Slickrock and Shadow

Yellow Wildflowers growing among Lava Rock Unexpected beauty in the bleak desert is the reward that "desert rats" have come to love.  On a Sunday evening I went out for a casual drive to Joe Blake Hill.  Never knowing what I would find, I got out and looked around.  In the peak of bloom these yellow flowers popped with color.  The black lava rock provides a natural dark contrast to the lovely yellow.  I adjusted my ISO to allow a quick enough exposure to prevent wind from blurring my flowers.  Then I composed my shot and pressed the button.  Sometimes I just don't know if a shot will be any good but I shoot with hope.  This was one of those moments.  I believe there are several stages to photography. 1.  Planning the excursion. 2.  On-site photography:  composition and camera settings to capture the moment. 3.  Post-processing to polish and develop what I saw in step #2. On this occasion I only saw the p...

Grapevine Springs, Zion is a wall of seeping water coming out of sandstone. Grapevine Springs is the namesake for the "Grapevine" trail in Zion National Park.  Thinking this must be a big deal because it has it's own trailhead, I wondered why nobody ever writes about it, hikes to it nor are there any pictures of it on record that I can discover via Google Search. So I went on a hike to discover this spring and assess its' merits and beauties myself.  Hiking upstream from the Grapevine trail, one must keep a lookout for water coming from the left.  Follow this water up a nonexistent trail through and over many branches and you will arrive at a wall.  This is a magic wall with water dripping and ferns clinging.  I can't say it's a big deal but the subtle attraction and the sense of discovery and privacy is rewarding. Grapevine Spring:  Shot in the Water -- Camera got plenty wet for this photo. Closeup of Ferns and dripping water.  This has ...

Pinhead Pictograph Portrait! Because of its' near-ness and "secret" status, Shaman's gallery pictographs in Tuckup Canyon are often discussed like they are legendary.  My local contacts have told me about this place for years and I finally decided to make the trip.  If you search a little bit, you'll discover these are on the main Tuckup Trail that descend into Tuckup Canyon. Finding it on Google Maps is easy.  Finding it in reality is a bit more difficult because the roads have no signs and they criss-cross a lot.  Without my GPS and some waypoints I'd entered ahead of time, I would not have found the right road to the trailhead.  If you go, take a GPS and make sure you know what roads you should be taking.  It will not be obvious once you are there. The trail is well-maintained and going down it quick and easy.  The descent is about 2,000 vertical feet over about 3 miles.  The canyon is pretty without being gorgeous. GPS is also very ...

A small human figure sits near the edge of Toroweap looking down into the deep canyon. A sitting woman in the distance caught my attention as sunset approached.  She was backlit and the sun was far enough north in the sky to be out of frame.  The sun sent some amazing orange rays of light on the far canyon cliffs which then bounced off the redwall where I stood.  The dark greens of the Colorado River at the bottom of the canyon separate the two dramatic sides.  Rock with a View

Toroweap:  That's a 3,000 foot drop, sonny! Toroweap scares the *#%@ out of me!  It's straight down 3,000 feet and there's no rail to protect anybody.  You can walk all along the ledge and everywhere the danger is just right there to the south.  I worry about wind tipping someone off balance and then it's too late.  Some guys were throwing a football to each other by the edge when I was there.  Another couple were sipping some beer while sitting 6 feet from the edge. That's not me:  I am a bonafide chicken when it comes to edges that lead to certain death.  I may peer over but I keep my center of balance over my back foot and don't dwell very long.  I think this shot shows why I'm so scared of Toroweap.  There's the edge and what's that just over the edge?  Yeah, it's the giant Colorado River.  It looks small because it's 3,000 feet straight down!  I go because it's a beautiful landscape but I leave because of a gut...

Half and Half Rock:  Yellow and Purple Strips run through everything here! Half and Half Rock is an extension of the surrounding stripes running throughout Coyote Buttes South.  Not only is it amazing that the stripe runs exactly though the middle of the rock but it's mind-blowing that the same stripe continues across the ground and up onto the northern wall of sandstone.  It's like someone with purple chalk drew a wandering line through the whole landscape without regard to obstacles.  This small wonder is one of the first places the casual visitor to Coyote Buttes South discovers.  He sits right on the eastern border and the sandy trail leads to this general area from the parking lot.  If you seek, you will find.  If GPS coordinates help, then here it is:  N 36°57'39.3"  W 111°59'16.9". A literal rock star, this little guy has been photographed by some of the most famous landscape photographers.  Fatali flipped his photograph ...

Stone Monster watches over the Desert When stone imitate other things we call that a sculpture.  Some sculptures are natural and coincidental creature of nature while others are manmade.  These sculptures resembling reality are what gives the land our manmade names:  Rainbow Bridge, the Wave, Teepees.  Coyote Buttes South has a few sculpted sandstone figures that are named such as the "Control Tower".  I've heard of the "Witch's Hat" for the structure pictured above but from the side this looked like a creature with a long beak surveying all the desert for prey.  It's like an eagle or hawk but with a nightmarish lower body and bulk. Control Tower at Coyote Buttes South The wild sculpted desert