Tag Archives: utah

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.

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

Canyon Cottonwood Trees, Autumn

November 20, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Cottonwood trees with autumn foliage fill the bottom of a red rock canyon near Boulder, Utah

After a week or so of camping out in a range of Utah locations, one of which was rather remote, I emerged from this backcountry of gravel roads and red rock and canyons and came back to the (relative) civilization of Escalante, Utah. Gas stations! Espresso! Restaurants! Even better, I had an appointment to meet my cousin and her husband over in Boulder, Utah… and dinner was on the calendar!

I arrived in Boulder a bit early, and having a bit of extra time I decided to use it by traveling out on the Burr Trail. I’ve been on that road a few times in the past, so I figured that it would be fairly easy to find red rock canyon walls and perhaps more cottonwood color. As I arrived at the first narrow section of canyon the road traversed the side of a ridge and offered overhead views looking down into the canyon and up a larger nearby wash. While elsewhere in the state I had seen a combination of green cottonwoods and other trees that were just about at peak color, here is seemed that the cottonwood color had already peaked, and instead of a wall of gold I saw a mixture of a few intense golden trees and many others that had lost leaves and exposed their trunks and branches. In this spot the trees lined up against canyon walls, and a nearby they marched off down the canyon.

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

First Light, Capitol Reef

November 19, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

First dawn light on the high ridges and domes at Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

Before dawn we drove across Capitol Reef National Park to the east, with a plan to head down the rural road that goes south on the park’s east side. We were hoping for interesting dawn light, but we weren’t quite ready for it when it arrived just after we exited the park and arrived at our intersection. The sun wasn’t up yet, but we could see a light show about to develop, with interesting light likely to strike the high ridge to the west and fantastic clouds appearing in the sky.

We quickly found a spot with an open view on much of the surrounding terrain, left the main “road,” grabbed camera gear and headed off to photograph. Within moment the first real light hit these domes and ridges to our west and turned the sky slightly pink. The formations were a good distance away, so I worked quickly with a long lens — and this light diminished within moments.

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

Canyon Country Gulch, Evening

November 19, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening light in a gulch among red rock hills.

I can credit a knee injury for this photograph. Several days earlier I had been photographing in a slot canyon far from this location. As often is the case, there was a lot of the typical thick, slimy mud in the bottom of the canyon, although the tracks of other visitors had created a drier and less slippery path around the worst of it. However, at one point my attention strayed from the path (as it almost always does when I’m looking for photographs!) and one foot missed the trail and landed in a bit of sloping mud. This mud may just be the most slippery surface on the planet, and my foot immediately slipped few feed toward the bottom of the mud and a pool before I managed to arrest the slide with my other leg — in the process putting way too much lateral stress on my knee. At the time it didn’t hurt much, but fast-forward to perhaps five days later and…

… as we headed down a gully to toward another big canyon the knee started to act up, and at a point where the rest of the group dropped down into the narrower portion of this canyon my knee said, “No.” I let the group go on, explored a bit in the flatlands above the canyon, walked out, and went elsewhere to photograph. In the evening I returned to camp before the rest of the group and I had some time to kill before sundown, so I wandered off from camp into some beautiful nearby red rock and spend an hour quietly photographing in the evening light, where I found this little gulch with a lone cottonwood tree at its far end.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: utah

Zion Canyon Trees — Three Photographs

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Canyon Cottonwood Trees, Autumn

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First Light, Capitol Reef

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Canyon Country Gulch, Evening

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

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