Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Utah Backroad

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Utah Backroad
“Utah Backroad” — A Utah backroad ascends into a steep canyon at Capitol Reef National Park.

This track turns off from another gravel backcountry road and then winds its way into the high sandstone mountains of Capitol Reef National Park. There are roads like this all over Utah, and they lead to some incredible country. This one is in a national park, but many are not — yet they traverse country that would be worthy of such a designation. Fortunately the rough (sometimes very rough) routes minimize tourist impact.

This one rises in a huge Utah feature called the Waterpocket Fold, a long line of rising strata that form a valley and adjacent mountains. The scene has most of the typical Utah backcountry features — a large butte, dry flatland, sandstone towers, and even some nearby canyons.

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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

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Slot Canyon Narrows

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Slot Canyon Narrows
“Slot Canyon Narrows” — A very narrow and deep section of a Utah slot canyon.

This is the sort of slot canyon “narrows” that most of us imagine when we think of these places. You can literally touch both walls while walking though, and in places the space was just wide enough for me to pass. (I had to be careful to not bump my tripod-mounted camera as I walked through.) In person, such narrow and deep canyons are darker than we render them in photographs, but the light is very soft and beautiful.

I am sort of embarrassed — yet in a way also sort of proud — that I arrived at this place more or less by accident, and not by the usual direct route. I was out “poking around” in this area, and on a hunch I started hiking down an open canyon which soon narrowed into a slot canyon. Eventually I arrived at a junction in the canyon, where this very narrow slot intersected the main canyon.

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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

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Sandstone Cliff Detail

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Sandstone Cliff Detail
“Sandstone Cliff Detail” — A section of a sandstone cliff face featuring fracturing, strata, exfoliation, and water markings.

The textures, forms, colors, and patterns found in Utah sandstone walls amaze me. They can be so complex that I sometimes imagine that I see things like writing or images, but patterns formed naturally over the millennia. Here we can see layering at more than one angle, marks left by dripping and flowing water, the effects of exfoliation, and more.

This bit of wall might usually not get a lot of attention. If I recall correctly (it has been a decade) I found it in an odd corner of a canyon at Capitol Reef — not in a particularly iconic location within the park. Because it was later in the day the high canyon walls blocked the direct sunlight, allowing the softer light to fill that shadows a bit and reveal more details.

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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

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Lakeside Meadow, Boulders, and Trees

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Lakeside Meadow, Bourlders, and Trees
“Lakeside Meadow, Boulders, and Trees” — Before the sun arrives, a scene at the shore of a subalpine Sierra Nevada lake with meadow, boulders, and trees.

The Sierra Nevada is a place of diverse terrain — rugged alpine ridges and summits, gentle meadows, both dense and open forests, streams and rivers, and more. But my favorite places are mostly like this one, where the last trees are about to give way to barren alpine country, and where meadows, running water, and lakes are plentiful.

This scene is typical of that region. It is along the shoreline of a moderate-sized lake at just over 10,000′ of elevation. Away from the meadow and the lake, forests of good-sized lodgepole pines grow, but here in the open it is all about the light, meadows, rocks, sparse trees, and water.

Leave a comment or question using the form. (If you are reading this on the home page, click the article title to see the full article and the comment form.

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

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.