Slickrock and Shadow

Red Sand Beach, Maui at sunrise Red sand beach near Hana, Maui is a great location for sunrise. It faces east so that the rising sun's for strays will strike it. On my recent trip to Maui, this was my first landscape location. I had driven the road to Hana the night before in darkness. The next morning I woke up and drove in darkness to the trailhead for Red Sand Beach. I then walked down the trail in darkness using my headlamp. It wasn't until the sun came up several minutes later that I saw sunlight on the island of Maui for the first time. The clouds were illuminated for about 20 minutes before the actual sunrise. During this time I took several pictures from the beach looking east. My favorite one I have titled "Red Sand Beach:  Watercolor" because the beautiful color in the clouds is reflected in the water. Red Sand Beach:  Watercolor, taken at dawn Although it is not legal, I found two couples had camped out overnight on the beach. One woman had h...

Zebra Hoodoo  Zebra hoodoo in southwest Utah was a delightful find I had recently. I had been exploring a fairly remote canyon hoping to find some interesting formations. I was rewarded with this. I had a very fun time photographing this lovely hoodoo and enjoying the desert silence.  It actually snowed lightly while I was there. House of Hoodoo For scale, here is Zebra Hoodoo's partner along with the photographer

Green, brown and white stripes cover everything in Sidestep Canyon Sidestep Canyon is often overlooked because so many other world-class features are located between Page, Arizona and Kanab, Utah. However, taking time to explore this area is certainly rewarding. It's a fairly simple drive to the rim of Sidestep Canyon. Climbing down into the canyon is more of an adventure. There are no trails. Many of the rocks are rounded like the ones pictured above and jumping from one rock to another is not only the best way to travel but it is also quite fun. As you can see in the bigger picture above, Sidestep Canyon is quite deep and there is a lot to explore. Many impressive hoodoos are located on the north and south canyon walls. Within the canyon itself on are beautiful colored rocks, some with green, brown, red and white of course. On this particular day, the sun was out and beautiful to begin the day. At the end of the day the class came in and it was snowing lightly. It did not ...