Tag Archives: gulch

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Large Cottonwood Tree, Side Canyon

Leave a comment
Large Cottonwood Tree, Side Canyon
“Large Cottonwood Tree, Side Canyon” — A large cottonwood tree with fall colors in front of sandstone walls and a side canyon

During a bit of hard drive housekeeping this week I found a folder full of files from a Utah visit in 2012. Because I have a hard drive that is about to fill, I’ve been looking for unused and unneeded files that invariably get left behind after work on various projects — you know, the files that I “just might want to keep around, just in case.” I think that the batch in this folder were transferred from my laptop, and they are most likely files that I worked on quickly in the field and planned to update on my desktop computer later. My first thought was that I’d just delete the folder, but then I looked more closely and found several files that I want to keep.

This is one of the keepers. Although I hadn’t thought if it for quite a while, I now recall this little canyon junction quite distinctly, a place were a smaller side canyon dropped down into the larger canyon through which we walked. Scale is hard to judge against this landscape, but the old cottonwood is very large, especially for one in the base of a narrow canyon. This photograph reminds me of something else, too — I need to get back to these canyons!

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.

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

Canyon Walls, Plant

Leave a comment

Canyon Walls, Plant
A long plant grows from sandstone walls deep within a Utah slot canyon

Canyon Walls, Plant. Utah. October 19, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A lone plant grows from sandstone walls deep within a Utah slot canyon

I had the opportunity to spend a significant period of time photographing in Utah back in October of 2014. Although I got a late start with Utah (only photographing there for the first time a few years ago) I have been doing my best to make up for lost time. I’ve spent between a month and a month and a half there in total over the past couple of years. During that time I have come to love autumn in the canyons. Oh, heck, I think I love autumn just about anywhere in Utah!

I walked into this canyon early on last fall’s trip. I had arrived at my first Utah stopover place the night before, looked at a map, and figured I might find something interesting in this general area. (I’m not always a careful advanced planner, preferring to wing it depending on the light and my mood.) The walk began in terrain that was more of a wash than a canyon, but before long the sandstone walls closed in and narrowed and I was walking through slots. The light in such places can be magical at the right moments, usually when the sun rises high enough in the sky to project into the upper reaches of the canyon, where it bounces and diffuses as it fills the canyon below with saturated light.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | 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

Canyon, Reflected Light

Leave a comment

Canyon, Reflected Light
Canyon, Reflected Light

Canyon, Reflected Light. Utah, October 19, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Light reflected from sandstone cliffs along a narrow canyon passage, Utah

On my first full day of photography in Utah — as opposed to days spent traveling — my plans were a bit vague, but I wanted to end up in an area close to some very popular southwest Utah sites. I had no plans to visit the post popular of them, since they require permits and a lot of time spent getting the permits. However, I had an idea about visiting some nearly areas whose names I recognized, so I set off down a gravel road to the general area of one of them, still no knowing exactly what I was looking for. Soon I came to a short side road and a parking area labeled with a name I had heard of before, so I parked, loaded up camera gear, water, and a bit of food and set off on foot.

Almost any place around here seems to provide a sufficient number of beauties, and it wasn’t long after I set out to walk down this broad wash that I found my first red rock formations and stopped to photograph them. A bit further along the canyon briefly narrowed and bent as it passed between some sandstone walls, though which some more distant pinnacles were visible. The juxtaposition of pinnacles and cliffs and other elements was interesting, but the it may have been the beautiful light reflected on the right canyon wall that convinced me to stop and photograph here, too, before heading further down this wash to where the walls narrowed and slot canyons began.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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

Canyon Light

Leave a comment

Canyon Light
Canyon Light

Canyon Light. Southern Utah. October 19, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Warm reflected light filters into the depths of a Utah slot canyon

I’m somewhat new to the world of Utah slot canyons, but I’m also increasingly enthusiastic about them and their photographic potential. I have not visited some of the iconic “big name” slots (and I may or may not do so), but I have found similar experiences in other locations. During my recent Utah visit I had thought about exploring a particular area in southwest Utah. I had a few place names in mind, but I really did not know much about them in any detail. (I often prefer to not know too much about these places, preferring instead to discover them on my own.) This canyon has a name that I had heard before, so one morning I decided to head out that direction and see what I could discover.

I drove down a gravel road, parked, loaded up camera equipment and a snack, and headed down a broad wash into the upper part of the valley though would eventually narrow and become a slot canyon. While it is no doubt more efficient to begin closer to such canyons, I enjoy the process of moving from the wider valleys to the narrower canyons, and the walk down the meandering path of the stream above the narrow canyon was enjoyable. Inside the narrow section the walls rose vertically, the canyon floor was often quite wet, and beautiful soft light filtered down from above, reflecting the warm reddish colors of the rocks and highlighting their shapes and patterns.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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.