2017 Utah

Monument Valley from the roadside

From NM I headed to a familiar campground, Goosenecks SP, about 25 miles north of Monument Valley.  It is sort of barren, you pick a spot which may or may not have a table, but a one-of-a-kind view is guaranteed if you walk a few steps to the rim of the canyon. I tend to use this place as a base and visit Monument Valley to the south or Valley of the Gods to the north. This trip the weather was pretty overcast and each late afternoon I could watch the storm clouds pass by, sometimes with a rumble of thunder or flash of lightning, but no rain. A drive to view some of Monument Valley from the road was a must but mostly I just relaxed and caught up on stuff.

 

From there I headed north to another familiar place, Horse Thief CG. This is a BLM site, dry camping without

Twisted tree on a cloudy day, Canyonlands NP

even water available located just outside Moab, UT. It is convenient for Canyonlands NP, Arches NP and Moab. Sites are large with plenty of room and often some screening between them. One of the delights of this stop was that I was able to meet up with some friends from various parts of the country and to meet some new folks. The weather started out sunny each day, but with enough breeze so it stayed pleasant, not too hot.

Turret Arch lit by the moon, Arches NP

Arches NP is undergoing some extensive road work, prohibiting access 5 nights of the week and some sections of the park are closed completely. The closures will change as the work locations change. Fortunately I was able to get in on Friday night and the places I wanted to visit were accessible.

There was a full moon during my stay so instead capturing the Milky Way I decided to see how some familiar places looked in the moonlight.

Double Arch in the moonlight, Arches NP

Turned out the moon does a much better job of lighting things up than any artificial light.

 

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2017 Death Valley

View of Death Vally floor from along Badwater Drive

At Quartzite some friends mentioned they were headed to Death Valley next…..hmmm, never been there so I decided to go, too. I got a site at a rather barren campground, really  a gravel lot with space numbers, but the cost is low. There is a decent breeze that makes up for the lack of shade, too. The valley floor is close to 200′ below seal level. I can’t imagine the hard life the miners and others had here when they came.

I had no idea what to expect and it has been interesting exploring a bit. It is surrounded by mountains, with a long drive slowly descending to the valley floor. So far I haven’t seen much if any cactus of any sort. The hills are different from most I’ve see out west because they seem softer or more crumbly, affected more easily by any rains or winds that come. The colors range from yellow and gold to dark brown with a tint of green in a few places.

I’ve gotten out a couple of nights and took advantage of the interesting

Moonlight and stars at Zabriskie Point

foregrounds and moonlight, Very different from what I’ve seen before.

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Grand Teton NP 2016, 3

Sunset over the Tetons

A colorful sunset over the Tetons is always a delight. After spending a long time at the riverside hoping to see some moose I gave up, threw the camera gear in the truck and headed out since it looked like there might be a good sunset. Turns out the gamble paid off!

I was up very early the next morning and caught the sunrise lighting up the Tetons and then happened on some bison that were still frosty from the cold night. While driving around or
being stopped I’ve also seen two foxes and two coyotes.

The night of the full moon it was very clear so I headed out to see what a couple of places

Full moon light on the barn on Mormon Row with the Tetons and Big Dipper

looked like in the moonlight. First stop was the iconic barn on Mormon Row with the Tetons behind it.

After that I went to another spot on a hunch. On a good day the

Full moon light at Schwabacher’s Landing with Tetons and Big Dipper

Tetons are reflected in the river and I thought if things came together right the moonlit Tetons would be reflected in the river. Sure enough, they were!

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Yellowstone, Geysers 2016

Yellowstone geyser area has many interesting features which attract thousands of visitors. Fortunately there are some that are off the beaten path and less crowded. The colors in the hot springs are beautiful.

Great Fountain Geyser goes off every 9 to 16 hours, making it a hard one to see. I didn’t catch it during the day but one night it was supposed to go off at between 8 pm and 1 am so I arrived plenty early. Needless to say it took its time and erupted at about 9:30 pm, in total darkness. A factor hard to figure into it was the amount of steam produced by the hot water and cold air. That made it very hard to photograph any water being sent up. The eruption lasts a pretty long time and by the end of it there were some stars visible so I capture a bit of steam lit by a light I had and the Big Dipper.

One of my favorite geysers is White Dome Geyser since it goes of frequently (every 20-30 minutes) and is usually pretty free of spectators. The first evening I was at Madison campground I went over and got a nice sunset image of it.

 

 

Then I went back that night to see if I could get the Milky Way above it. I did, though there were clouds and smoke so the images weren’t as clear as in the past. The difference this year was the forest fires in the park, they reflected on the clouds and made the images very unique.

 

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The Way West, Monument Valley

We left Moab and had one night at Monument Valley, staying at Gouldings RV park. It’s only about 5 miles from there to the Monument Valley Tribal Park so we went over late in the day then again the next morning before heading out to the Grand Canyon.

I saw this puddle on our evening drive but the Three Sisters were in shadow so the next morning we were able to capture them reflected in the puddle. I bet most folks just drive on by, never seeing the reflection.

Fortunately the night was very clear so I went out to capture the Milky Way over some of the monuments. There is no access into the Tribal Park after 8 pm, so I stopped at a couple of pull outs along rt. 163 to get these images.

Videos of some of my images

Not a lot going on right now so I’ve taken the time to set up a couple of videos of a few of my images. This one shows some night images set to music. Images were taken in 2014 in the following national parks: Badlands, Denali, Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons and Arches. While in Glacier and Yellowstone NPs I was fortunate to capture the Aurora Borealis. There are also a few images at the end that were taken in Florida. Astrophotography in the National Parks

The second video is a collection of images taken when I did both a day tour and a night tour of the Upper Antelope Slot Canyon in Page, AZ, in the spring of 2013. Upper Antelope Slot Canyon

I’ve just added a slide show comprised of images taken at the bear Viewing Platform in Hyder, AK. You’ll see Black bears, including a sow with a little cub, Grizzly Bears, a wolf, a raven and a brown bat. Photos were taken over a span of 12 days with the weather varying form sunny and warm to cold and rainy. I hope you enjoy it. Hyder Grizzlies & Friends

Arches National Park at Night

Balanced Rock, Arches National Park, Silhouetted against the Milky Way

During my visit to Moab I was blessed with a few clear and moonless nights. The southern end of the Milky Way is in the southwest this time of year so I did a scouting trip in daylight to pick some places to return to at night. The night trip was pretty successful. Balanced Rock was a given since you can walk all the way around that and the view was clear in the SW direction.

Turret Arch was another one that opened to the SW and was relatively easy to get to.

Turret Arch, Arches National Park, Silhouette with the Milky Way

The walk to Double Arch isn’t as well marked and since I had not walked it in the daylight on my scouting trip I wound up wandering around in the sagebrush, following the footprints left by others during the day time. I finally gave up on getting anything of Double Arch that night but did see another unnamed arch so I photographed that one with the Milky Way above it. As I was focusing on that arch I noted the 2 other arches way off to the right so I included them in the image. The next morning when looking at the images I realized it was Double Arch I was seeing.

Arches NP, unnamed arch on the left, Double Arch on the right with the Milky Way above

My last full day in Moab I returned to the park specifically to do the walk to Double Arch so I could find it at night. That night was clear and my large light was charged up so I went back into the park with the idea of trying to illuminate some of the subjects I had gotten silhouettes of. I didn’t get lost, found Double Arch and was rewarded with some really nice images.

Double Arch, Arches NP, illuminated

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