Kodachrome Basin State Park and Bryce Canyon

The next leg of our journey would take us to Kodachrome Basin State Park and thereabouts.  This was one of the fixed points from our schedule that we’d retained (with at least one night reserved at the campground in Kodachrome) so it was time to move.

We were exhausted from the previous day’s shooting, so took our time getting up and out of the Grand Staircase-Escalante.  The drive was beautiful from Escalante to Cannonville - as I said, Hwy. 12 is one of the most scenic stretches of road you’ll find.  In Cannonville we wound up stopping by the Cannonville Visitor Center and walked away with big smiles on our face for a couple of reasons.

First off, we were blessed with the present administration’s incompetence.  I guess that needs a bit of explaining.  Inside the Visitor’s Center we found the following framed statement:

So I say blessed because we didn’t have to look at his face!

Second, we picked up a traveling companion.  Ann made a donation to a local organization’s efforts to preserve the common collared lizard, found in these desert areas, and wound up getting Jack.  He now has his own spot on the dashboard and has become our traveling companion, keeping watch over Beast while we out and about photographing and generally keeping an eye on us.

We arrived fairly early at Kodachrome and, after a short chat with the folks at the welcome center, were able to change our reservation from one night to three to give us time to check out the surrounding area.  After checking out our campsite, we set out to explore and scope out locations the rangers suggested we might find photographs.  

Kodachrome Basin State Park is surprisingly large, with a main area of formations, and an area stretching east that affords some interesting photo opportunities.

After a quick run around on the main roads through the park (and to find the location of the showers!), we decided to drive down Cottonwood Canyon Road, which enters the park from the southeast.  We had planned to come north up the road, and I wanted to see what it was like for at least part of the way.  For the several miles we traveled it, it was an interesting road.  We stopped at one point so Ann could make a photograph (well, me standing on top of Beast and her giving me directions on what to frame, her checking the camera I handed down, and then making the slight adjustments she gave me), and decided to head back to scout for morning shots.  

We wound up going to the Shakespeare Arch/Sentinel Trail, which affords distant views of the main basin area, surrounding hillsides and Bryce Canyon way off in the western horizon.  We weren’t really expecting much so we left the main gear in Beast and I grabbed my Fujifilm point-and-shoot.  On the one hand I’m glad I didn’t just assume my iPhone would do, on the other hand, I could kick myself for not brining a better camera, even though it was only supposed to be a scouting expedition.

Instead of going up to the top, which would have posed safety concerns at night for the morning shoot, we decided to stay down lower and work our way around to Shakespeare Arch, which you can see below towards the upper left. 

From there, a ridge extends westward, towards Bryce Canyon, that gives you wonderful views in all directions. 

Not only is the landscape interesting on the grand scale, the geology right at your feet is amazing too.  

Out towards the end of the ridgeline, I was able to get a nice photograph that was able to include Kodachrome Basin to the right and Bryce off in the far distance to the left. 

Ann and I concluded that the Ranger’s advice was good, this was the place to be first thing in the morning.

Which was early, very early the next morning.  Knowing we had a bit of a hike in, and wanting to make sure we had our coffee, we got up with plenty of time to make coffee, drive over to the Shakespeare Arch Trailhead parking lot, and to hike to where we’d scouted the day before.  We were honing our breakdown routine, so that gave us a few extra minutes as well.  

Still, our first few images were pitch black.  There was a bit of a moon to the east (which Ann made a lovely image of), but clouds were pretty much in the way most of the time, so not much light was making it to the ground.  We would have to wait for the sun to make its way to us.  Which at 1,000 miles an hour didn’t take very long.  

Just as with Devil’s Garden, one had to move fast to keep up with the light.  At one point I noticed everything taking on a pink hue, and after taking this shot . . .

. . . I turned around to find this in the morning sky.

There are times where photographs cannot do nature justice.  I made three different images trying to capture this spectacular beauty - all fall well short of just how stunning the light was.  

So I turned around to see what else it was doing and to take advantage of that.  Sometimes big cloud banks don’t help photographs, especially in the morning.  But other times, wow. 

And so I kept working with what was there, knowing that it wouldn’t last for long.  And then the sun broke over the horizon and lit up Bryce Canyon.  Again, words just couldn’t describe it and photographs don’t do it justice.

Once the color faded, the photographs lost their intensity.  And soon, everything was dulled with an overcast shroud and it was time to call it a morning.  But what a morning!  We made a couple of more photographs on the hike back to Beast, and then headed off to breakfast.

After breakfast we headed over to Bryce Canyon.  Instead of going to the main points where we had photographed from our last trip there (and where the parking lots were packed), we headed out to the very end of the road to wander around Rainbow and Yovimpa Points.

We didn’t expect much given the time of day, but it’s hard not to appreciate the splendor and beauty that’s there. 

We eventually made our way back to the campsite to relax a bit, and decided to hike the Grand Parade Trail in Kodachrome to get some close-up exposure to the main basin area.  

While we were in the parking area about to head out on our hike we ran into a fellow who had a rugged camper on his pickup and was obviously rigged out for being out in the wild.  We talked about routes and locations and he mentioned a great place on Cottonwood Canyon Road to camp at and had also mentioned how incredibly beautiful another route that I’d planned to take us on was.  I now know that if we’re ever coming to Kodachrome from the south, my research on those routes will come in handy.  We told him about our changed plans and he mentioned that his plans had just changed.  He’d planned to go to Zion National Park the next day (we were planning to be there under the old plans as well), but he just found out that a boulder closed the tunnel out of the park and it would take a couple of days to clear - so his plans had to change too.  We would have been stuck in Zion and had to take the very long way around if we’d stuck to our schedule.  Things really were falling in our favor!

Eventually he headed on his way and we started our hike.  The Grand parade Trail rail consists of about a 3 mile loop that wanders in and out of a couple of box canyons.  The weather started out just fine and gave us some interesting views, although we found it very difficult to get a clean image with all the brush on the ground. 

There really were some incredible views, but difficult images to make.  I really wasn’t pleased with my early efforts.

Then, while I was in a box canyon the clouds seemed to roll in and everything changed.  Still, the hike took us along canyon walls and that always offers interesting possibilities.

It started looking like the weather was going to turn on us, so we wound up rushing the last mile or so of the hike, knowing that if we wanted to, there was always tomorrow.  

The next morning we decided to head over to the Mossy Cave Trail at Bryce.  It’s a separate area of the park and we were hoping there wouldn’t be nearly as many people there.  Even though we didn’t get there particularly early, there weren’t too many people on the trail

Image making seemed a lot easier that morning than the previous day’s afternoon run through Bryce Canyon.  The trail crosses a creek and heads towards a cave and some falls.  Ann and I spent a while at the point where the trail crosses the creek.  Ann spent time photographing light playing with water as it flowed over a rock.  I climbed down into the creek to stand on sand bars or rocks, photographing both up and down stream.

The trail then started to ascend and we took our time hiking up.  At one point I noticed a ledge on the other side of some trees and made my way out to see what kind of view it offered me.  I’m glad I did, though I didn’t have much room to set up my gear.  Still, the view and the images were worth it.  

When you’ve got a great view, but not much room to move around, all you can really do is make as many different compositions as you can with as many different lenses as you can and sort it all out later.  Which is what I wound up doing

Not too much farther along the trail there was a lovely view of a ridge line across the creek from the trail.  The play of light on this thin fin of rock was lovely

By the time we got back to Beast, the parking lot was filling up and the hordes were coming.  We’d timed it just right.  

After taking our time with lunch and discussing where we might want to head towards the next day, we decided to head back to the Grand Parade Trail, and take our time with the mile or so we’d missed.

Unlike the previous day, we quickly started making images.

I left Ann to head back to the first box canyon to re-do a shot that I felt needed sunlight and not overcast skies.  It was a disappointment.

But the second box canyon was a treasure.  After making my way all the way into the canyon I found these lovely spires behind some trees.

And doing what I often do after making an image, I turned around 180 degrees to see what I might have missed, and found this. 

Ann and I have walkie-talkies we use when we’re out and know we’ll be separated.  She checked up on me and I told her I was on my way back.  Before I made it to her, I found yet another image.

We were both pretty satisfied with the afternoon’s photography.  Some misses, some hits, but it really was a lovely time in a lovely place.

On the way back we both found a final image of the day.  Mine was one of my usual types of images that I can’t help but make and enjoy. 

Ann’s, well hers was the best of the day.  I’ll leave it to her to share with you, either through a blog post or on the photo site for this trip.  It truly is a wonderful image.