Tag Archives: sandstone

LIne of Weakness

LIne of Weakness
Three plants find sustenance in a narrow crack in Utah sandstone.

LIne of Weakness. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Three plants find sustenance in a narrow crack in Utah sandstone.

This small scene was in the bottom of a Southern Utah canyon, where the light was richly saturated as it reflected among red rock walls on its way to the canyon floor. This light virtually glows, and it can be quite soft, filling in shadows and saturating colors. In these places and in this light, even the most mundane subject can begin to be appealing.

I’m always fascinated by plants that manage to establish themselves in unlikely spots with minimal chance for success… and then manage to sustain themselves there for years, decades, or even centuries. I first became attracted to such things in the Sierra Nevada, where full grown trees sometimes seem to grow in nearly solid rock. These plants are smaller, but it is quite amazing that such a small crack creates an environment in which they can thrive.


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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

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Cliff Detail

Cliff Detail
Diverse fractures and surface patterns on the sandstone walls of a Utah canyon.

Cliff Detail. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Diverse fractures and surface patterns on the sandstone walls of a Utah canyon.

On this late-October day, a cold one in this part of Utah, our little band of photographers took a long drive on a gravel road. Eventually we stopped at an inauspicious pull-out — I don’t recall a sign, though there may have been a small one. We loaded packs and set out across some dry terrain, and soon entered a small canyon at the base of tall hills, a canyon that looked much like many other such canyons.

This was not a large canyon, and our walk into it was shorter than the walk into some longer canyons we had investigated. It was also a rough little place, and it did not give up photographs as easily as some other more-picturesque places. Near the far point in our exploration we came upon this remarkable bit of sandstone canyon wall, with patterns on the surface of the rock that reminded me of sunbursts.


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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Cliff, Boulders, and Tree

Cliff, Boulders, and Tree
A solitary tree growing among fallen boulders is dwarfed by a sandstone cliff, Capitol Reef National Park.

Cliff, Boulders, and Tree. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A solitary tree growing among fallen boulders is dwarfed by a sandstone cliff, Capitol Reef National Park.

Earlier on this late afternoon the had worked our way into an wide accessible sandstone canyon with tall walls, lots of boulders, and trees placed in interesting places. As the afternoon wore on these tall red rock cliffs that had been so interesting in better light began to bring an early twilight, and we decided we were done for the day. We hiked back to our vehicle, loaded up, and began our trip back out of the canyon.

We headed a short distance north and then the road jogged west and opened to the fading light as the sun set. (It sets a bit early here on the west side of Capitol Reef as the terrain slopes up noticeably to the west.) We immediately stopped, unloaded, and went to work photographing. The light was somewhat unusual, and it somehow desaturated the red of the sandstone. In this narrow section the wall on the north side is quite abrupt and steep, and its base is littered with boulders that have fallen as it has eroded over millennia. Among the giant boulders a single tree grew.


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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Arch and Shadows

Arch and Shadows
A Utah red rock country arch in a shadowed canyon.

Arch and Shadows. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A Utah red rock country arch in a shadowed canyon.

It can seem that improbable features like this are everywhere in Southern Utah. While many are familiar from national parks like Zion and Arches, similar features are found in less accessible places, and if you poke around enough you can experience them in relative quiet and solitude. I’ve wondered why it is this way in Utah, and I think there are several explanations including that such features really are quite common, and some that warrant national park status are in non-park areas for reasons including uneasy compromises with extractive industries.

A group of us wandered into a lovely canyon, inauspicious at the start but with sandstone walls that soon began to tower and close us in from the world beyond. These are intimate places, where your awareness is mostly confined to the space between the canyon bends in front of and behind you, and where the quiet is only broken by the an occasional birdsong and by the gentle sounds of water.


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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | FacebookEmail

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.


All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.