Home Again!

Well, we’re back home again.  I’ve got a month’s growth of beard and Ann isn’t looking forward to her last 2-1/2 months of work.  But we’re back and it’s time to get back to our regular lives, even though that means preparing for even bigger changes.  Before we get to that, we should probably finish out with snippets from the tail end of our trip!

If you recall, our last photographs (well, except for Sand Bowl 2019) were from Devil’s Garden.  From there we headed down to Kodachrome Basin State Park, with a stop off for showers and laundry.  We explored the area the first afternoon to find a suitable location for a morning shoot and, despite our initial impressions of a rock formation at one end of the park not being much, that’s where we ended up the next morning.

In the afternoon light, I never imagined that I’d want to photograph Chimney Rock, but that changed once the sun started rising that morning.  That afternoon, we decided to swing down Cottonwood Canyon Road a bit to check off Grosvenor Arch off our list of places we don’t need to stop to photograph at.  Once again we were surprised and decided that was where we’d do our next morning shoot.

We were there nice and early (i.e., well before sunrise) and started photographing once the first indications of dawn hit the horizon.

Ann and I both agree that in many ways, this is the most beautiful arch we’ve seen.  We think in part because of its surrounding features gives the whole structure a gothic architecture type feel.  In any event, we found it much more interesting than many of the arches at Arches NP.

This was the part of the trip that got axed during our last trip - remember the hurricane?  We continued driving down Cottonwood Canyon Road (interesting, except for the power lines running down the entire length of the canyon ruining many opportunities for photography), and ultimately headed east towards Lake Powell.  After a stop off at the BLM station in Big Water (and lots of discouragement from going there by the Ranger because of “lots of sharp rocks - you’ll get a flat!”) we wound up at Alstrom Point.

We got there early in the afternoon so, after a bit of scouting, we waited until the sun settled a bit and photographed the limited (but gorgeous) view we had from the rim of Lake Powell.

Then Ann said, “You know, I’m not really feeling it.”  “You want to move?”  “Yeah, if you don’t mind.”  So we headed back out, racing the sun and hoping we’d find some other place to camp near some of the more interesting landscape features we saw on the way in.  The one grey and yellow landscape didn’t offer us any good stopping places so, as the sun was setting towards the horizon, we decided to head up a road (the lower end of Smoky Mountain Road we took while at Devil’s Garden), knowing we weren’t going to go up the switchbacks.  Driving along, we saw some places we thought would make for a good morning site, then a mile or so later found a campsite right beside the road just before it started the switchbacks upward.

Even though the sun was just setting, we decided to go back and photograph just after sunset.  It was one of the best decisions we made all trip.

The light was amazing and both Ann and I were furiously photographing for as long as we possibly could, excitement filling us yet again every few minutes as the character of the light changed.  It was one of the most memorable photographic experiences we’ve had, matching the first morning we photographed at Snow Canyon and those at Bandon on the Oregon Coast.

We returned the next morning and it was almost as incredible.  

Who would have thought that a random location on the side of a road where nobody stops would have offered us such a wonderful experience.  We are truly lucky.

From there we headed to White Pocket part of the Vermillion Cliffs national Monument.  This is where we had our sand adventures (well, getting there at least).  Just one look at the type of rock formations in the image below gives you an idea of what a playground it is for photographers. 

I suspect we’ll find a way to make it back there and stay for a few more days, with plenty of time to relax between photo shoots.  As it was, one real day of photographing was not enough and our lengthy excursions wound up exhausting us for the next morning.  Still, leaving early was a good idea, given we didn’t hit any on-coming traffic in the difficult part of the route back.

From White Pocket we drove to Zion National Park.  The first afternoon we took the bus up and down the length of the valley to scout things out.  The next morning we stopped off at a couple of locations that most others passed up (no, we did not go to the Narrows/Subway, and no we did not do Angel’s Landing). 

Zion, like Yosemite, has way too many people.  Furthermore, I quickly realized that it is a place you have to visit again and again to learn about the type and timing of the light.  There were points where we realized that we were slightly in the wrong place for the type of light present,.  But towards the end of our second stop, suddenly everything changed where we were at, gifting us some special light for just a few moments.  We’ve decided that if we return, it will be during the off-off-off season when we can drive through the valley and park where needed (there are all sorts of interesting pull-outs that the bus does not stop at, and cars are not permitted on the road most of the year).  Still, despite the difficulties of photographing on the fly (and the people), Zion is a stunningly beautiful place!

From Zion we headed to Snow Canyon.  What more can we say other than it is one of our favorite places to explore.

And explore we did, hiking several trails we’ve never been on, which of course leads to mixed photographic results.  But again, surrounded by so much beauty, one can’t complain too much.  

And then our vacation was effectively over.  It was time to head back home and resume our lives.

Given I was able to blog a bit about the trip along the way, I’m not planning on rehashing all the stories and locations from the trip.  We do, however, have several blog posts Ann and I thought about along the way, so you’ll see different postings that raise issues Ann and I discussed.  And then there’s likely to be the odd image or two that I simply decide to post as I work on them.  So don’t worry, there’s plenty coming down the pike as we plan for the adventure that will be Ann’s retirement and the move to Portugal!