Slickrock and Shadow

Zion's Right Fork has much more to offer than the stunning Double Falls Zion National Park has a less-crowded, almost private canyon for exploration called the Right Fork.  Also known as the Great West Canyon, this Right Fork is just south of the Left Fork and the famous Subway.  This canyon is longer, deeper and requires more time to explore.  It's a full 6 miles of hiking just to reach the good stuff. Doubles Falls is the first amazing sight you will find here.  There isn't a prettier waterfall in Zion National Park.  I would argue this is the prettiest waterfall in all of Utah.  The setting is serene and so remote.  I swam here on both my visits and loved the showers coming off the upper shelf. Photography here is rich in possibilities.  This trip I took of photo of my wife and the canyon from behind the falls which you see above.  The water drops in 4 different wet sheets while I have a view down the Great West Canyon.  If ...

Green Glow, Smooth Flow I discovered this photo in a group of RAW files I never got to during the 2017 year.  In sorting through them, getting rid of the rubbish, I found this one and said to myself, "there's a jewel."  I began processing the photo primarily by adjusting the luminance of various color channels to help the falling water retain it's bright whiteness.  This was easily done using the blue color channel in Lightroom.   Then I turned to the greens.  The greens are under and above the water in this photo and (as always) I try to process them to look like they did in reality.  I was there.  I saw all this and even swam in the water.  This is what it looks like.  The only missing element is the sound of falling water.   With this longer exposure, I blurred the waterfall and smoothed out the water's surface.  I also captured some blurred motion in the foliage as it swayed in a slight breeze.  Some of th...

Zion Double Falls, Right Fork of North Creek I wrote a true account of my hike to Zion Double Falls for the Zion Canyon Arts & Humanities Council writing contest for 2013.  I won the second-place award.  This story, entitled My Zion , tells of how I reached this remote beauty in the fall of 2011.  The hike was long, slow and had some surprises along the way.  I hiked alone and had lots of time to enjoy the beautiful and isolated surroundings.  Please click on the link and read the true tale. 

At the end of September I began a hike that I had planned on doing for several years: hiking up the right fork of North Creek in Zion National Park. This fork is adjacent to the more famous left fork, a.k.a. The Subway. The right fork is scenic in its own way but you work for your reward: 6 miles one-way hiking to reach the destination of Double Falls. This beautiful waterfall is part of a series of cascades coming off of slickrock. This is a perennial waterfall. While I was hiking in, I discovered a coyote following me, I came face-to-face with a raccoon and I discovered a very recent landslide which had created a very large pond where the trail had been. I decided to hike up the landslide and then descend back onto the trail farther along. This took a long time. On my way back, I chose to wade neck-deep to pass this obstacle. Double Falls is beautiful, private, clean and perfect.  The main waterfall splits into two separate falls just above a lovely pool.  I spent 2 t...