Two Weeks in the Desert

Transcription

1 Updated - February Where, when, and how to discover the best photography in America Published since 1989 Two Weeks in the Desert The Lake Powell area has some of the most beautiful landscapes in the Southwest. You may have photographed some of them. But you probably never discovered the tall, fluted towers of white sandstone, near the town of Page. Directions to these incredible formations are included in this issue. Many photographers visit Monument Valley each year, but few ever discover the fantastic view from the top of Hunt s Mesa. Southeastern Utah s Cedar Mesa and the Grand Gulch Wilderness Area are filled with well-hidden Anasazi ruins. In deep alcoves along the sandstone cliffs of the many remote canyons across Cedar Mesa are at least 1,700 documented Anasazi sites. The Road Canyon Ruins, in the heart of this wilderness, are some of the most fascinating and most photogenic. Every time I discover a new panoramic vista in the desert or another Anasazi ruin or a remote desert canyon, I realize there is no end to the beauty to be discovered all around us. This newsletter contains all the details you ll need to plan a two-week photo exploration of the Southwest where you can produce a collection of images that will increase your reputation as a photographer. In addition to supplying you with as much detailed information as possible about where, when, and how to discover the best photography in North America, I feel that part of my task is to persuade you to start your explorations of the Southwest as soon as possible.

2 issue 77 - page 2 You may have photographed Zion and Bryce, or Arches and Canyonlands on a long weekend or a quick couple of days at the end of a short vacation in Las Vegas. You may now be ready to plan a more intensive photo expedition. As to my two-week photo trip around southern Utah and northern Arizona in search of autumn color and new locations, a Southwest drought had affected the autumn color of the aspen and cottonwoods. I did find some locations that are great subjects for photography any time of the year. Combining this trips research with some locations I ve visited before, I created an itinerary for photographers trying to cover as much of the Southwest as possible in two weeks. This newsletter explores in detail, three remote desert locations that are a hundred miles apart, across southern Utah and northern Arizona. Each of these locations can be explored and photographed in less than one day. I ve linked them together with many more of my favorite tripod holes to create an intensive photo exploration. The driving distances are not great. Most spots are an hour or two apart. You ll have more time for photography with less driving time. Day 1 - Las Vegas to Toroweap Day 2 - To Page for Antelope Canyons Day 3 - Page - Wahweap Wash Towers Day 4 - Page - The Wave in Coyote Buttes Day 5 - To Monument Valley - Hunt s Mesa overnight Day 6 - Monument Valley and Mystery Valley Day 7 - Cedar Mesa - Road Canyon - Mule Canyon Ruins Day 8 - Cathedral Valley - Notom Bullfrog Rd to Escalante Day 9 - Calf Creek Falls Hike Day 10 - Hells Backbone Rd - Cedar Wash Arch Day 11 - Escalante to Bryce and Zion Day 12 - Zion Subway Day 13 - Zion Narrows Day 14 - Back to Las Vegas This two-week loop around southern Utah and northern Arizona starts and ends in Las Vegas. This trip bypasses Canyonlands and Arches National Parks, and other more remote locations like the San Rafael Swell. You ll need a 4x4 vehicle with high-ground clearance to reach some of the locations. Car rental offices in Las Vegas offer two-wheeldrive SUVs, but not four-wheel-drive vehicles. If your rental contract does not cover offroad use, remember that you will actually be driving on roads, but some won t be paved. For a trip such as this, I d rather drive my own 4x4. I can pack all sorts of necessities along with me. In addition to all the camera gear and tripods, I have a large box with a padlocked lid that is filled with an electric tire pump and tire gauge, two aerosol cans of flat-tire inflator, a twenty-foot tow rope with steel hooks on each end, a small, military-type folding shovel, two long rubber strips to place under tires stuck in sand, gloves, tire chains (for snow, mud, or sand), a two-gallon gas can, two gallons of water, a rain poncho, a first aid kit, a thin foil survival blanket, a GPS unit, a compass, a flashlight, maps of the area, and some tools (wrench, pliers, screwdrivers, and a small saw for firewood), plus extra items like fuses, fan belts, and other needed auto parts including a couple cans of oil and a plug that will stop a leak in an oil pan. DAY ONE The drive from McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas to the town of Springdale, Utah, just outside Zion National Park, is 117 miles and should take less than three hours. You may want to take a detour off Interstate 15 (at Exit 75) and drive into the Valley of Fire State Park to photograph the sunrise. If you leave Las Vegas at least two hours before sunrise, you can find a great spot to set up your tripod along the road to the White Domes. Got a GPS unit? With one of these little lifesavers, you can determine the exact time of sunrise and sunset for the location where you are standing. Add or subtract a few minutes if you ll be driving east or west from the spot where you re taking the reading. Las Vegas is in the Pacific Time Zone and Utah is in the Mountain Time Zone.

3 issue 77 - page 3 Early morning and late afternoon light is necessary for good photographs of the Valley of Fire. If you ll be passing through in the middle of the day, just keep going. From the Valley of Fire, you can return to Interstate 15 without doubling back. Leave the State Park at the east gate near Elephant Rock, turn left and follow Highway 169 through the towns of Overton and Logandale, Nevada, returning to the Interstate at Exit 93. You can find good places for breakfast in the towns of Mesquite, Nevada, or St. George or Hurricane, Utah. From Mesquite, Nevada, I-15 heads northeast, through the corner of the state of Arizona where the highway slices through the Virgin River Canyon. Pull off at the rest stop for a photo. This river flows through Zion National Park. If the river level is low and slow, the levels through the park will be low and slow. A good thing to know if you plan to hike up the Zion Narrows. Interstate 15 passes through the town of St. George, Utah, where you ll find most services you might need, such as auto repair. Ten miles off the Interstate, Snow Canyon, northwest of St. George, is worth a half-day for its deep red-rock canyon, unusual geology, and spring wildflowers. Seven miles north of St. George, Utah, leave Interstate 15 at Exit 16 and head east on Utah Highway 9 for nine miles to the town of Hurricane. This is where we ll be heading southeast on Utah Highway 59. In the center of Hurricane, Utah, I followed the signs and headed southeast on Utah Highway 59 through Colorado City and across the northwestern corner of Arizona toward the town of Fredonia. Four miles east of Pipe Springs National Monument and nine miles west of Fredonia, Arizona, is where I headed south on the rough, unpaved sixty-seven mile dirt road out to Toroweap on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. This overlook is over fifty miles west of the overlook at the end of Arizona Highway 67, out on the edge of the North Rim. I didn t want to drive this road in the dark, so I planned to arrive in the late afternoon. Toroweap sunrise Most of the Toroweap Road is graded gravel. I needed a 4x4 for the rough slickrock route the road that crosses the last five miles before the edge of the canyon. The only way to photograph the sunrise over the Grand Canyon from Toroweap is to arrive late in the day and stay overnight, sleeping in your car or camping right on the edge of the canyon. This is one of the most spectacular viewpoints for a sunrise across the Grand Canyon. It s a 3,000-foot drop straight down to the Colorado River. There are no guard rails. Don t go wandering around in the dark. The best spot to set up your tripod is located forty feet east of the two campsites near the end of the road. Use extreme caution when working on the edge. DAY TWO Even after driving the long rough road and spending a cold night in a sleeping bag, there are no guarantees that you ll photograph a great sunrise at Toroweap. The view from the edge is always worth the effort. If you spend the night out at Toroweap and finish your sunrise photography by 8:00 am, you ll be ready for breakfast. The drive from Fredonia, Arizona, to Kanab, Utah, is eight miles. To cover all the places we re going to photograph during our Two Weeks in the Desert, you ll have to keep moving. If you are driving from Kanab to Page, even late in the afternoon, it s worth stopping at the Paria Ranger Station and asking if any permits are still available for a next-day hike into The Wave in Coyote Buttes. You might be lucky.

4 issue 77 - page 4 By midmorning, head east on Highway 89 to Page, Arizona. By arriving in Page before noon, you ll have plenty of time to photograph lower Antelope Canyon. From May through October, the best light usually occurs around noon. Arrive before 9:00 am and it s still too dark. Arrive after 2:30 pm and the best light has gone. Both upper and lower Antelope Canyons are located on the Navajo Reservation, five miles east of Page on Arizona Highway 98. The upper canyon is easier to enter. The entry gate is on the south side of Arizona Highway 98, a half-mile west of the Navajo Power Generating Plant. You ll pay the fee and leave your car. Visitors are driven a few miles up a sandy wash to the entrance of upper Antelope Canyon in the back of a pickup. The route through upper Antelope is level and no climbing is required. There are often lots of visitors in the upper canyon making photography difficult. If you want to stay more than two hours, you ll have to pay an extra fee. Lower Antelope patterns To reach the entrance to lower Antelope Canyon, make a left on the paved road along the western boundary of the power plant. Enter at the signed gate and drive down the hill to the parking area at the small office. Unlike upper Antelope Canyon, you can park near the entrance and stay all day for no extra charge in lower Antelope Canyon. This canyon is all below ground level. There are at least a dozen ladders to negotiate. All are securely bolted to the canyon walls and have hand rails. The lower canyon has several large chambers. Much of the route is narrow and winding with long and sensuous red stone patterns across the canyon walls. Sunlight enters the narrow opening along the top and bounces off the high walls, diffusing the light and illuminating lower Antelope Canyon more evenly than upper Antelope Canyon. The light levels are higher and exposures are generally shorter in the lower canyon. There is a greater variety of formations and patterns in lower Antelope. Openings have been eroded completely through twisted walls, and there are several underground arches. One is large enough to walk through. Lower Antelope Canyon is my favorite slot canyon. All the ladder climbing keeps out the crowds of tourists. Don t bother climbing down there on a cloudy or overcast day. The colors will be dull and muted. Stay out if the wind is blowing. Sand drifting down into the slot can get into your camera gear, causing major damage. Flash floods are dangerous and have claimed many lives in these canyons. Stay out if the weather forecasts predict rain. August and September are the wettest months of the monsoon season across the Southwest. The low angle of the mid-winter sun doesn t sufficiently light the bottoms of these canyons. My favorites are the months of May, June, and October, which usually offer the best weather for slot canyon photography. This location is still the number one destination for photographers passing through the Lake Powell area. By mid-afternoon, about the time the colors are fading in the slot canyons, head out to Horseshoe Bend. There s a classic view of the Colorado River, a couple miles south of Glen Canyon Dam. The viewpoint is located twoand-a-half miles south of Page s Burger King. On the west side of Arizona Highway 89 is a dirt road that heads west a quarter-mile to a parking area. From there, it s a half-mile walk, up and over a low, sandy rise to the edge of the giant horseshoe bend in the Colorado. There are no guard rails at the rim and it s at least a 500-foot drop, but the view is spectacular. Mid-afternoon light on a cloudy day will give you an interesting sky, reflections on the water, and no dark shadows below the rim.

5 issue 77 - page 5 After returning from Horseshoe Bend and before stopping for dinner, you ll need a spot for a good photograph of a sunset over Lake Powell. An easy place to reach is located just beyond the north end of N. Navajo Street in Page. Drive through the gate at the end of the pavement and park in the unpaved lot. A wide path leads north, over a low hill to a view looking down on the Antelope Arm of Lake Powell. To the left is the Wahweap Marina, due north is Romana Mesa and to the right are Gunsight Butte and Padre Bay. To the east is Navajo Mountain and most of the rest of Lake Powell. Wait twenty minutes after the sun drops over the horizon for the best color to light up any clouds in the sky. This is a great spot for a panoramic camera. The level horizons and the often-spectacular cloud formations over the lake make a graduated neutral density filter very useful. The closer to the lake you walk, the better your compositions. Remember that it s a long way back in the dark. DAY THREE The tall, white formations, called the Towers of Silence are located about five miles up Wahweap Wash, above the small town called Big Water, Utah, fifteen miles north of Page, Arizona, on Utah Highway 89. This is the spot where all the concrete was mixed for the Glen Canyon Dam, back in the 1950s. Today, their main industry is houseboat storage for Lake Powell boaters. A BLM Visitor Center is directly across the highway from the main street into Big Water. Walking up Wahweap Wash is the most direct route to the towers. From Highway 89, drive north at the BLM Visitors Center and through the center of Big Water. Continue north onto the dirt road beyond the intersection of Smoky Mountain Road (that goes east). Follow the dirt road, which veers northwest. You will drive past a long row of man-made fish farm ponds and a single house sitting on a rise overlooking the ponds. When you come to the corral, turn left heading west. As you reach the wash, don t drive across if the stream is flowing. Park and walk with your gear up the west side of the wash. If the wash is dry, drive up the center of the wash. At the barbed wire fence, about a half-mile north, pull out of the wash and park the towers on Wahweap Wash on the high spot on the left. Walk alongside the flowing wash or up the center of the dry wash for 4.7 miles. The Towers are on the west side of the wash. The tallest fluted column has a black cap rock. You can see it in the distance as you approach. This journey is best made in the early morning for the best light on the towers and maybe a good sunrise. There are very few footprints around these formations. The off-white, fluted silt-stone columns that support black cap rocks are fragile. It is very important that visitors to this delicate area do not walk or climb on the formations or damage them in any way. A tripod leg can punch a hole in the brittle material. Once damaged, the formations can never be restored. Avoid harming the area and it may never be fenced off and protected from the public.

6 issue 77 - page 6 There is another large group of columns to the south, around the bend in the canyon. This area is illustrated in the photo on the cover of this newsletter. Be careful where you walk. There are small round stones covering the ground in some areas. It s like walking on marbles, so be careful. The rising sun does not strike the tallest column during the winter months. From April through September, the sun rises farther to the north, strikes the column, and makes it stand out in sharp relief against the dark shadows of the canyon wall to the south. The soft light cast by a cloudy sky will give you open illumination and very low contrast. You ll want to increase your exposure slightly to avoid underexposing the offwhite towers. The silt-stone columns are a light, neutral gray with very little color. Strong warming filters will make them appear too yellow or magenta. If you are photographing formations standing in the shade of the canyon walls but illuminated by blue sky above, a skylight, haze filter, or 05 cc red filter will remove any blue cast and allow you to photograph the natural colors of these neutral gray formations. When the sky is completely overcast, the light should be neutral in color and little or no filtration should be necessary. With a digital camera, I shot a test series, with the white balance set at daylight, cloudy, shade, and auto, to see which setting gave me the most natural color. A hundred feet north of the tallest column, the canyon wall is formed of the same soft material. It has been eroded into a large, flat panel that appears to be flowing downward but is actually solid silt stone. The whole area is filled with small details and abstract patterns that are great fun to photograph. You can easily spend most of a day here, wandering up and down the Wahweap Wash. When you are ready to pack up, check your map and be certain that you can retrace the route you followed to find this location. Back on Highway 89, drive west to the Paria Ranger Station. After checking on the availability of next-day hiking permits into The Wave, you can fill the rest of your day with an easy walk down the Paria River to photograph the formations called the Windows on the Paria. DAY FOUR There s one more location everyone wants to photograph in the Southwest The Wave in Coyote Buttes. Be packed and ready to leave Page well before sunrise. It takes almost an hour-and-half to get out there to the Wirepass Trailhead parking lot. The hike takes an hourand-a-half to well over two hours, depending on your stamina and the weight of your backpack. Arrive too early in The Wave and it will still be in the shadow of Top Rock and the canyon wall to the east. The best light across the whole formation can be seen late in the morning. By 2:30 pm, shadows begin to roll down the south wall of The Wave and photographers have to move around and try different angles. There s some good news for photographers trying to get a permit for a hike into The Wave in the North Unit of Coyote Buttes. The number of walk-in permits available each day at the Ranger Station has been increased from four to ten, on a year-round basis. You must pick them up the day before you plan to make the hike. Be out at the Paria Station, just east of the Paria River on Utah Highway 89, before 9:00

7 issue 77 - page 7 am. If more than ten people show up, they hold a lottery and the lucky winners get permits for the following day. It s still better, and less risky, to get your Coyote Buttes permits a few months in advance. Do an Internet search to find their website. The Wave in the North Unit of Coyote Buttes Unless you re going to be camping, you ll need a motel. There are many motels and several campgrounds in the Page area. Those near the Wahweap Marina have hot showers. When you are planning your photo trip, you ll have to decide whether or not you ll want to stay that last night in the same location or move on and get a head start by staying overnight near your next photo location. After a whole day of hiking into The Wave, you may want to go back to your motel and get a good night s rest. If you are not completely worn out, you ll prefer to pack up, drive east to Monument Valley, stay at a more convenient motel, and be ready to shoot the sunrise over the Mittens. DAY FIVE After staying three nights in Page, I was ready to continue on to Monument Valley. It s one-hundred-twenty miles east of Page, which should take you just over two hours. Head east out of Page, past the Navajo Power Plant on Arizona Highway 98 through Kaibito. Turn left onto U.S. Route 160 to Kayenta. About twenty miles west of Kayenta, Arizona, is the entrance to the Navajo National Monument where you ll find the trails into Betatakin and entering Buckskin Gulch If you can t get a permit to hike into The Wave, spend the day photographing Buckskin Gulch. Starting at the same trailhead, hike past the Coyote Buttes trail junction, and continue for another twenty minutes to the Wirepass/Buckskin confluence. Turn right at the confluence and follow the narrow passageways into one of the deepest and longest slot canyons in the world. Late in the month of June, when all the mud holes in the canyon have dried up and the rest of the Southwest deserts are too hot to explore, it s 15 degrees cooler down in the depths of Buckskin Gulch. You ll want to stay three days in Page if you plan to photograph the Wahweap Wash formations, the Antelope Canyons, and The Wave. Keet Seel, two of the most spectacular of the ancient Anasazi ruins. At Kayenta, you ll turn left again onto U.S. Route 163 and head north for about twenty-four miles to Monument Valley. Make arrangements to meet your Navajo guide as soon as you arrive. Betatakin detail

8 issue 77 - page 8 Even if you ve been to Monument Valley before, you ll want to make the climb up to the rim of Hunt s Mesa. Hunt s Mesa is a thousand feet above the valley and runs east and west along the south side of Monument Valley. The view looks like an aerial panorama seen from an airplane. Sunrise and sunset are the best times to take this photograph. You ll have to spend the night on the edge of Hunt s Mesa. It s a long and strenuous hike to the top. A road leads to the best overlook on the rim. You must have an authorized Navajo guide to travel up to Hunt s Mesa. You can find a list of guides with an Internet search on Monument Valley Guides. The road to the top of Hunt s Mesa leaves U.S. Route 163 near milepost 398 just north of the town of Kayenta. About 4.5 miles south of the big rock called Agathla Peak, the unpaved side road heads to the east. You ll never be able to follow all the twists and turns without a guide. The road crosses private Navajo land and visitors must be accompanied by an authorized Navajo guide. Without a Navajo guide, visitors are not allowed up there. I used the full focal-length range of my mm lens along the canyon rim and composed many of my images to be stitched together later with Photoshop into panoramic compositions. late afternoon on the rim of Hunt s Mesa DAY SIX After the sun rose over the clouds on the eastern horizon, the morning light was sharp and clear with long, crisply defined shadows. The previous evening s sunset was more colorful because of all the dust in the air. Spider Arch We spent the night on the rim of Hunt s Mesa and photographed the sunrise. It was almost noon when we headed down the mesa. My guide made a detour to Spider Arch, where I climbed up into the opening with a wide-angle lens and then photographed a nearby two-story tower ruin. This Anasazi ruin has the original roof beams still in place. From the west side, I framed this ruin in a vertical composition to accentuate the sweeping curves above. The rest of the day was spent in Mystery Valley.

9 issue 77 - page 9 DAY SEVEN After an overnight stop in Mexican Hat, Utah, I drove three miles north and made a left turn onto Utah Highway 261, along the southern edge of the Valley of the Gods, past the Goosenecks on the San Juan River, and up the thousand feet of switchbacks called the Mokee Dugway. I was on top of Cedar Mesa in search of Anasazi ruins. This remote area in southeastern Utah lies north of the Navajo Reservation, east of the Colorado River, south of Natural Bridges National Monument, and west of Comb Ridge. Cedar Mesa and the nearby Grand Gulch Wilderness Area are filled with well-hidden Anasazi ruins. High on the sandstone cliffs above Cedar Mesa s remote canyons are at least 1,700 documented and mapped Anasazi sites. The Road Canyon Ruins, in the heart of this wilderness, are some of the most fascinating and most photogenic. Nine miles north of the top of Mokee Dugway, just north of milepost 19 on Utah 261, make a right turn onto unpaved Cigarette Springs Road #239. Reset your trip odometer to zero and drive eastward. Keep left at the unmarked fork. Sign the trail register and pay the entry fee at a kiosk near an open gate one mile from the pavement. Continue driving two miles farther east to a point 3.4 miles from the pavement of Utah 261. Turn left onto a short, unmarked side road. Drive north a couple hundred feet and park off the turn-around road. There are several parking spots in the low forest of pinion pines. Except for a brown plastic trail stake, called a carsonite, there are no signs marking anything. The U.S.G.S. 7.5 topo map covering this part of Road Canyon is called Snow Flat Spring Cave. Leave your hiking permit stub on your dashboard and lock your car. Mark your first GPS waypoint here. The trail is level as it winds between pinion pines for a quarter-mile toward the northeast. Stay on the trail and avoid walking on the fragile, microbiotic crust covering Cedar Mesa. The spongy, black, moss-like crust of algae, lichen, and fungi grows very slowly and helps prevent soil erosion. Soon you ll see the edge of Road Canyon. The trail drops 120 feet in an easy descent to the bottom of the canyon. There should be a pile of rocks marking the junction of the trail and the bottom of the canyon. If there is no pile of rocks, make a temporary marker so that you can find the side trail when you return. This is where I marked my second GPS waypoint. At the bottom of the canyon, turn right and head east. In early November, there were already pools of rainwater in most of the low spots in the canyon. They were easy to avoid. In a few spots, I had to scout out the best route before maneuvering through the narrowest sections of the canyon bottom. There are no signs in the canyon, but other hikers have left a fairly obvious trail to follow across the sandy sections of the canyon bottom. A short distance to the east is a small spur canyon on the left or north side of Road Canyon. A few hundred more yards downstream is another, larger spur canyon on the same side. Keep to the right at both of these junctions and avoid heading up these side canyons on your way back. My GPS unit read 0.57 miles from the cairn at the bottom of the canyon to the first of the five ruins in Road Canyon. As you head east, keep watching the left side of the canyon wall. The ruin is over a hundred feet above the canyon floor, resting below a strange circular ceiling of dark and light stone, reminiscent of a stormy sky or a photograph of a distant galaxy taken by the Hubbell Telescope. When you spot the ruin, look for a place to start your climb up to the alcove. There is a fairly obvious route up the slickrock that first heads to the left and then makes a switchback to the right. Halfway up the slope, you ll head left again to reach the level just below the ruin. The trail into the opening and the ruin approaches from the left side of the ruin. The best angle and the spot where you ll want to set up your tripod is as far to the right (east) side as you can safely get. You may want to move back down to the flat area about ten feet below the level of the ruin and shoot up from below the ruin at the east end. A 24mm wide-angle will frame the ruin and its incredible ceiling, the alcove above the ruin, in a vertical composition.

10 issue 77 - page 10 Road Canyon Ruin Do not touch the ruins or remove anything. This Road Canyon ruin is set deeply enough into its protective alcove that even at high noon on November 3rd, the sun was high enough in the sky to be completely off this ruin. The best time to arrive here is midmorning. Later in the afternoon, the sun drops lower in the western sky and strikes this canyon wall directly, spoiling the whole effect. This is not a good spot for a sunset. A cloudy or overcast day will probably illuminate the site adequately but you won t have the warm light reflecting up and into the alcove from the slickrock below the ruin. A warming filter, or an adjustment to your digital camera s white balance setting would be very useful for this location. Five-Ten Canyoneers are very useful for climbing and descending the steep slickrock canyon walls. Although these boots are designed as river walking boots for hiking through any wet environment, the unusual tread pattern and the soft rubber soles will grip dry canyon slopes as well. The boots have drain holes and perforated insoles. The high tops can be closed tightly with Velcro fasteners to keep out sand and gravel. Two straps cross over the top of each boot and buckle securely. Order a pair of Canyoneers one whole size larger than the boots you normally wear. Then buy a pair of neoprene socks, and your feet will stay warm when you re hiking up the Zion Narrows. You can buy Canyoneer river boots at There are four more ruins farther down Road Canyon before you reach an almost impassible pouroff, a vertical drop in the canyon. I got the image I wanted and did not continue any farther down the canyon. On the way back up the canyon, I followed the directions on the screen of my GPS unit and returned to within six feet of my starting point into the canyon. With the help of the GPS unit, I could have found my way out of the canyon in the dark. Canyon walls can block satellite signals. You may not be able to lock onto enough satellites to get a precise reading of your location in a deep and narrow canyon. High spots with no surrounding buildings, mountains, or trees, are the best places to take a GPS reading. My GPS unit indicated a distance of 0.4 miles from the parking area to the bottom of Road Canyon and another 0.57 miles from the cairn at the bottom of the trail to the ruin. It took forty minutes to hike from the car to the ruin and fifty minutes for the uphill return. This hike took a total of three hours, including photography time.

11 issue 77 - page 11 I still had a half-day left for a hike into Mule Canyon to photograph the ruins beneath a flaming ceiling. Sometimes called House on Fire or Fire House Ruins, this is another must-see location. Back on the pavement, I headed north on Utah 261 for thirteen miles. At Utah 95, I turned right and drove nine miles east, past the marked side road at the Mule Canyon Visitor Center. This place has a large parking lot, some restrooms, and a short, paved trail leading to several restored Anasazi ruins. Continue driving east a quarter-mile past the Mule Canyon Visitor Center, and turn left at an unmarked dirt road heading north. You won t need a 4x4 to drive about a third of a mile to a wide spot along the road crossing the east-west wash, called the South Fork of Mule Canyon. Park here along the road and follow the trail down the west side to the trail register box in the canyon. Pay the day use fee, tear off the parking permit, slip the envelope in the slot, and place the parking permit on your dashboard. The trail is easy to follow as it heads west, up the canyon, crossing and recrossing the stream bed. The stream was dry when I hiked this trail. You may have to do some wading at the crossings during a wet season. In about twenty minutes, the trail reaches a large rock, overhanging the left side of the trail. This is a cool spot on a hot day. The reading on my GPS unit told me I had walked 0.78 miles from the trail register box to this spot, or three-quarters of a mile. Look across the trail, and you ll see a dark strata about twenty feet up the canyon wall. There is a natural formation, a bulge in the strata that looks like a man-made dwelling. The real Mule Canyon Ruins are just around the corner, just beyond this spot. You ll find a trail leading up the slope to the base of the ruins. The ruins are twenty feet above the stream bed and are easy to reach with no rock scrambling. There are three or four enclosures with several doorways and a couple of windows. You can see the fingerprints in the adobe mud filling the spaces between the blocks of stones. There are small, decorative chips of stone inserted in the grout across the structure farthest to the left. The ceilings of the enclosures are darkened with the smoke of fires, possibly fires started by the original inhabitants. There are no signs of vandalism at all no trash, no cigarette butts, and nothing scratched on the walls. Please do not touch the ruins or remove anything. The ancient structures are fascinating, but what really strikes a visitor and makes this short hike worthwhile are the multicolored layers of stone creating the flaming ceiling above the ruins. The Road Canyon ruin rests below a strange circular ceiling of dark and light stone, reminiscent of a stormy sky. These Mule Canyon Ruin locations, like most of the Anasazi sites, were chosen for the protection of the deep overhang of the canyon wall above the alcove, for protection from rain and winter weather, and for the shade and coolness they provided during the hot summers. A 24mm wide-angle lens will frame some of the ruins. Even a 17mm won t cover it all. A 6x17 panoramic camera would be ideal for this location. The colors are subtle. For the best light on this ruin, a photographer should arrive late in the morning. The sun must rise high enough in the sky to illuminate the sloping base below the ruins. This base reflects sunlight up into the alcove and lights up the flaming ceiling above the ruin. Arrive too early in the morning and the whole canyon below will be in shade. There ll be no

12 issue 77 - page 12 The Great Gallery light reflected into the ruin. Arrive too late in the afternoon and direct sunlight will wash out the textures and the light yellow colors of the stone. To the left of the ruins, there is a passageway beneath a large, fallen stone. Walk through the dark tunnel, make the turn to the left and step up onto the stone in the passageway. Turn around and look up. There are four hand prints on the ceiling, made by the red, mud-covered hands of early residents of this canyon. Look around and you ll find more here. These ruins face the west. There are several more ruins one mile farther up the South Fork of Mule Canyon and an even larger group of ruins two miles up the trail. There are hundreds more of these ruins on Cedar Mesa. Back on the pavement of Utah 95, check your map and you ll find that the nearest town is Blanding, Utah, twenty-four miles to the east. You can find restaurants and motels in Blanding. Unless you plan to extend your photo trip into Canyonlands and Arches National Parks, you should head west on Utah 95 and avoid back-tracking. Our next overnight stop is a hundred miles northwest in the tiny town of Hanksville, Utah. Hanksville is a good overnight stop after a day of exploring and photographing the Cedar Mesa area. With a two-night stay in Hanksville, you ll have one whole day to photograph the Horseshoe Canyon area in the western annex of Canyonlands or the Cathedral Valley in the north end of Capitol Reef. Each of these trips takes a whole day to do properly. Hanksville is a crossroads in the middle of the wideopen spaces of southeastern Utah. DAY EIGHT From Hanksville, you can head north about thirtyfive miles to the unpaved road to the trailhead leading down into Horseshoe Canyon and the Great Gallery. This is one of the largest panels of petroglyphs and pictographs in North America and a place you ll definitely want to photograph. The long drive and the hike to the petroglyphs can fill most of a day with an afternoon side trip to the overlook above Goblin Valley to shoot the stone hoodoos and goblins at sunset. From Hanksville, it s a twenty-two mile drive west on Utah 24 to the south end of the road that fords the Fremont River and heads north past the South Desert then loops south through the Cathedral Valley. I ve driven this fifty-four mile road many times and always make new discoveries. Temple of the Moon The Cathedral Valley exploration starts by fording of the Fremont River, then photographing a lunar landscape across the gray bentonite hills, then balancing rocks and the sharp pinnacles rising from the floor of the South Desert and the beautiful Temples of the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars can be found along this all-day loop trip. The drive from Hanksville, through Capitol Reef, to Torrey and then south to the town of Escalante, is just over a hundred miles.

13 issue 77 - page 13 You can make this drive in several hours or you can spread out the fun and photograph your way south over a period of several days. If you re going to do the Cathedral Valley loop after leaving Hanksville, you ll probably want to continue heading west at the end of the day and spend a night in the town of Torrey, Utah. DAY NINE If you want to photograph the Waterpocket Fold area in the southern part of Capitol Reef, you ll have to drive south on the Notom-Bullfrog Road. Leave Highway 24 twenty-four miles west of Hanksville and head south. The road is graded gravel and okay for a two-wheel drive vehicle with adequate ground clearance. It s a fairly level scenic route until you reach the junction of the Burr Trail, about thirty miles south of Utah 24. There, the Burr Trail heads west and climbs to the top of the Waterpocket Fold in a series of tight switchback curves. This section of the road can sometimes be rough, but you don t need a 4x4. Three miles west of the top of the switchbacks is the junction with a rough 4x4 road heading north to the Upper Muley Twist Canyon trailhead. This is the same parking area where you ll find the quarter-mile trail to the Strike Valley Overlook. This is one of the most dramatic views in all of Capitol Reef. Starting at the national park boundary, the Burr Trail is paved all the way to the town of Boulder, Utah, thirty miles west. For more offroad adventures head south, off the Burr Trail, onto the Wolverine Loop Road, a 4x4 route, where you ll find more unique desert formations, lots of narrow canyons, and petrified logs along the trail into Wolverine Canyon. Back on the paved Burr Trail, watch for the narrow slot canyon on the north side of the road, halfway through Long Canyon. The best way to spot this canyon is to watch for the wide, paved parking area on the north side of the road. A large cottonwood in the canyon turns bright yellow in early November. When you reach the small town of Boulder, Utah, head south on Utah 24 for ten miles to the right turn into the trailhead for the Lower Calf Creek Falls hike. This hike should be made in the morning for the best light on the falls. If you arrive here late in the afternoon and are looking for an easy-but-good photo in the area near Calf Creek, park in the trailhead lot on the west side of the road at the point where Highway 12 crosses the Escalante River, a mile south of the side road to the Calf Creek trailhead. Follow the trail, heading left at the sign marked Lake Powell - 70 miles and walk under the bridge. An Anasazi cliff dwelling can be found a hundred yards east of the bridge, high up near the top of a vertical cliff on the left side of the trail. Evening light is best as it lights up the red rock walls. an Anasazi ruin above the Escalante River A good spot for a sunrise photograph of the Escalante canyons can be found at the wide scenic viewpoint on the north side of Utah 12, just before reaching the top of the hill, four miles south of the Escalante River bridge. This spot is ten miles east of the town of Escalante, so you can return here in the morning, spend an hour, and still return for breakfast. There are four restaurants, a couple of snack bars, a grocery store, and several gas stations in town. DAY TEN In addition to driving north of Escalante over the Hell s Backbone road, photographers of desert landscapes visiting this area must also drive south, down the Hole-In-The-Rock Road. Watch for the sign at the junction on the south side of Utah 12, four miles east of Escalante. Ten miles down the Hole-In-the-Rock Road is the well-marked side road leading to the Devil s Garden, a fantasyland of bizarre stone formations including Matate Arch. Morning

14 issue 77 - page 14 light is best on this location. Plan on spending two-to-four hours in this area. It s a small area with sandy trails that are level and easy to walk. An impressive location that most visitors usually miss, is the Cedar Wash Arch. You can access this arch from a side road heading west off the Hole-In-the-Rock Road, three miles south of Utah 12, or you can head south on Center Street, starting in the middle of downtown Escalante. Reset your odometer to zero and drive south. The first mile or so is paved, the rest is a pretty good unpaved road. At 10.2 miles, start looking for two short spur roads to the right, actually just parking areas, that are located just north of the arch. Park and walk south for several hundred yards, first across dirt and then across a gray slickrock canyon rim to the edge of a hundred-foot-deep wash. The slickrock canyon walls are too steep to descend into the wash. You can photograph the arch from the edge. Move to the east side of the arch in the afternoon and photograph the silhouetted stone arch against the light gray canyon walls. If you drive farther east, you can find a trail up the wash to a spot beneath Cedar Wash Arch where you can shoot upward, filling the opening with blue sky. Another easy spot to reach, that most visitors never find makes a good early morning photograph. Drive ten miles south on the Hole-Inthe-Rock Road and turn east onto the signed road to the Harris Wash trailhead. Two miles east, turn right at a fork with a sign pointing to the left, toward Harris Wash. Continue driving five miles southeast to an area called Buckaroo Flat on most maps. This flat, sage-covered plain on the left side of the road is ringed with short chocolate-colored hoodoos around the far side of the valley. It s a half-mile walk from the road to the line of wildly-eroded cliffs and rows of freestanding red-brown columns. DAY ELEVEN As you leave Escalante, head west to Zion National Park. If you plan to shoot the sunrise from Sunrise Point at Bryce Canyon National Park, you ll want to allow at least 90 minutes for the drive. Like much of southern Utah, there s open cattle range along this route. You don t want to hit a cow in the dark. After photographing the sunrise at Bryce Canyon and stopping for breakfast, hit the road for Zion National Park. Heading west from Mt. Carmel Junction, you ll find many places to stop and photograph the Checkerboard Mesa, Clear Creek Canyon, and the bizarre formations along the road. This route is especially colorful during the last week of October when all the small oaks, maples, and box elders are covered with autumn foliage. Arrive late in October, and the Virgin River level is low enough to allow an easy walk upstream for some spectacular photography. Private cars are allowed to drive into Zion Canyon around the first of November. There are plenty of lodging choices in the small town of Springdale, Utah, just outside the south entrance to Zion National Park. Once inside the park, there are lots of easy walks to great viewpoints in Zion, including the Emerald Pools, Weeping Rock, the trail up to Angel s Landing. You ll have time to photograph these locations after arriving in Zion and still get down to the bridge over the Virgin River to photograph the setting sun lighting up Watchman Peak and reflecting in the river. If you are looking for the best images, there are two destinations in Zion for photographers ready for a hike: the Zion Narrows and the Subway. Cedar Wash Arch

15 issue 77 - page 15 DAY TWELVE To get into the Zion Narrows, walk the onemile paved trail from the parking area at the end of the road into Zion Canyon. To continue, you must step into the stream and wade up the Virgin River. As you head upstream toward the Orderville Confluence, you will be able to walk along the sandy banks in some places and in other places you will need to wade through pools. I bungey-cord my waterproof Pelican camera case to a lightweight aluminum-tube backpack frame with the Gitzo tripod strapped across the bottom. The tripod gets wet but the camera gear stays dry. Set up your tripod at the dry, sandy spots along the banks. Hiking up the Zion Narrows You ll have many opportunities to photograph vertical red stone canyon walls and small maples reflecting in the dark stream. In the fall, small trees growing along the river banks turn bright yellow and reflect in the river. Sunlight bouncing off the rim creates a warm glow deep in the canyon. It s a mile-and-a-half to the Orderville Confluence where a side stream enters from the east. A good spot to turn around is just beyond this point, the narrowest and the deepest part of the canyon. You ll want to start your hike up the Virgin Narrows as early as possible, right after breakfast. You ll probably be in the canyon all day. You should try to return before late afternoon shadows and the cold water chill you too much. If you re planning a longer walk up the river, or if the weather and the water temperature is too cold for comfort, you may want to rent a wet suit, or at least a pair of river-walking boots. You can get awfully cold after eight hours walking in knee-to-waist-deep water. Rent a pair of Five-Ten Canyoneer boots and a pair of Neoprene socks. You don t want to ruin your leather hiking boots. Cheap canvas sneakers have no ankle support and are too slippery on wet river rocks. DAY THIRTEEN You ll need a permit from the ranger desk at the Zion Visitor Center for an all-day hike up the Left Fork of North Creek to the narrow, key-holeshaped, slot canyon called the Subway. Fifty permits are available each day. Overnight camping is no longer permitted in this canyon. From the trailhead, located eight miles up Kolob Canyon Reservoir Road, it s a moderately-strenuous walk of just over four miles to the narrowest part of the Subway. Only the first quartermile is steep and slippery. You can keep your boots dry by doing lots of rock-hopping where necessary. If you wear river-walking boots, and follow the easier route up the stream, the hike is much easier. There s a wide, multilevel waterfall, really a stair-step cascade, halfway up the canyon, a great subject for a panoramic camera. Just beyond the narrowest section of the Subway, there s an almost impassible drop-off where your hike will end. There are small reflection pools and a very long and narrow crack in the canyon floor where most of the water flows. The upper part of the canyon is very slippery in the section where the stream covers the width of the slickrock canyon bottom. Carry a walking stick to avoid falling. If you want to enjoy the hike up to the Subway or up the Zion Narrows, rent or buy a pair of Five-Ten Canyoneers. DAY FOURTEEN After a leisurely breakfast in Springdale, pack up your gear and head back to Las Vegas. Have a great trip and send me a postcard!

16 Balancing rocks near the Paria- Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness Area. Halfway between the towns of Page, Arizona and Kanab, Utah, just north of the Paria Canyon/Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness area, lies the White Mesa. On the southeastern edge of the mesa, a large cluster of balancing rocks, some as large as an automobile stand ten to fifteen feet above the ground. These black, volcanic-looking stones are perched on soft sandstone pedestals that have eroded away. Some of the balancing stones are just tiny black pebbles, supported by short pillars of pink sandstone. The largest is the size of a Volkswagen, sitting up there, way above my head. While driving eastward from the Paria River, watch for a single telephone line crossing Highway 89, not far east of mile marker 20. The line of old wooden telephone poles continue northward up the canyon you will follow. There is a short dirt road leading to a parking spot beneath the wires. Pack a wide-angle lens or your panoramic camera and wear high-top boots for this hike. Climb over the barbed wire fence and follow the twisty course of the dry wash canyon about a half-mile north. It takes a bit of scrambling to climb up the short but steep and sandy slopes of the wash and onto the flat mesa where the balancing rocks stand. The largest stone is in the center of the mesa. Many more can be found by heading west and looking up the canyon to your left. Morning light casts long shadows across the balancing pedestals. The pink sandstone glows with a golden color. You should check at the Kanab BLM Office for any changes in accessibility or permits required to explore and photograph in this area. My life-long career in photography began at San Jose State University in After college, I enlisted in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, serving as a photographer and darkroom technician. In Germany, my skills and experience with equipment and lab work were developed and polished. I took the opportunity to photograph the beauty of nature in the Black Forest. Returning to California in 1965, I produced industrial and military training films for Raytheon Electronics and began showing my color nature prints. From 1969 through 1981, my photography was exhibited and sold in West Coast galleries. During the early 1980 s, I taught color darkroom workshops, then expanded to include field trips. Former customers, who had purchased my framed photographs, wanted to learn photography. My Pacific Image Photography Workshops offered adventures to the Pacific Coast, the Southwest deserts, national parks, Hawaii, New England, Canada, England, and the South Pacific. The workshops evolved into writing and sharing my adventures with others. Photograph America Newsletter provides information on where, when, and how to discover the best nature photography in North America. Photograph America Newsletter is published quarterly (four issues/year) by Robert Hitchman assisted by technical associate/wife, Katherine Post Office Box 86, Novato, CA All contents of this newsletter copyright Robert Hitchman Please don t make copies for your friends. This is a violation of Federal copyright laws. This newsletter survives on subscriptions.