Tag Archives: creek

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Urban/Street

Creek, Bend in the Canyon

June 20, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A small stream bends and twists its way along the bottom of a deep sandstone canyon

We spent the morning hiking down into this deep sandstone canyon, following its course as it twisted toward its confluence with a larger river below. Leaving behind the high tablelands, we dropped into upper, shallow section of the canon, and continued walking as it twisted and turned and worked its way deeper into the landscape. Finally we came to deeply shaded spot with a rock bench beneath a large overhang, where we stopped and pondered and ate for a while. We split up and each of us did a bit more exploring, but soon it was turn-around time — that point that we determine to be when we need to begin to retrace our steps in order to get back to where we started at a reasonable hour.

Heading back up a route on the return walk always feels different. The trip in is one of discovery, while much of the trip out is one of recognition — passing spots that we remember for a few hours earlier, taking time to pause in places we walked through quickly the first time, making a few detours here and there. While the terrain is the same, the light is not. By the late afternoon the deepest sections of this canyon were largely in shadow, and as we each picked our way back up the creek individually things seems slower and quieter.

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

Canyon and Stream

April 3, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A small rock-filled stream wanders along the bottom of a deep Utah red rock canyon

Yet another bend in yet another Utah canyon! We had hiked a good distance down into the depths of this canyon, finally stopping (most of us, anyway) at a scenic bend with lots of interesting photographic subjects. We held up there to make photographs, to sit and talk, and to eat. A few of us went a bit farther and some went a good distance more, but soon we had all checked our watches and realized it was time to start back..

This spot is just below a narrow section of the canyon where the water flows through a narrow cleft and around a big curve. Here, below that section, it seems like the flow must slow a bit, since a few more trees manage to grow here and the bed of the creek held a lot of river rocks and silt. In the distance the canyon curves more toward the west, and this allows a bit more light down into the canyon, producing a bit of a glow ahead.

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

Seepage, Canyon Wall

March 24, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Water seeps across the patterned rocks of a Utah canyon

We began our day’s hike and photography in sage-covered flatlands, where we left our vehicles at the end of a gravel road and soon dropped into a small canyon. The canyon quickly deepened and cut into the flatlands and sandstone walls soon rose around us as we continued. Soon we reached a junction where a stream flowed and we followed the stream, walking in it, along side it, and occasionally leaving it to cross higher ground where the canyon curved. The deeper we traveled into the canyon, the more intimate the landscape became as high walls cut us off completely from the surrounding terrain and bends in the canyon limited our view ahead and behind.

In the area of this photograph the canyon was rock all the way to its bottom, where the small stream flowed along the bottom of the shallow v-shape and water from springs seeped down across the rock, supporting the growth of plants. The water left behind sediments that colored the rock and formed patterns against the curving cracks, seen here in the soft light filtering down from high above, reflecting blue from the open sky and red from the sandstone canyon walls.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Autumn Snow, Bear Creek Spire

January 17, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early season autumn snow below Bear Creek Spire, Eastern Sierra Nevada

This little lake might be familiar to a number of viewers who hike in the eastern Sierra, as it is not too far up a popular trail to other east side access points for backpackers and day hikers. I have been there quite a few times over the years, though rarely with the lake itself as the objective. There is one exception. I recall one pack trip quite a few years ago, when a friend and I had arrived at the trailhead quite late in the day. We wanted to get a head start on the next day’s hike, so we headed out and dusk and got just far enough up the trail to set up a crude camp (I was just using a bivy sack, if I recall correctly) after dark.

The story behind this photograph is a different one. As I often do in October, I headed to the eastern Sierra to photograph that annual fall aspen color show. My plans are usually quite general, and I prefer to sort of follow my hunches as I poke around in various east side locations looking for photographs. I had been working with a client who wanted a photograph of a peak that appears in this photograph, and when I saw the conditions (nice weather and new snow) it occurred to me that I might quickly find something that would work better for my client than the photos I had already proposed. So I drove up to the trailhead (which I often visit anyway), shouldered my camera pack, and headed to this quiet spot where the scene look at lot more like winter than early autumn!

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: creek

Creek, Bend in the Canyon

Canyon and Stream

Seepage, Canyon Wall

Autumn Snow, Bear Creek Spire

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