Tag Archives: rock

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

Aretes, Hoodoos, and Trees

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Aretes, Hoodoos, and Trees - Sunset light on sparse trees, hoodoos, and descending aretes at Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah
Sunset light on sparse trees, hoodoos, and descending aretes at Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah

Aretes, Hoodoos, and Trees. Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah. October 4, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sunset light on sparse trees, hoodoos, and descending aretes at Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah

Cedar Breaks National Monument is almost (but not quite!) a sort of “one trick pony” of a park, though it is quite a spectacular pony! The main draw is the steep and very colorful Bryce-like canyon that drops precipitously from a high ridge along which the park road runs. Below this ridge, beautiful pink layers are exposed, and they have been heavily weathered and eroded into ridges, canyons, steep cliffs, and hoodoo, dotted here and there with a few sparse trees. The canyon faces roughly west, to the late afternoon and evening light on these red rock formations can be quite stunning. (Meanwhile, above the drop-off, the land is entirely different, consisting of gently rolling highland forest mixed with meadows.)

On our first day in the area we got settled in to lodging at nearby Brian Head ski area – where rooms were available at really low rates since this was probably about as “off-season” as you can be! We had some time in the evening so we headed up the road out of Brian Head and were quickly inside the monument. There are quite a few viewpoints along this road, so we picked one. This photograph was in light softened by low clouds on the horizon that still allowed a bit of fading light to illuminate the canyon features from the right.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer 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: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Trees and Receding Red Rock Hills

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Trees and Receding Red Rock Hills - Sparse pines grow on low ledges in the high country red-rock sandstone, Zion National Park
Sparse pines grow on low ledges in the high country red-rock sandstone, Zion National Park

Trees and Receding Red Rock Hills. Zion National Park, Utah. October 22, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sparse pines grow on low ledges in the high country red-rock sandstone, Zion National Park

Since I’ve posted several photograph of this particular terrain, there may not be a lot more to say about it beyond summarizing some of the basics. (And, yes, there will be more of this subject – though not too many more!) Out of the main park attraction of Zion Canyon and up in the high country, instead of being in a world of vertical cliffs that tower high above, it seems like we are more within than below the terrain. We can look down into washes and slot canyons, up to see sloping mountain sides, or straight across areas filled with slabs of curving sandstone on which various trees and bushes grow.

Here I lined up some backlit trees on a near ridge with those on a further ridge, with even more sloping ridges beyond. In the afternoon haze, the rocks combine their native red color with a bit of blue that comes from atmospheric haze, emphasized by backlight. And this same backlight lights up the needles of the trees, turning them almost white in places.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer 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: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Red on White, Sandstone

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Red on White, Sandstone - A vestigial layer of red sandstone forms small, layered mounds atop patterned white rock, Zion National Park
A vestigial layer of red sandstone forms small, layered mounds atop patterned white rock, Zion National Park

Red on White, Sandstone. Zion National Park, Utah. October 22, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A vestigial layer of red sandstone forms small, layered mounds atop patterned white rock, Zion National Park

All over the southwest, where various layers of sedimentary rock meet, it is possible to find odd and surprising juxtapositions of the different layers. In many places a bit of a higher, harder layer will remain above the softer material below, creating hoodoos and mushroom-shaped structures. Sometime the upper rim of a canyon will be lined with a layer of the harder rock, while there is a steep drop-off below. Here, bits of the darker read sandstone, with different types of layering and different texture, sit on top of the smoothly curving and finely layered underlying lighter rock.

I had seen this spot in Zion in the past – it isn’t all that hard to find – and even photographed it from a greater distance and different angles. This time I decided to approach more closely, walking out on the wave-like formation of the lower, lighter rock and passing around these small reddish prominences. I made this photograph on the same day I made many of my other most recent Zion photographs, a day when the light varied tremendously due to winds and cloud cover. One moment this spot was hit by brilliant sunshine, and a moment later it was in shade – and the changes did not always synchronize between the near and far elements. I made this photograph during a moment when the direct sun was largely muted by passing clouds.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer 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

Trees and Red Rock, High Country

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Trees and Red Rock, High Country - Backlit trees in a high country terrain of rugged red rock sandstone, Zion National Park
Backlit trees in a high country terrain of rugged red rock sandstone, Zion National Park

Trees and Red Rock, High Country. Zion National Park, Utah. October 22, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Backlit trees in a high country terrain of rugged red rock sandstone, Zion National Park

Since this has been a recurring theme in my photographs from Zion National Park in October, I think I’ll keep the commentary a bit short on this one. I made the photograph along the Mount Carmel Highway, which passes through high country along an east-west route though the park. We had a day here while on our way to our eventual destination to the east, so we decided to focus on this high country area, with its deep washes and slot canyons, autumn colors, and rounded forms of various types of layered sandstone.

In this area the sandstone was a sort of medium red – not as intense as some of the deeper strata nor as light as some of the nearly white rocks found elsewhere. This rock was finely layered in many places, and formed into a small world of ridges and domes covered with widely spaced trees. I photographed the scene in afternoon light, when the sun was shining from behind the trees and creating a sort of halo of light for each one. Because of the backlight, a bit of atmospheric haze is present and the underlying rocks take on a deeper tone. Every so often a friend of fellow photographer might refer to something they call “G Dan light,” and this is it – the light of backlit trees, photographed by shooting almost directly into the sun, with just a bit of haze.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer 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.