This is a continuation of sunset photography at Dead Horse Point, Utah.
There is more to shoot at Dead Horse Point than the grand scenic.
To be continued,
Ken
Utah – March 2026 – Part 23
Tag: Rocks
Utah – March 2026 – Part 22
In an earlier post I revealed that I had gotten my posts out of chronological order. Now I’m stepping back a day to the evening prior to the overcast sky shoot at sunset at Dead Horse Point, Utah. The evening prior was much different.
To be continued,
Ken
Utah – March 2026 – Part 19
Followers probably noted the winding road through the landscape as seen from Dead Horse Point in previously posted images. After shooting sunrise at Dead Horse Point, we traveled that road. This post contains a few of the photographys made along that road.
I think this road might be refered to by different names and I’ve mostly heard folks talk about this route as Shafer Trail, but my map shows this portion as Potash Road, to the best that I can decipher the map labels
This pond is a part of a potash production facility. Potash (potasium chloride) is disolved from underground rock with water pumped from the Colorado River and put into evaporation ponds. Blue dye is added to the water to increase solar energy absorption that heats the water speeding up the evaporation process. These ponds can be seen from the Dead Horse Point overlook and are in some of my photos made at that overlook.
I always stand in awe of the natural power of water, wind, weather and time to carve such amazing landscapes.
The road we traveled changes its name to Shafer Trail somewhere along the route, I think at the point where it enters Canyonland National Park. This photo was made at an overlook near where Shafer Trail exits onto a paved road near Canyonlands NP Visitors Center.
Late in the day, we returned to Dead Horse Point for sunset photography. Stay tuned for more,
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.
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.
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 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 6
An early rancher in this area left his name on much of the area and there is an old log cabin that he built alongside one of the easily traveled roadways that any vehicle can travel to, at least in good weather. However, just past the cabin that roadway becomes a “moderate” 4 wheel drive as rated by trail books, but has some intervals of what might be better be described as “difficult” 4 wheel drive sections, which we decided not to venture very far along.
This image makes is look as if there is a big rock feature on top of the cabin, but it is actually on a hillside behind the cabin.
Thanks for following and stay tuned for more Utah landscapes,
Ken
Badlands National Park, June 2025 – Part 4 – Dancing Around the Hoodoo
There is a hoodoo in Badlands National Park that is visible from the paved road through the park. Getting close to the hoodoo requires hiking down the steep slope from the roadway and a short hike.
I made numerous iPhone camera shots as I walked around the hoodoo to show how a hoodoo can look considerably different from different points of view.
I think these make my point about “Dancing Around an Object” to photograph it.
Thanks for following and stay tuned for more Badlands scouting photos,
Ken