“Autumn Brush” — Autumn colors on brush in Utah canyon country.
A few years a small group of us were headed into a beautiful Utah canyon on a late-October morning. We were looking forward to photographing the colorful canyon walls, the river flowing along its path, and autumn cottonwood tree colors. But as we approached the canyon entrance, before the walls began to rise above us, we were distracted by an area filled with this brush with its own version of fall color.
“Autumn Tree, Sculpted Sandstone” — A cottonwood trree with autumn foliage grows next to a sculpted sandstone cliff.
A group of us ventured down into a narrow Utah canyon, lined with red rock walls and dotted with autumn trees. A creek flowed along its length, and the soft sound of its moving water was never far away. With the fall colors and the colorful rock faces there were photographs everywhere. Not surprisingly, our progress was slow… but very productive.
“Lake Manly and Telescope Peak, Dawn” — Dawn light on Telescope Peak above Hanaupah Canyon and the reflective waters of Lake Manly.
This photograph includes a short list of superlative features. Telescope Peak, at just over 11,000′, is the highest point in Death Valley National park. From the peak one can see the highest point in California, Mt. Whitney (in the Sierra Nevada) and the lowest point (Badwater Basin). In the photograph Badwater Basin is submerged beneath Lake Manly, which forms only in very wet years and generally evaporates quickly. Snow on Telescope Peak and the Panamint Range is not unusual in winter, but in this photograph it has reached a rather low elevation.
“Stream and Sandstone Cliff” — Sandstone cliffs at the bend in the canyon of a remote Utah river.
This is a photograph from over a decade ago. (More on how it ended up here today below.) A small group of us spent time photographing in Utah, often in remote places. One day we dropped into a canyon and followed this stream. As so often happens in these narrow, winding canyons, “one good turn led to another,” and we kept going as each bend revealed another interesting section. We finally stopped very close to this scene, made some final photographs, and headed back upstream.