It might seem that improbable features like this are everywhere in Southern Utah. While some are familiar icons in national parks like Zion and Arches, similar features are found in less accessible locations. If you poke around enough you can experience them in relative quiet and solitude. I’ve wondered why it is this way in Utah, and I think there are several explanations: such features really are quite common, and some that warrant national park status are in non-park areas for reasons including uneasy compromises with extractive industries.
A group of us wandered into a lovely red rock canyon, inauspicious at the start but with sandstone walls that soon began to tower and close us off from the world beyond. These are intimate places, where your awareness is mostly confined to the space between the canyon bends in front of and behind you, and where the silence is only broken by occasional birdsong and the gentle sounds of water.
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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email
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