This morning Jeanine and I attend Maya’s school open house where we see some of the projects she has been working on recently. This poem and Chinese brush painting will certainly resonae with her grandmother who is coming to visit this weekend.

This evening Nico found Kyle and Chloe asleep in front of the TV and grabbed my camera. Either the show was really boring or these guys need to get to bed earlier.

 
Jeanine has been longing for a powerful blender to make quick work of her various smoothie concoctions. She received this one for her birthday after much research revealed it to be ridiculously capable. At this website you can watch as this unit is used to blend an iPhone, snow ski, and golf balls. What chance do frozen blueberries have against this brute of a machine?

 
I am met at the airport by the entire family and we have just enough time to make dinner reservations at Henrietta’s Table at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge. Here we celebrate Jeanine’s birthday joined by her sister Susan who drove down from Vermont for the weekend. Chalk it up to healthy living but I think Jeanine gets prettier every year.

My return flight to the east coast takes me over Niagra Falls. Not the best angle but I always hesitate to ask the pilot to turn the plane around for the benefit of my photography. One day I will coerce my brother to fly me around in a small plane with the door open so I can really take some nice aerial shots.

After a heavy photographic diet of intense reds and oranges I thought it would be nice to conclude with an image containing a more muted palette. Tonight I treat myself to a nice Mexican dinner in St. George, a piping hot shower, and a comfortable bed. This week long adventure has been both exhilarating and exhausting. Although I did not reach all of my planned destinations, I found many unexpected and wonderful opportunities along the way. There is little doubt in my mind that I will one day return to this place of natural beauty for continued exploration and image making.

 
The forecast today is for snow and rain. I opt to head for Zion National Park which due to the lower altitude will be limited to rain. I remember shooting this exact same scene when I was here several years ago with Jeanine. The positive side of bad weather is that you often get really dramatic lighting and I am sure when I compare this to my prior images of this location I will find this one the more pleasing.

I spent the night in Bryce again and woke up at 5am to discover my car covered in snow. I drove cautiously to Bryce Point where I positioned myself for the sunrise. The sun was largely blocked by the clouds unfortunately, but I did get some nice diffuse lighting and great contrast of the snow surrounding the trees and hoodoos.

I would have liked to stay here until sunset, but having had nothing more than a banana and orange for lunch, I decided it was time to head back to civilization for a proper dinner.

 
After parting ways with Steffen and Alexandra, I head south to a place called the Devil’s Garden. I think a better name would have been the Devil’s Playground. Within the space of a few acres there are countless rock formations which simply invite you to climb on and around them. Many of them look like carve sculptures of human forms.

Shooting at a low angle really accentuates the rock patterns, and every time we got ready to leave, one of us would spot another irresistible wave. Only the onset of threatening weather motivated us to continue on back towards the trailhead.

On the hike back from the slot canyon, Steffen and I stop to photograph the textures of this fascinating “wave” of stone.

 
Although the most interesting part of this slot canyon is rather short it is not without some interesting challenges due to an extremely narrow section. We arrive in time for noon sun which lights up the interior of the slot perfectly.

This morning I check the weather and the threat of rain is low so my plans to visit the Zebra slot canyon in the Grand Straircase Escalante National Monument are on. While checking in at the Escalante Ranger Station I bump into Steffen and Alexandra again (now for the fouth time) and sure enough they have the same destination in mind. I am happy to join up with Steffen for the five mile hike providing an additional measure of safety for both of us. Alexandra is not feeling well and stays with the cars at the trailhead.

 
The most interesting photographs happen when the sun is rising or setting. This afternoon the sun spent much of its time behind clouds and I was hoping that by sunset it would emerge to illuminate the cliffs at Paria View. My long wait was rewarded when a five minute window opened up where the sun cleared the clouds but was still high enough to light up the scene.

 
Hiking to the canyon floor provides a much different perspective of the amazing hoodoos.

My final destination for the day is Bryce Canyon which is simply awe inspiring. Even after clicking on this photo for a larger view it will not be big enough to appreciate the detail in this scene. I hope to create a 30 x 20 inch print which should do it justice. Unlike many of my prior destinations you can simply drive right up to any number of tremendous observation points to admire the thousands of hoodoos which can be found in Bryce.

 
I found the perspective from directly under the arch to be the most interesting and started to feel less disappointed about my aborted excursion to the Wahweap Hoodoos with each image.

I paused for almost an hour at the Grosvenor Arch which offers up many interesting photographic angles, this being one of the more traditional views with a good profile of the double arch.

This morning I attempt to reach the Wahweap Hoodoos. With just a few miles to go after an hour on a progressively less passable dirt road I am unable to climb out of a wash with the SUV and am forced to turn around empty handed. I used the shovel I had purchased to frequently groom the road ahead of me and to extricate myself when I got stuck. Without the shovel I would have no doubt been stranded for days. Returning to the comparatively well groomed Cottonwood Road pictured here I travel north along the Cockscomb so named for the triceratops like fins which emerge from the ground along most of the 2 hour traverse to HW 12.

After grabbing some food and fuel I decide to head over to Monument Valley. When I arrive 2.5 hours later winds are gusting to 50 mph and the air is so thick with dust that photography, let alone standing upright, is nearly impossible. Another 2.5 hours in the car back to Page where I treat myself to a cheap roadside motel and my first shower in 3 days. Although the later half of the day was a bust, the morning produced a treasure trove of images and a great hiking experience.

I spent hours in and around the buttes, often hiking through deep sand and enjoying one spectacular view after another. Fatigue and hunger eventually set in, and I knew it was time to head back when the rocks started to look like ice cream desserts.

Today, with winds gusting to 35mph, it was very easy to understand how these bizarre features were created. When sand is captured by the wind you get a powerful sandblasting machine. Not a very hospitable climate for delicate optical equipment or photographers for that matter.

Last night I traveled to within a few miles of the South Coyote Buttes Paw Hole trail head. I completed the journey before sunrise and was very fortunate to avoid getting stuck in the deep sand. My reward for missing both dinner and breakfast was golden light on what could pass for a Martian landscape. The features here are simply extraordinary both in color and texture.

The panoramic view from Alstrom Point is spectacular but a wide angle photo shown in the small format of this blog would not do it justice. Here is a narrow angle slice which gives you a sense of the view. On the long ride back to civilization I cannot help but marvel in what I have seen in just my first full day on the ground.

For my sunset photo I travel to Alstrom Point which over looks Lake Powell. The journey takes an hour and a half over dirt roads which get progressively worse. For my own safety I cover the last mile on foot only to discover this Land Rover parked at the end of the road in the middle of no where. We are so far off the beaten path you cannot even tune in a radio station. Now for the really synchronistic part. I had met and spoke to the German couple, Steffen and Alexandra, who are traveling across the USA in this vehicle, earlier in the day at Horseshoe Bend. The couple decided to interrupt their careers to embark on a three year tour of the world in this ultimate off road machine tricked out with a roof top tent and solar powered electrical grid. Both are avid photographers. They spent the last year in Australia and New Zealand, will spend a year in the USA, and then move on to South America for a year. With each transition they ship their rolling residence on to the next destination. Although I am tempted to stay and talk to them for some time after the sun has set, I still have a long walk ahead of me in the waning light to locate my comparatively pathetic SUV. In my enthusiasm to reach Alstrom Point I had failed to set a waypoint on my GPS when I left the car, a mistake I will never make again. The undulating mesa top made it impossible to see my SUV until I was right on top of it. Without the waypoint I was forced to retrace my steps rather than seek a bee line route back.

 
Beams vary in width from pencil thin to huge columns of light. The trick to making them stand out in photographs is to throw sand in the air during your exposure. Needless to say the sand eventually has to come down and generally finds its way into your photo gear. A small price to pay, I suppose, for creating well defined beams.

 
The ultimate prize for arriving at the right time is a chance to photograph the beams of light which appear for minutes at a time when the angle of the sun is just right relative to the contours of the canyon. I came away with a treasure trove of images capturing a half dozen beams in action.

 
Antelope Canyon is simply magical. From the moment you enter it is easy to understand why the Navajo regard this place as sacred. This slot canyon has become a very popular destination for tourists since photographers began publishing images depicting its beauty. Access to the relatively short canyon, located on Navajo land, requires a guide but there are no apparent limits to the number of people who may enter and it is not uncommon to have hundreds of people milling through during prime lighting. Not surprisingly, taking long exposure photographs in the narrow confines is quite a challenge. Fortunately I am part of a small group of 5 led by an exceptional guide who understands photography and goes out of his way to clear the path so that we may get photos that don’t include tourists.

One of my primary motivations for selecting the Page area for this vacation was its proximity to the Antelope slot canyons. The Upper Antelope Canyon is best photographed, spring through fall, on a cloudless day near noon when the sun shines directly down into the slots, reflecting off the walls and creating the most beautiful light in the world. With my Coyote Buttes pass squared away for tomorrow I have a little over an hour before I need to head over to Page. I use the time to make a short hike to the Toadstool Hoodoos, my favorite pictured here. The mid morning light was less than flattering but the sun eventually does have to rise.

Horseshoe Bend, just outside of Page, is an often photographed portion of the Colorado River and my sunrise photo destination this morning. I am quickly back in the SUV to reach the Paria Ranger Contact Station by 9am to enter the daily lottery for one of ten walk-in permits to access the North Coyote Buttes restricted area. With 54 similarly hopeful photographers present this day I would not win a coveted pass to one of the most photogenic destinations in the USA. I simultaneously entered the lottery for the South Coyote Buttes area, almost as beautiful but more arduous to reach. With only twelve people vying for the 10 permits I like my chances much better. Alas with 6 permits issued a family of 5 wins the next drawing leaving me out of luck again. But wait….there are only four permits left so the family must either leave someone behind or relinquish their position. They are unwilling to separate so I luck into a pass which will grant me access on Wednesday.