ken's Photography and Travel Blog

Utah – March 2026 – Part 1 – Plan C

It is spring (or almost) and time for another spring trip with my oldest son. Traveling in the U.S. for outdoor activities in the spring, one always has to consider the weather at potential destinations.

The initial plan this year was to fly into Portland, Oregon, drive to Cannon Beach for photography along the Oregon coastline, knowing that the typical rainy weather along the coast might result in last minute changes, and it did. The forecast for the time interval available for this trip was for cool, rainy, overcast weather every day, which can offer some opportunities for photography, but might not be so pleasant every day. So cancel plan A. Move to Plan B.

Plan B was to go to the same area as last year, where there were still some possibilities to see and photograph in some locales not visited during previous trips. Then a few days before executing Plan B, Plan C came up. Plan C was to explore an area of Utah seen superficially and partially, when passing through on the way to other destinations. Plan C was executed.

I drove two long days to reach the first destination, a first come first serve, free camping area on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) public land not far off of I70 west of Green River, Utah. This area is said to be popular with off roaders and I wanted to be sure to get here to find a campsite before the weekend crowd arrived. As it turned out, while there were a few scattered campers, including those hauling their offroad vehicles, there was no large crowd and I easily found a suitable campsite, somewhat secluded from others.

I shot the sunset panorama standing on the roof rack of my vehicle. If one looks closely, the tops of a few other campers can be seen in this image.

My son met me here to begin our exploration, making this our initial home base. Before he arrived, I had some time to walk around this area, shooting desert scenes with my iPhone. So stay tuned for part 2 to see some of those images.

Thanks for following,

Ken

Impressions of Fall 2025 – Part 20

Photos from my final fall photo shoot of 2025.

And that’s a wrap for fall 2025,

Ken

Impressions of Fall 2025 – Part 19

I made one final excursion into Brown County State Park near Nashville, Indiana in the early morning hours the first week in November 2025 to wrap up my fall photography for 2025. My first stop was at Ogle Lake to shoot the sunrise sky.

After sunrise, I drove along a park road, stopping at a few places to shoot the forest scenes in the early morning light.

Ok, this tree is not walking, but it reminds me of an early morning person out for a vigourous fall walk.

Thanks for following. There are only a few more fall images to share,

Ken

Impressions of Fall 2025 – Part 14

More 2025 fall photography in Indiana.

Thanks for following and stay tuned for more 2025 fall photos,

Ken

Badlands National Park, June 2025 – Part 5 – Wildflowers

Near the hoodoo (last post) there were wildflowers, most with insects scrambling about on them, that I took time to photograph with my iPhone.

I made numerous images of this and other nearby Prickly Pear flowers. I think this is my best shot.

And to back track a little, I had stopped along the gravel, backroad into the park to check out a possible area for late day photography and noted the numerous and varied wildflowers at the side of the roadway. the sun was high in the sky, so the lighting was not highly favorable for shooting the wildflowers, but I did so anyway using the camera in my iPhone.

I also used the plant identification built into my iPhone to identify these wildflowers, so I hope my labels are accurate.

Though my iPhone identifies this yellow wildflower with many petals as a ‘Common Dandelion’, these don’t look like the dandelions that commonly grow in my Texas lawn. So maybe Texas does not have ‘Common Dandelions’?

The shiny leaves of this ‘Sphaeralia coccinea’ are mostly due to the bright sunlight reflecting from the petals.

I thought this wildflower was a form of the Texas Primrose, commonly referred to as a ‘buttercup’. Not so, according to my iPhone, which says it is ‘Field Bindweed’. The flower petals open more flatly than do those of the Texas Primrose.

And while the current topic is wildflowers, there are many in the Badland National Park. In my scouting stops along the main roadway through the park, I photographed many.

And some spent flowers. ‘Once there were Flowers’ monochrome image was chosen for Flickr’s Explore Page.

More iPhone scouting photos to follow,

Ken

Badlands National Park, June 2025 – Part 2

After photographing wildflower scenes around my campsite, I left the campsite to travel into Badlands National Park to scout locations for golden hour photography. But first, I drove around a little in the large public land area, where I was camped to get a better feel for the area and scout other possible campsites, in case my prefered location was again taken or the site I occupied on my first night here was taken, when I returned in the evening.

There are numerous road trails through this area, which is popular with off-road vehicle riders, who create their own trails with their dirt bikes, 4 wheelers and other vehicles. I traveled into the area a bit, but did not take time to fully explore the area, after I was satisfied that it would be no problem to easily find numerous suitable places to overnight here.

I parked along one of the trails on my way out, hiked up to the top of one of the many hills in this area and captured this pano:

There is a gravel road that leads from the small town of Interior, SD into Badlands NP, which I take as a short cut into the park, rather than following the highway to a main entrance. There is a sign indicating when one is entering the park on this backroad, but no entry station. The sign does inform that a permit or fee is required to be in the park, so anyone in the park might be asked by a ranger to show proof of fee payment or other permit. I have a Senior Pass, one of the few benefits of old age, so I never worry about having to show proof that I can be in a National Park.

I stopped on this gravel backroad to shoot a few images of the Badland features in the distance that appear to “erupt” out of the flat land in the foreground.

It was a mostly heavily overcast day with periodic light rain. I stopped at a number of the overlooks to snap a few scouting photos with my iPhone. The dramatic clouds in the sky made for interesting photos and I probably should have taken more time to capture better quality images with my Nikon Z8 and wide angle Z14-24mm lens. The Z8 is sealed well, but keeping rain drops off of the big lens glass can be a problem and I wanted to be able to scurry about quickly, so I left the big camera and lens in my vehicle, while I scouted various locations for shooting later in the day.

With the heavy cloud cover, not much direct light fell upon the badlands features, but occasionally a little light broke through the clouds to highlight some of the rocks.

The shape of the mound of dry, cracked, gray earth in the foreground bears a similarity with the shape of the rain clouds in the sky, yet the dryness of that mound of clay contrasts with the wetness of the clouds.

Lush green vegetation in the low areas contrasts with the almost barren rock in the background.

A meandering stream runs through the low area at the base of the badlands features.

More Badlands images later,

Ken

P.S. These images are best viewed on a large screen.

Badlands National Park, June 2025 – Part 1

In early June 2025, I traveled to Badlands National Park, South Dakota. I was not completely satisfied with my photos from this awesome national park from a visit a few years ago. I had some ideas of how to get better images during this visit.

I arrived late in the day and went directly to a BLM area south of the park that I had discovered during my last visit. At that time, I was often the only camper, at least as far as I could tell, in the area.

This time there was a camper in my favorite, quick and easy access spot. So I continued along a narrow dirt trail to find another suitable overnight location. This is a large area, so there are no shortages of possible parking/camping sites, but I was no longer alone in the area. There were no other campers nearby, but I could see one or two far away on higher locations. This place has been discovered, but is still sparsely utilized.

The forecast for the next morning was for heavy overcast and I was tired after my long journey, so I decided not to get up early for sunrise photography. Rather I explored a bit in this area and photographed the local scenery with my iPhone, including blooming cacti. As I drove around the area, I began to realize how big it was. I did not even explore to the limits of the area, before leaving and driving into the park to scout potential photography locations.

Time to head out to see what I can find in the park,

Ken

More Relics in Rural America – Part 5

This is a continuation of photography of old, abandoned homes or other structures that I’ve found, while traveling in middle America.

It is unusual for me to come across such finds as this late in the day with the sun low in the sky or with such great clouds in the sky from a clearing rain storm. I had to walk through tall grass to get near enough to shoot this old homestead in Middle America.

This tiny house (or storage building?) is behind the bigger house (first image).

Walking around to the back side of the tiny house, I found this pile of rocks from the collapsed structure, an old cast iron bathtub and other debris.

The title for this image is inspired by the small object I spotted in the upper left corner of the door frame. I know that object might be too small in this image for a viewer to identify, but it is an old Prince Albert tobacco tin. Prince Albert tobacco is still produced and it was very common and popular, when I was a kid growing up. Empty, discarded tins like this were common litter items back then.

There are two abandoned houses at this homestead, the one in the first image and the one in the image above.

Shooting the windmill from another direction, shows the first house and the tiny house in the background.

There are modern electric power generating windmills on the far horizon in this image, indicating the continuity of wind energy in Middle America from the past into the future.

Thanks for following,

Ken

More Relics in Rural America – Part 4

This is a continuation of photographs of rural relics I encountered in a spring of 2025 road trip through middle America.

Didn’t I always shelter you from the rain and the cold? Wasn’t I always here, when you returned from a hard days’ work?

More relics are down the road,

Ken

More Relics in Rural America – Part 3

More photos taken in rural America, during an early June 2025 roadtrip.

My first inclination was to call this “Puddle House” for an obvious reason. I had to shoot this old, abandoned house from a fence line near the roadway with a big zoom to get the close up image.

More relics are just down the road,

Ken

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Category: Travel

Utah – March 2026 – Part 1 – Plan C

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