Tag Archives: brush

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

Base of the Organ, Morning

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Base of the Organ, Morning - Autumn foliage begins to change along the base of the Organ and on the slopes of the Great White Throne, Zion Canyon
Autumn foliage begins to change along the base of the Organ and on the slopes of the Great White Throne, Zion Canyon

Base of the Organ, Morning. Zion National Park, Utah. October 30, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn foliage begins to change along the base of the Organ and on the slopes of the Great White Throne, Zion Canyon

During three visits to Zion National Park and Zion Canyon during the past year, the area around “Big Bend” in the canyon has become a bit of a fixation for me. There is a lot to see and photograph here, and the lighting changes a lot during the course of the day. The bend in the canyon creates a sort of closed-in effect, and it is possible to focus both on the very small features and on the very large, including the canyon walls and more distant examples of vegetation climbing up the cliff walls.

Two major features make an appearance in this photograph. The near, darker columns are the base of a feature called “The Organ” that sits near the apex of the horseshoe bend that the canyon makes here as the Virgin River goes downstream. Beyond that are the huge walls of “The Great White Throne,” a towering feature in this portion of the canyon whose color is lighter than that of some of the other reddish rock cliffs nearby. I made this photograph fairly early in the morning before any direct sunlight had begun to affect the scene and when a certain amount of haze was still in the air. The foliage at the base of The Organ is just beginning to show the tiniest bit of autumn color, but higher on the cliffs of The Great White Throne there are trees that are well along on this transition.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Kolob Canyon, Morning

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“Kolob Canyon, Morning” — Morning light slants over the top of sandstone cliffs above early autumn foliage in Kolob Canyon, Zion National Park

I finally made it into the Kolob Canyon area of Zion National Park this October. From what I can tell, this area is much less frequently visited than the more popular and accessible Zion Canyon area. It seems to me that the park service sort of wants it this way, which makes sense to me. There is almost no formal development of this portion of the park aside from a very modest visitor center near the entrance. Along the dead-end road into this portion of the park, you find little besides a few turn-outs and parking lots at some trailheads. In addition, the entrance to this section of the park requires a significant drive from the most popular lodging areas in places like Springdale.

We arrived on a very cold early autumn morning when many trees and bushes were just beginning the fall color changes. In most places things were still very green, but here and there it was possible to find some nice displays of color. Near the location of this photograph the road made a sort of horseshoe bend across the lower portion of the canyon, and I spotted a lot of things that seemed to be photo-worthy to me: the early morning sun light beams slanting through morning haze across the upper section of the canyon, the dry waterfall at its furthest-back point, the always-beautiful red rock cliffs, and the colorful foliage beginning to appear in the 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: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Autumn Foliage and Sandstone

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Autumn Foliage and Sandstone, Utah
“Autumn Foliage and Sandstone” — A bush with a few remaining autumn leaves in front of an s-shaped crack in a sandstone wall

At the suggestion of another photographer, near the end of our trip we decided to investigate the canyon in which I photographed this tree. The canyon begins in an inauspicious manner, in a shallow wash at the bottom of a slight canyon – the sort of place you could easily drive through and not particularly notice it. There is no sign to mark the route. Following the wash downstream across the flats, another wash joins from the right and soon the sandy bottom becomes rocky as the route meets the top of a sandstone layer. This layer gradually tilts higher and begins to form low walls, and almost before you know it you are inside the beginning of the canyon. A very narrow slot with a large drop-off interrupts the passage and the route detours around it before dropping back into the bottom of the canyon.

Before long, and almost before you know it, the sandstone walls of the canyon become hundreds of feet tall and even begin to overhang the canyon in places, and it is now clear that you have entered the alternate and isolated universe of a deep canyon. At first the canyon is rather barren, but after some distance there are more trees as the route turns and twists downward. As always, surprises appear continually. In this case of this photograph, a simple little bush happened to appear in front of an s-curve marking the edge of a joint in the sandstone where rock had fallen away, and the light reflected among the canyon walls colored the sandstone red.

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.

G Dan Mitchell: Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email


All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Sandstone Canyon Walls and Brush

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Sandstone Canyon Walls and Brush - Brush including some autumn foliage stands against a bright red sandstone cliff, Capitol Reef National Park
Brush including some autumn foliage stands against a bright red sandstone cliff, Capitol Reef National Park

Sandstone Canyon Walls and Brush. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Forest, Utah. October 7, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Brush including some autumn foliage stands against a bright red sandstone cliff, Capitol Reef National Park

This area was yet another surprise – though perhaps only because I’m a California guy still very much in the early stages of discovering the landscape of Utah. We had driven a long route down a good part of the length of Capitol Reef National Park, climbed over the higher portion of the north-south ridge, and were heading back to our lodgings some distance away. As we drove across this new (to us!) landscape we descended into a long, narrow canyon that had some of the most beautiful red rock walls I had yet seen.

Such canyons provide a wealth of photographic opportunities and require some slightly different thinking about timing and about light. In so many situations, we look for the “good light” at the edges of the day, in the very early morning and then again in the evening. However, in these canyons that is not the only good time to search of the light. At times that are later in the morning and earlier in the afternoon, the higher sun strikes the upper walls of such canyons and reflects beautiful light down into the canyon bottoms, like that may be colored by the rocks from which it reflects. In this spot it was not very bright, but the light was beautiful! Because we were “on our way” from one place to another we almost didn’t stop, if you can believe that!

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.