Tag Archives: kaibab

Photographs: Arizona, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest

Evening Aspens, Kaibab Plateau

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Evening Aspens, Kaibab Plateau
Evening Aspens, Kaibab Plateau

Evening Aspens, Kaibab Plateau. Near Grand Canyon, Arizona. October 18, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A grove of autumn aspen trees at the end of a meadow on the Kaibab Plateau

Back in the early autumn of 2014 I headed off to southern Utah for some significant time photographing — first on my own in the area around Kanab and points a bit east of there, then up to Capitol Reef to meet a friend for a few days, then out into a relatively off-the-grid area south of Escalante to photograph with another group of photographers, with a quick stop after that in the town of Boulder, and then west to Zion to meet family members for a few days. Whew! On my first day in Utah I ended up at a motel in Kanab, where I settled in by late afternoon. I originally figured it would be too late for photography, but I found myself with a few hours late in the day and no plans made. I looked at a map and saw the road heading south toward the north rim of Grand Canyon (where I had never been before — it is a long story) and thought, “what the heck, I’ll go to Grand Canyon!”)

I headed out of Kanab with a very amorphous plan to follow the road south, perhaps getting to the rim by sunset if I was lucky. I crossed the valley and began the climb up to the Kaibab plateau where, to my surprise, I found late season aspens along mountain meadows that still had some color. In the dusk light I stopped — I couldn’t help myself! — and made a few photographs of these slender, tall, and straight trees against the backdrop of bare aspens and the conifer forest beyond. (I eventually did get to the rim… but it was already deep in dusk when I arrived.)

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.
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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: Arizona, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest

Aspen Trees, Kaibab Plateau

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Aspen Trees, Kaibab Plateau
Aspen Trees, Kaibab Plateau

Aspen Trees, Kaibab Plateau. Kabab Plateau, Arizona. October 18, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Nearly bare autumn aspen trees on the Kaibab Plateau near Grand Canyon National Park

This story is partially about how I finally got to Grand Canyon National Park… sort of. Believe it or not, I had never visited this iconic national park of the American West. There are a perhaps surprising number of parks that I have not visited, perhaps because I’ve long been quite happy to go straight back to my Sierra Nevada whenever I had time to travel, at least since I was a kid. There is also my long-time failure to get to the Southwest, which I have written about before. In any case, I had failed to see this park — aside from through an airplane window at 35,000′ — at all… until this year.

I had arrived in Kanab, Utah late in the day. After checking into a motel I was considering things to do on an evening that didn’t look overly spectacular from a photographic perspective. As I looked at maps I realized that this area is a sort of gateway to the North Rim of Grand Canyon. (I really don’t do a lot of research before heading out to shoot!) Checking a bit more I saw that the road south from Kana could take me up to the North Rim. I had heard of that place. ;-) So, late in the afternoon I started driving, half expecting that I might not make it before dark, but I had no better plan. The road generally rises at it heads south, and before long I was in a beautiful area of high forests that believe is the Kaibab Plateau. Although it seemed to late in the season, before long I saw that among the many bare aspen trees there were still a few with leaves, so I started watching for them. I saw this grove near the end of a meadow and couldn’t help but stop and make a photographs in the evening light. I soon realized that I didn’t have a lot of time to spare, so I got back on the road and continued south, arriving at the rim of the canyon at dusk to find that most facilities were closed for the season and there were few people about. Yes, I could tell that there is a very big canyon there! No, there wasn’t enough light left to really photograph it. I walked along the rim for a few minutes, pondered briefly, returned to my car and headed back to Kanab. At least I can no longer be accused of never having visited The Grand Canyon!

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.