Tag Archives: route

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

Burr Trail, Strike Valley

November 17, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The Burr Trail route as it ascends from Strike Valley towards the ridge of Capitol Reef National Park

The Burr Trail is one of the back routes through this section of Utah. It ranges from some decent paved sections to portions that are gravel and somewhat “rustic.” This is one of the latter section, at least for a short distance, as it climbs from the valley seen in the photograph to the top of a ridge behind my camera position inside Capitol Reef National Park before heading west toward Boulder.

This climb exposes some amazing geology, most of which I can only understand in the most basic of terms. This is the Waterpocket Fold area, where the strata are inclined steeply upwards as they rise to the west, and almost everywhere the evidence of these ancient layers of rock is abundant. Here the road enters a narrow canyon at the edge of the valley and soon climbs steeply up to the ridge that runs north-south for a good distance inside the national park. The view here is across the valley — with its central ridge “rib” — toward the steep cliffs on the opposite side of the valley and then rough terrain rising to mountains beyond.

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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Bixby Bridge, Pacific Coast Highway

April 21, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The Pacific Coast Highway winds along the rugged California Big Sur coastline at Bixby Bridge

This is a pretty classic view of the California coastline, including a well-known section of the Pacific Coast Highway (route 1) below Monterey in the northern section of the Big Sur coast. Shot from high on bluffs above the ocean, where the highway climbs to one of its high points, the photograph looks north up the coast across pastureland on the foreground bluff towards the famous Bixby Bridge, located in the surf-filled cove just beyond. More bluffs and ridges dropping to the sea fade into the distant haze beyond that.

This was a beautiful spring day, so I got up very early and was in the Monterey area as the sun came up. The conditions were not quite what I expected. I knew that it was supposed to be windy, so I was expecting very clear conditions. The sky was clear of clouds, but there was quite a bit of low atmospheric haze – it almost looked like it wanted to be fog but couldn’t quite get it together to form clouds. This light does difficult things to colors, but it also creates an interesting contrast between the relatively clear closer objects and further subjects desaturated by the haze. It was also windy – very windy by the time I stopped shooting late in the morning.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Titus Canyon Road

December 31, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 4 Comments

I made this photograph during midday hours after walking a ways up into the canyon from its mouth – the alternative to making the very long drive over the Grapevine Mountains from Amargosa Valley. (I have done the latter a few times, too.) While most Death Valley subjects tend to be appealing in the early morning or in the evening, many of the canyons can be at their best during the middle of the day, especially the very deep and narrow canyons like lower Titus Canyon. Here the canyon narrows down to the point that there is only room of a single gravel track, and twists and turns around rocky outcroppings. The light striking the upper canyon walls – out of the range of this photograph – reflects down into the canyon and produces soft, diffused illumination.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Rugged Terrain, Lower Titus Canyon

December 29, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Details of the rugged cliffs and walls rising above lower Titus Canyon in Death Valley National Park.

Titus Canyon Road is one of the marvels of Death Valley National Park. It begins in high desert of Amargosa Valley near the town of Beatty and the ghost town of Rhyolite, winds over the summit of the Grapevine Mountains, drops precipitously into upper Titus Canyon, passes a number of historically interesting sites, passes through a very narrow and deep section in the lower canyon, and then suddenly emerges into the vastness of Death Valley.

In the lower section of the canyon, the wash becomes very narrow, passing through a twisty slot canyon and is, in places, barely wide enough for the one-lane gravel road. Here the walls of the canyon press tightly together and rise steeply for hundreds of feet. Some places are so deep that the sun rarely penetrates to the bottom.

Fortunately for the preservation of the canyon the road is horrible, at least if you are used to more civilized driving. It is a one-way road and the whole thing is gravel. Sections are in decent shape, but it other places the road passes over narrow and twisty sections next to precipitous drop-offs and then dives steeply into deep canyons. At times the route is closed after heavy rains or other conditions that make the route impassable.

Fortunately, the section that is perhaps the most impressive in many ways – the deep slot canyon near the bottom – is easily accessible by foot from Death Valley. After a short drive up to the canyon entrance on a gravel road to a parking area, you can enter the canyon on foot and walk up as far as you want. This photograph was made within the lower mile of the canyon during the late morning, when the light penetrates more deeply into the canyon and creates a glow on the canyon walls.

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