Tag: Panorama

Sedona, Arizona – Part 4

On my final afternoon in Sedona in August, 2024, I decided to go back to Bell Rock and to take the trail up Bell Rock to shoot at sunset.

There were still tourist about, but not so many as during the middle of the day.  I’m guessing most tourist had been out during the middle of the day and were back in town for dinner at this late time of the day.

The Bell Rock trail is a wide, gently sloped, gravely path at the beginning and becomes more rocky and steep fairly quickly.  Yet, it is mostly easy, with a few big steps, with one notable exception.

I got to one point, where I was not sure where the official trail went.  There was a big rock in front of me with an obvious trail marker on top of the rock.  There were a couple of young, female hikers, sitting on a rock there, enjoying a late day meal.  I asked them about the trail and they indicated that it had to continue on top of the big rock, but they could see no safe way they could continue.  One either had to somehow climb the rock, which had a step like rock at its base or navigate a narrow crevice on the other side of the rock.  They said it was their first day in this area and they did not want to risk an injury and not be able to enjoy the rest of their stay here, so they stopped at this point.

I considered my options and decided I agreed with them about the risk of continuing on the officially marked route.  I looked around, considered and ruled out another option, before deciding I saw a possible route that I could access by backtracking a little.

That alternate route was still not as easy as it looked from a distance.  It involved climbing up onto two rock ledges.  I laid my tripod and camera up upon each of those ledges in turn and climbed up on my hands and knees (and those hard rocks hurt old knees).  After a little more navigation, I got back onto the official trail.  Now I had to hope that I could safely get back down.

 

Panorama at Bell Rock

I shot this panorama with my iPhone.  The rock features from right to left are: Bell Rock, Courthouse Butte, Lee Mountain and unidentified ones on the far left.

Bell Rock

Upon getting as high up on the Bell Rock slope as I could safely do, it was still well before sunset, yet most of Bell Rock was already in the shade of features to the west.  It was obvious that the light illuminating the very peak of Bell Rock was the best “Golden Hour Light” that I would get today.  So I made a couple of images and moved around on the rock ledge below this feature to photography the other local features.

Courthouse Butte
Lee Mountain – As seen from the slope of Bell Rock
Late Day View from Bell Rock
Lee Mountain (Left) and Courthouse Butte (Right)

This wraps up my photography in the area around Sedona, Arizona in August of 2024.

Thanks for following,

Ken

P.S.  Obviously, I made it back down safely, otherwise this post would not exist. I took the official trail down, sliding down that big rock on my rear end until my feet reached the step rock at its base.

 

 

Palo Duro Canyon State Park, Texas, July 2021, Part 1

On my return trip from the Grand Canyon North Rim, my first overnight stay was near Gallup, New Mexico at Red Rocks Park.  There were large red rock formations around the park and I thought this would be a good place to check out.  It was not a bad place to stay for one night, but much less interesting than I had anticipated.  At least the weather was mild, due to overcast and rain during the day, just before I arrived at the park, then a booming thunderstorm at night.

My second overnight was at Texas’s Palo Duro Canyon State Park near Amarillo.  I had been through the park many years ago, but never spent much time here.  My campsite was deep into the canyon.  Even though it was late July, the weather was only mildly hot in the day and cooled down nicely at night.

After settling in, I walked around the area to scout potential locations for sunset and possibly sunrise photography.  All of the scouting images in this post were made with my iPhone.

The Sportsmobile in Palo Duro Canyon Campsite.
Small Cacti in Palo Duro Canyon

As in most western US deserts or arid places, cacti abound and one needs to watch where one steps.

Dinosaur Grafiti, Palo Duro Canyon

Visitors to this area have a penchant for carving into the rocks, which I assume must not be very hard rocks.  I found this image of a dinosaur in a narrow space between large boulders.

Rock Grafitti, Palo Duro Canyon

Many of the boulders near the campsite had graffiti, initials, names and/or other scratched in symbols.

Rock Signings, Palo Duro Canyon
Boulders and Hillside, Palo Duro Canyon
Boulders, Palo Duro Canyon

I captured images, testing compositions and to use as reminders, at locations that I thought might be good to return to with my DSLR at sunset.

Palo Duro Canyon Scene
Palo Duro Canyon Topagraphy
Life on a Rock, Palo Duro Canyon
Cacti and Red Hill, Palo Duro Canyon
Cacti and Red Hills, Palo Duro Canyon
Scrubby Vegetation and Red Hills, Palo Duro Canyon
Tilted Hoodoo, Palo Duro Canyon
Tilted Hoodoo Palo Duro Canyon
Hilltop view near campsite, Palo Duro Canyon
Palo Duro Canyon Pano

I posted this panoramic image to Flickr, not because I thought it was a great image, but to share with others that may want to know what the area looks like and because I intended to use it in my blog and wanted to have a link to a larger image.  Much to my surprise, this image was chosen for Flickr’s Explore page and is now my most viewed and faved image on Flickr.  Maybe I’m just physically abusing myself carrying around that heavy DSLR camera and other gear, when a simple iPhone image garners this much attention.

Rock Registry, Palo Duro Canyon

Apparently, lots of people have scrambled up the steep slope to the top of this hill, since the boulders there all had some initials, names and dates carved into them.

Stay tuned for the sunset shoot here,

Ken