Tag Archives: sandstone

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

Tall Cottonwood, Sandstone Canyon

November 24, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

An old cottonwood tree towers about streamside trees at the bottom of gigantic sandstone cliffs.

This is a well-known and heavily traveled location in Zion Canyon along the Virgin River in Zion National Park — yet a place that I’m unable to resist visiting when I’m in Zion NP. It probably isn’t necessary for me to name the spot, since most anyone who has been there likely recognizes it.

Here there is a bend in the path of the Virgin River, which flows along the base of a very tall section of the canyon, tight against the outside of the bend where the river continues to work on carving the sandstone deeper. Trees grow along the creek at the base of the red rock wall, and the curve of the canyon creates a feeling that might be described as being almost cathedral-like. The light is often subdued, at least during the seasons when I have visited, since the canyon walls are so high that the sun only rises above them for a short time each day. In the particular spot where I made the photograph, one massive old cottonwood tree towers above the rest.

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Photographs: Photographers

Working the Red Rock Landscape

November 23, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A group of us assembled in the outback of southern Utah in October for a few days of landscape photography — and I was perhaps the odd man out as the person least familiar with Utah subjects. Not that I haven’t shot there before… I’ve actually spent perhaps a month and a half photographing in the state in the past few years, all told, and I’m becoming more and more familiar with the visual quality and the rhythms of the place. However, the others were mostly from the Southwest, and they have the same sorts of instincts for this land that I have for the Sierra.

We spent a few days in this red rock landscape of domes, hills, gulches, and canyons. On this evening we went to a location where red sandstone hills rise above the flatlands and stretch into the distance, and are filled with a seemingly infinite variety of textures and shapes and plant life. Here we stopped to photograph an old cottonwood snag in the middle of an expanse of sandstone.

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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

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

Canyon Bend and Tree

November 21, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A box elder with autumn foliage grows along the stream at the bend in a red rock canyon

There are many patterns familiar to those who enter these canyons. In many cases, the creeks and rivers meander back and forth, and over time they may have cut paths deep into the sandstone layers that also meander in the same way. Walking along such a small creek, looking up, and realizing that a winding canyon hundreds of feet deep was cut but the little creek gives you a sense of deep time… and also a clear indication that such creeks are not always so gentle. The winding patterns also lead you on as you descend the creeks. Each time you round a bend like this one you get a view further along in the canyon… to the next bend, where the creek turns out of sight again. And you say/think to yourself, “just one more bend and then I’ll turn around.” So you keep going and round that next bend, where you can see a bit further into the canyon… to the next bend. And you say/think to yourself, “just one more bend and then I’ll turn around…”

This creek doesn’t follow the perfect pattern of consecutive meanders that are found in some canyons, but it did in this section where I found a single box elder tree growing at the edge of a rock that butted up against the wetter, sandy section of the water course. And far above, the gigantic walls of this canyon mirrored, as expected, the curves of the bottom of the canyon, and warm light bouncing among the canyon walls filtered down here to gently illuminate the depths of this red canyon.

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

Zion Canyon Trees — Three Photographs

November 20, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Not wanting to string this out too long, I’m grouping some photographs together in single posts. This set includes three from Zion Canyon, near the road’s end and the beginning of the route into the Narrows. (My hiking on this visit was largely limited to this short walk, as I had messed up my knee a few days earlier.)

I find the juxtaposition of canyon trees, especially when the foliage is taking on fall colors, and the sandstone cliff walls to be irresistible. Here the trees are mostly cottonwoods — including some very large and old specimens — and perhaps a few box elders. The coloration of the sandstone in this part of the world varies, sometimes in obvious ways (such as the contrasting red and white layers higher in the park) and sometimes more subtly. Here the contrast is subtle, with some of these rocks picking up an almost purple quality, which is then further modified by the color of light reflecting down from canyon walls high above.

And old cottonwood tree towers over streamside autumn foliage deep in a sandstone canyon

This giant and magnificent tree stands near a trail junction in a curve of the canyon, from some angle forming an impressive centerpiece of this amphitheater-like location.

Box elder trees with autumn foliage along the base of a sandstone cliff

The box elder trees provide much the same fall color as the aspens, but they have a more delicate form, with thinner branches that seem to more likely bend and drop toward the ground.

Autumn color along a canyon stream at the base of sandstone cliffs

These colorful trees are just a few of many that grow along the edges of the Virgin River as it flows right along the base of this sandstone cliff at the bottom of the canyon.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: sandstone

Tall Cottonwood, Sandstone Canyon

Working the Red Rock Landscape

Canyon Bend and Tree

Zion Canyon Trees — Three Photographs

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