Tag Archives: cottonwood

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

Canyon Cottonwood Trees

Image 2 Comments
Canyon Cottonwood Trees
Cottonwood trees with autumn leaves in a Utah canyon.

Canyon Cottonwood Trees. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

© Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

I came across this pair of cottonwood trees while walking up a lovely, narrow canyon in Southern Utah some years back. It is the same canyon I’ve mentioned in previous posts — the one where I had my very first introduction to the joys of exploring red rock canyons. I was here on this occasion with a couple of photographer friends.

There are, of course, quite a few cottonwood trees in Utah. (To say the least!) Why these two? I was impressed by just how different they were, despite growing in virtually the same spot and in the same conditions. Part of this can be explained, no doubt, by a difference in their ages. But such trees are also profoundly affected by the happenstance of where they sprout — is the soil shallow or deep, does it flood, is it rocky? The tree on the left still retains quite a few green leaves, it no longer has any lower branches on its straight trunk. The tree on the right seems like a veritable teenager, with its yellow leaves and its less solid structure — though if you look close you can make out the shape of its future growth, too.

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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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

Autumn Trees, Slot Canyon

Image Leave a comment
Autumn Trees, Slot Canyon
Autumn colors along a stream in a winding Utah red rock slot canyon.

Autumn Trees, Slot Canyon. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn colors along a stream in a winding Utah red rock slot canyon.

This little canyon winds away from a backroad gravel route though a section of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. (I hope it still does — for all I know it is part of the beautiful land removed from the monument in 2016. Sigh.) A group of use spent a good part of a day wandering into the canyon and photographing.

This little scene has most of the features that characterize these canyons, though none of them seem as intense as the most extreme examples. The shallow stream winds quietly through the canyon bottom, though it is also clear that this little steam can sometimes rise up and make the place impassible. There is no direct light anywhere — instead everything is lit by diffused and reflected light that filters down from far above. The view is quite limited, and as you pass through a place like this your would is constricted by the side walls and the bends above and below your position. Looking ahead to the bend in front of us, we can see a bit of light around the corner, inviting us to continue around “just one more bend.”

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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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

Autumn, Red Rock Country

Image Leave a comment
Autumn, Red Rock Country
Autumn colors appear in red rock country, Capitol Reef National Park.

Autumn, Red Rock Country. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn colors appear in red rock country, Capitol Reef National Park.

As best as I can recall — it was eight years ago! — I must have stopped alongside the road through Capitol Reef National Park to make this photograph, probably not far from the Fruita park facilities and campground. The photograph is looking more or less north along the front of the tall red rock formations that face to the west here.

This is a different view of this landscape than that presented in my recent photographs from the deep within the canyons. This is more about the grand, open landscape of this area, with long lines of stratified red-rock formations, great expanses of broad valleys, trees and brush, streams and rivers, and immense sky.

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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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

Autumn Cottonwood, Canyon Walls

Image Leave a comment
Autumn Cottonwood, Canyon Walls
An old canyon cottonwood tree approaching peak fall color, Utah.

Autumn Cottonwood, Canyon Walls. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An old canyon cottonwood tree approaching peak fall color, Utah.

A small group of photographers spent a day exploring this out-of-the-way canyon far out in the Southern Utah backcountry. If a friend had not shared the location with us I probably never would have gone here, and I am deeply grateful that he introduced us to the place.

We began at a totally nondescript pull-out off of a long gravel road, a place where I would never have expected to find such a canyon. We began walking on the dry flatlands and soon dropped into a shallow canyon with some sandstone along the bottom. As per the common pattern, as we walked the side walls began to quickly rise above us, and before long we were deep in a beautiful and lonely canyon. My recollection is that we saw no one other than our party that day. This grizzled old cottonwood stood near the junction of our canyon and a side canyon seen in the upper background.

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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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