Southwest, 2005

[Roanoker]

Moving on...




This is Fry Canyon, in Utah. It is very easy to reach. Just park on the side of the road and walk down.








I put my camera on a rock, put it on a ten-second timer, and posed.






Nature does a good job with flower arrangements.


Is this a flower or what?


This is the top of the slot canyon.

[Roanoker]

We are in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, near Hite, Utah.


These flowers were so fragile and yet so rugged. Look where they had to grow!










I call these the "Men in Black" because they remind me of characters in that movie.


I believe these are the Henry Mountains.


I think this is White Canyon.


Notice the flowers and their impossible setting.


My son is here for scale.


Here, too.

[Roanoker]

We're still at the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area near Hite, Utah.




The desert flowers always amaze me.


















Notice the mountains hiding in the clouds.

[Roanoker]

End of day, May 2, 2005.

Sign says it all.




This is the Dirty Devil River.




I just noticed the clouds below where we were standing.




Son, taking picture of the river.


I snapped pictures from the car as we drove by.

[Highlander]

Great pictures of a seldom visited part of the Colorado Plateau.  I noticed a few pictures of slot canyons.  There is a movie coming out based on the book "Between a Rock and a Hard Place" (movie called "127 Hours") about a guy who gets trapped in a slot canyon for several days and ends up having to cut off his arm to free himself.  Besides the gore, the movie looks to have some spectacular scenery of the Utah canyon country and the Colorado Rockies where the subject climbed when he wasn't canyoning in Utah. 

[Roanoker]

Great pictures of a seldom visited part of the Colorado Plateau.  I noticed a few pictures of slot canyons.  There is a movie coming out based on the book "Between a Rock and a Hard Place" (movie called "127 Hours") about a guy who gets trapped in a slot canyon for several days and ends up having to cut off his arm to free himself.   Besides the gore, the movie looks to have some spectacular scenery of the Utah canyon country and the Colorado Rockies where the subject climbed when he wasn't canyoning in Utah.   

Thank you, Highlander. I wouldn't mind seeing the scenery in that movie, but I might have trouble dealing with the young man's unfortunate experience. You don't want to navigate those canyons by yourself.

There will be more slot canyon pictures in future posts.

For this week's batch, it is the next day, May 3, 2005, and we have left the Anasazi Lodge in the Bullfrog area near Lake Powell.

Son is entering a visitor center. (It wasn't really in the clouds.)




I like this picture because of the light in front and back, and shadows in the middle. Flowers are always nice.




These are the Henry Mountains.


Son is walking in Swett Creek. It eventually turns into a slot canyon of sorts.


That's igneous rock in the creek, washed down from the mountains.


I like flowers that defy their surroundings.




Creek bed, pretending to be a slot canyon.

[Roanoker]

We're still walking in and along Swett Creek.

You wouldn't think there'd be many flowers here, but a few jumped out.


You never know what you might find while hiking. Here's a rock that looks like a discarded WWI helmet.


Little trumpets.


Nice falls.


You have to admire the tenacity of these flowers.


For context.


They couldn't find a better place to grow?


This natural bouquet is amazing.


I was probably lying on the ground to get this picture, to the perpetual embarrassment of my family. The sky usually makes a good background.


Sneaking up on the side.


Velvet flowers.


A few buds are blooming.

[Roanoker]

Flowers will bloom anywhere.


Henry Mountains.


I think this is called a meandering entrenchment or something.


Of course, the surprise flowers capture my attention.










I have a lot of pictures of our trek to Leprechaun Canyon, an amazing place (shown in a future batch). I picked four to stick together here.


And a few items along the way.

[Roanoker]

We are still hiking to Leprechaun Canyon.


The rock forms a pot of sorts, so flowers just naturally grow in in it!


We had to wade in a little water to get through this part of the slot canyon.


This is really a portrait-oriented picture. I put larger portions of the same image on either side and feathered away the hard sides of the smaller version in the center. I don't want to overdo the oval thing.


My son is navigating a tight opening here.


This is another attempt to mask the hard lines of the portrait-oriented picture in the center. I think it actually looks better than the original.


Back to the oval. Still took some time.


Here's another portrait shot imbedded within itself with the edges feathered. No wonder the morning went by so fast with little to show for it.


Slot canyons may seem like lighted caves, but they do have open "roofs."


Places to go, things to do, people to see...


We still have not reached the impressive part of Leprechaun Canyon, but we're getting closer.


You do have to watch your step.

[Roanoker]

Husband is looking into Leprechaun, a slot canyon.


Nature's artwork.


You can see the main entrance in the background.


What a place.


So many ways to view this thing.


I did this Photoshop thing five years ago as an experiment.


Do you remember the "blueberries" that were found on Mars? My son suggested that they were concretions, like these, and he was right.


They form in the rock and then just pop out. I still have a handful of them on my desk.


That's husband in black, standing at the yawning entrance of the canyon.


Here's a close-up of the boulder son is walking by in the picture above.


This is another picture within itself, except that I did not feather the edges. Maybe a little, bottom left.


If you look real close, you can see son's legs as he stands in the opening.


Hey, no flowers this time!

[Roanoker]

Still in Leprechaun Canyon.

[Roanoker]

More of Leprechaun Canyon. Taffy, anyone?


We're leaving this beautiful slot canyon. I'm still inside, looking out.


But first, a shot of the "draperies" on the walls.


I took too many liberties with this picture, imbedded within a larger version of itself. There is no archway. I was just trying to hide the hard edges of the main image in the center.


Son is daring the canyon to swallow him up.


More Mars-like blueberries. Concretions, actually.


Son is picking them out of the rock. (This is another picture within itself.)


Close up.


I wonder why this rock is a color different from all the others.


Hard edges this time. Don't care for it.


Good thing son is wearing non-slippery boots.


This one provides its own frame.

[Roanoker]

We're hiking back from Leprechaun Canyon.

Explorer.


You'd think this path had been landscaped.


Closer look.


I'll take any kind of flowers.


We were not alone.


Always nice to see water.


Hardly there, but what a beauty.


It's like another planet.


Can you see my tiny son on the far-right rim?


We're at the end of the day, and a storm is brewing.


The mountains are still beautiful.


Black rain.

[Highlander]

Where were the last few pictures taken?  Still in the general Lake Powell/Glen Canyon area?  The vista picture with the white sandstones reminds me of Escalante-Grand Staircase Nat Mon. 

[Roanoker]

Where were the last few pictures taken?  Still in the general Lake Powell/Glen Canyon area?  The vista picture with the white sandstones reminds me of Escalante-Grand Staircase Nat Mon. 

I had to ask my son to answer your question. About the picture under my comment, "It's like another planet," he said it was taken from the Hite overlook above 'Lake Powell'. The flat green area is the dried-up lake bottom.

About the picture under my comment, "Can you see my tiny son on the far-right rim?" he said Dry Lake Powell again. You can see Hite marina and the exposed boat ramp on the left.

He said the last three photos (with the storm clouds) were taken along Highway 95 south of Hanksville, UT.

I dug up two pictures my son took with his camera because I think you or any geologist would appreciate them. The first one he took while walking along the rim at Hite Overlook. Those "square rocks" are about the size of card tables.


He took this one of me in Leprechaun Canyon.


Hope this helps.

[Roanoker]

It is the next day, May 4, 2005. My son drew a map to show me the rock layers where we were visiting. We were in Hanksville at the time.


I think we are in the Capitol Reef area.






Son pulled gypsum samples out of the rock. It is rather pretty.


Looks like a cartoon fiend's castle.


The telephone poles look out of place. Actually, the whole place looks out of place.


Odd rock.


Side-of-the-road creek.


Can't miss these little beauties. You can barely spot them in the above picture.


Backing off a bit.

[GRID]

Cool photos, I can't believe you are still posting these photo threads.  Are these all from the same trip?

[Roanoker]

Cool photos, I can't believe you are still posting these photo threads.  Are these all from the same trip?

Thank you. Yes, same trip. It was the first time I had used my new-at-the-time Nikon D70. I typically take over 1000 pictures a week when on vacation. You are not seeing all of them here. I made a DVD with nearly all of them, along with some of my son's pictures, set to music. It is almost three hours long.

There will be more.

[Roanoker]

We are in the Capitol Reef area.

Comfortable deer.


According to a nearby sign, we are looking at a Waterpocket Fold, a gigantic wrinkle in the earth's crust.


The sign goes on to say the formation is a classic monocline, or stairstep fold.


Son is holding a rather large chunk of gypsum.


The sign said this area is also known as "The Sleeping Rainbow."


This formation does look like an Egyptian Temple.


Another view.


Holy rock. It looks like a crowd of angry protesters.


All dressed up for a formal dinner.


They look like poppies.


Time to hike through a slot canyon of sorts.


Death becomes her.

[Highlander]

Capital Reef is a wonderful seldom visited national park.  Was the deer picture from the orchard?  We saw a lot wildlife during our stay there.  We had terrible weather when we were there, mostly rain, looks like you also had overcast days.  We were thinking about heading that direction this summer but so little time.