Oct
29
2016
A typically exceptional White Pocket vista…
Mid-March 2015. After a day of hiking around the North Coyote Buttes and the Wave, I decided to break my camp at Stateline Campground on the Arizona / Utah border and strike out for the White Pocket – another stunning and far-flung location in the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument…
Read More»Apr
12
2016
Close quarters in Waterholes Canyon…
On an Antelope Canyon photography tour you are guided around in a tight pack, told exactly where to stand (or where to crouch, as is often the case), and told exactly what to photograph before moving onto the next composition. All of this occurs while crowds of non-photo tourists are held out of frame for the time it takes to release the shutter before they are released to continue pulsing through the narrow canyon. It is a strictly managed, totally “on rails” ride-experience swarming with people. And it is totally worth it…
Read More»Dec
31
2015
Probing one of the deeper sections in Buckskin Gulch…
Sometime in the early afternoon of June 5th 2015 I found myself in the backcountry of southwest Utah, wedged in the nook of a slickrock outcropping to avoid the hail falling and lightning striking around me. From my precarious position I had a reluctant front-row seat at the center of an early monsoonal thunderstorm on the Colorado Plateau. Torrents of water and pea-sized hail smacked against my rain gear, managing to sneak in and soak me as I squatted on a foam pad to insulate myself from contact with the ground in case of any unlucky lightning strikes. Curiously I crouched here with a sense of relief, because my situation at that particular moment represented an escape from a much more immediate threat – I had just climbed out of the narrow slot of Buckskin Gulch and sat watching torrents of water flood into it from above.
Read More»Nov
08
2015
Inside the Grotto (or The Temple) on Top Rock in the North Coyote Buttes, AZ…
At the end of the day my GPS read 16.7 miles – the grand total of my hike to, from, in and around The Wave in the North Coyote Buttes, AZ. That I even made the hike to begin with was entirely due to chance. The previous day I had been one of the lucky winners of the North Coyote Buttes walk-in permit lottery in Kanab, UT, and I’m still in disbelief.
Read More»Oct
18
2015
The Colorado River flows west towards Toroweap Overlook…
On my way back to camp after witnessing a sublime sunset from the north rim of the Grand Canyon I heard the distinct slice and crack of a golf ball being hit ahead of me followed by giggling and the murmur of voices. I reached the top of the outcrop I was walking along and in the twilight I could see the shapes of three people, not yet aware of my presence, looking relatively at ease as they hit golf balls into the abyss. They thought this was pretty funny stuff.
Read More»Sep
21
2015
Overlooking Panamint Valley…
“Don’t think I won’t knock you out right here, skinny boy!”
These angry words broke the predawn stillness as I walked through the Mesquite Dunes near Stovepipe Wells, Death Valley.
“Wait for me and I’ll come over there and knock you out with my tripod!”
Read More»Aug
17
2015
The main throughfare in the Keet Seel alcove…
Time in Arizona can be a tricky thing to someone from out of state. I was reminded of this in early September of 2013 as I embarked on a quick backpacking / photo trip to visit Keet Seel – a historic site near the Navajo National Monument in AZ. Accessed from the National Monument via a ~19 mile round-trip hike, Keet Seel is home to some of the best preserved Ancestral Puebloan cliff-dwellings in the United States.
Read More»
Recent Comments