Continued,
Even more Cathedral Valley to come, but I will be traveling for awhile, so there may be some breaks in my posting schedule.
Ken
Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, March 2022, Part 6 – Cathedral Valley
Tag: Rocks
Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, March 2022, Part 5 – Cathedral Valley
This is a continuation of photographs shot in Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park shot in March of 2022.
This sinkhole is deeper than this photo makes it appear. Falling in would be undesirable.
To be continued,
Ken
Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, March 2022, Part 4 – Cathedral Valley
One of the most fascinating areas in Capitol Reef National Park is Cathedral Valley, located in the northeastern portion of the park. There are two access routes into/through this area from Utah Highway 24. The access closest to the visitor center requires a river ford, while the other, nearer Hanksville, does not require a river ford and gets into the most scenic portion much sooner than the river ford access point.
The geology in this area is varied and great for photography. We visited numerous times and only scratched the surface of the photographic opportunities here. I will devote a number of post to this area.
Initially, we hit the most popular areas in this very large valley and scouted for the places we wanted to get to at golden hours, which was a challenge, given the many miles of driving to get here from our lodging and the limited time we had to work this very large area.
I see opportunities to organize my photographs of this area into themes, but rather than take the organizational time required for that at this time, I’m posting images in the order that they were taken.
Enough for now, more later,
Ken
Palo Duro Canyon State Park, Texas, July 2021, Part 2
As sunset approached, I hiked back into the area around my campsite with my DSLR for a sunset shoot. As usual, I went out earlier than I thought necessary. Even so, my timing was off. Some of the features that I had anticipated shooting, were already in shadow, well before sunset. So I had to give up on some of the preplanned shot locations.
My first stop was at this vey tilted rock or hoodoo nearest to the campground. It was in full late day sunlight and I could see that there were already shadows on the big hillside in the distance.
I found this batch of prickly pear cacti that were still getting some late day rays, with the red hill behind them mostly in shadow.
Even though the light was much less than I had planned to see, I like this composition with the small, weakly lit tree and the big red hill in the background.
I like the sinuous leading line formed by this drainage with green grass contrasting with the red earth and the change in lighting from the right side to the left of this image
I converted this final image, made from the top of the hill from which I had photographed during my scouting hike, to black and white, to get a more dramatic late day image.
I tried capturing more images of the moon over this hilltop, shooting from a location on the side of the hill with tilted rocks pointing at the moon, but I could not get a good image with the lens I had chosen to use today.
Thanks for following,
Ken
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.
As in most western US deserts or arid places, cacti abound and one needs to watch where one steps.
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.
Many of the boulders near the campsite had graffiti, initials, names and/or other scratched in symbols.
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.
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.
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
Grand Canyon, North Rim, July 2021, Part 12 – Roosevelt Point
Prior to going to our selected view point for sunset photos, we stopped by Roosevelt Point again. We had scouted this area on a previous day. Today we hiked the trail as far as it was safe to go, this time with our DSLR and gear.
Those with acrophobia or anyone not sure footed should not go here.
As is apparent in these photos, it was mostly cloudy with some breaks in the clouds in the distance.
When I was shooting here, I was thinking the first image, with its wider view across the canyon, was going to be my best shot, but now I think the second one is the better of these two.
Final sunset shoot, coming up,
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
Bisti Wilderness, June, 2021, Part 13
This large hoodoo seems to be standing guard for those in the valley below it, ready to alert of approaching photographers.
I spotted the hoodoo above from a far distance as it stands out very distinctly in this broad valley in the Bisti Wilderness of New Mexico. I had scouted around it looking for ways to photograph it and found what I thought were promising compositions, only to discover that many of those compositions did not work out well.
It was a cloudy afternoon, but some rays of golden hour sunset light broke through.
I was in a dead end spur off of a big valley and went into this small nook, where I noted interesting rock features and hoodoos with the golden hour light on the top of the background hills and blue sky with fluffy clouds above. My son was calling for me to come out into the main valley, where the day’s final rays of light was peaking, so I hastened to get this shot, not at all sure it would be worthwhile; but I think it turned out well.
So there you have it, the final part of this visit to Bisti. I do not usually include so many photos in one post, but since this is part 13 and I had exactly 13 photos to wrap up this Bisti visit, it seems fitting to end it so.
If you can, please look at these images on my Flickr page and on a big screen, where the details are much better viewed.
Revisiting these images has put me in the mood for another visit to Bisti, but it might be some time before I can get back, so readers will not have to suffer through more Bisti any time soon.
Stay safe and thanks for following,
Ken
P.S. Actually, I just remembered that there is one remaining item for this visit: Night photography with stars and maybe the Milky Way, if I ever get around to finishing the editing, which is always a pain for such images, so I tend to procrastinate with that task. There will probably only be one or two or three photos, so that post will be short.
Bisti Wilderness, June 2021, Part 12
I shot these same small hoodoos early one morning. This late day composition captures their long shadows across the desert valley floor.
This tall hoodoo with a very small cap seems to cast an unusually thin shadow, given the apparent thickness of the structure as seen from this angle.
I photographed this alien looking hoodoo from various viewpoints (it was in an awkward place for getting a good shot) and under various light conditions. The photo just above may be the best image that I got.
Late day shadows are encroaching on this feature just as the light gets best. At least I got its shadow on the hillside behind it.
Readers may recall seeing a monochrome version of this last photo in an earlier post. While not a compelling image, I liked the shadow of the central feature on the hillside behind it. The shadow is more distinct in this color version than in the monochrome version.
Stay tuned to the next morning’s shoot,
Ken