Utah Photo trip 2007
This Utah trip was kind of looked at my last "big" photo trip for a t least a little while!! :whistle: :whistle: I'm sure this summer I'll get out for at least a couple shoots, but the longer trips will have to wait for a bit! So, I headed out to Utah with my good buddy Jerry (expecting his second child in September) for Daddy Tour 2007! That was actually just one of the many names we came up with along the way!
We headed out after work on Thursday, March 29th, the very same day Denver got hit with that nice, wet, 10" spring snowstorm! Go figure!! The goal that night was to get to Grand Junction, specifically Colorado National Monument. Well, what is normally a four hour drive turned into almost six, and on top of that, we took a detour to find a Wal-Mart at 11:30pm!!! DOH! Desperate times call for desperate measures!!! The cassette tape adapter that let us run my iPod through Jerry's stereo broke only three hours in, and we weren't going to go five days without music!! You've never heard Jerry's singing voice!!! We got to our camp spot just outside the boundaries of Colorado National Monument at almost 1am, and crashed! It got down to about 23 degrees that night, so needless to say, not much sleep! Of course it didn't help that we got up at 5:15 to shoot sunrise!! Gluttons for punishment!
Sunrise ended up being a bust or photography, but still cool to be there as it was my first time. Definitely want to go back soon! Not long after that we headed west on I-70 into the great wide open that is central Utah. We bypassed Moab this trip, as we knew that there was a huge Jeep festival going on that week, meaning massive amounts of people!! Know what I mean Erik? :o We headed straight for the San Rafael Swell, specifically the Goblin Valley State Park area, just a bit northeast of Hanksville. First destination, Little Wild Horse Canyon.
Now if you've never had the opportunity to hike a slot canyon, Little Wild Horse (LWH) is the perfect introduction!! At least it was for me. Easy access for most cars (unless it has recently rained, then not good for ANY cars), and a relatively easy hike. But wow, it's spectacular! You can do it as a loop with Bell Canyon if you like, but every time I've been , I only end up going up and back in LWH because I keep stopping to take pictures!! Go figure!! This time at least, I made it further than any previous attempt. It was Jerry's first time in a slot canyon, and he was amazed!! I know this because he kept saying "amazing" at every turn! It was definitely fun to share something this spectacular with a first timer!!
Once out of the canyon, we went in search of potential camping spots. Quite a few free spots out there on BLM land, but it's also a fairly popular place, so wanted to find a spot early. After that, we headed into Goblin Valley, cooked some quick dinner, and headed down into the Goblins to shoot sunset! Yet another wild and crazy spot!! A large valley of the wildest looking hoodoos around! Such a fun and easy place to explore!! Good for kids of all ages! We headed to the east side so that we could shoot sunset looking back over all the Goblins. Turned out to be a great sunset! We headed back to the truck under a bright moon.
Next morning we got up early again (see a trend here? :whistle: ) to shoot sunrise, me on a cool outcrop of rocks I'd scouted the day before over looking he San Rafael Swell, and Jerry about a 1/4 mile away on some sweet rippled sand dunes. I could have shot there for days and still found compositions to use! It didn't hurt that the sunrise gave us some great colors! We finally met back at the car and had some much deserved breakfast (oatmeal for Jerry, Trix for me!! hehe! ) and headed out.
Lot's of driving ahead of us for our next stop. We stopped in Hanksville, just so I could show Jerry the famous Hollow Mountain gas station! It's simply a gas station that is carved out of a red rock hill. HA! Our biggest "touristy" stop of the entire trip! West on highway 24 brought us to the east edge of Capitol Reef National Park. At this point, I took Jerry off the highway just a little to where you can cross the Fremont River- through the river that is! I knew Jerry would be game for it! I walked across the river first just to get a good gauge for how deep it was, and how fast it was flowing. Fun!! After Jerry drove through, we headed just a few miles up into the park, to a cool area called the Bentonite Hills. Amazing striped hills. We only spent a few minutes, and then headed back out to the highway and slowly through Capitol Reef, with many stops to take pictures!
Once we got gas in Torrey, we headed south on Hwy 12, up and over the mountains of the Dixie National Forest, where there was still a good amount of snow from a recent storm. Incredible views out over the desert far below! A quick stop in the town of Boulder, and then south on 12 again, to what I think has to be one of the most amazing sections of highway in the country! Checkerboard rocks and mounds everywhere, eventually the road rising above the canyons, and panoramic views as far as the eye can see! At one point, you drive a curvy section of road, just a ribbon in the sky, as it drops off both sides hundreds of feet. Almost feels like flying! Incredible!
Soon we came to the turnoff to the Hole In The Rock Road (HITRR), our next destination.. The HITRR heads 62 miles southeast and ends at Lake Powell. It has quite the interesting history: http://www.nps.gov/archive/glca/hitr.htm. It can be a very washboard type of road, but I think we were lucky, for it had rained pretty hard the week before, and I believe they had just freshly graded it! Woo hoo! We drove down about 40 miles or so, to a spot called Sooner Rocks, a large outcropping of huge, rounded red rocks almost in the middle of nowhere. There were three great camp spot amongst the rocks, one already occupied. We picked the next one over, a great little spot kind of nestled in between the rocks, right near a small wash. We spent the next couple hours just hiking and exploring around all the rocks, eventually getting back to camp to grab our camera gear, and scramble some more to shoot sunset. We found an awesome wash to hike up filled with cottonwood trees, and even got treated to seeing a huge owl.
At that point, we had a decision to make! The camp spot we had was cool, but we really wanted to shoot sunrise just up the hill at the third spot. Problem was, that spot was a little more exposed and the wind was really picking up! Our spot was nice and secluded and blocked from any wind. But, if we didn’t take the top spot, there was always a chance that someone else would come by and snag it, and that would make shooting sunrise up there a problem!! “Uh, excuse us, do you mind that we woke you up at 5:30am to shoot here?” Maybe not!! So we finally decided that sunrise spot was more important the a little wind, and headed up top. Good choice it turns out, for with in about a half hour, the wind stopped!! Sweet!! It turned out to be a gorgeous night!! I think that made the beer taste even better!! Since it was only about 3 days from a full moon, and a clear night, we decided to stay up late and shoot some images using the moonlight. Unbelievable how bright it can be out there on a clear moonlit night!
The next morning, Sunday, we shot sunrise right from our camp spot, over looking the awesome Sooner Rocks. A few of the potholes still had water in them from the storms earlier in the week, so it was cool to shoot reflections in the early morning light! We dawdled around for the better part of the morning. I stayed down near the potholes, and Jerry made the hike up onto some of the tallest of the Sooner Rocks, finding some incredible rock formations, and even a huge, twenty foot deep “keeper” pothole with some trees growing in it! It’s called a “keeper” hole, because if you fall in, it’s most likely going to keep you in there until rescue comes!!!
We made some lunches, and then headed out, back up the Hole in the Rock road to the Dry Fork trailhead. It was about noon by now, kinda late for a hike in most cases, but not today! you start out up higher on the plateau, and drop down into the Dry Fork wash, about a half mile in, fairly easy, at least on the way down! Once into the wash, it’s flat and sandy, and easy traveling. You can see the Dry Fork slot about 100 years to your left, and the beginnings of Peek-a-Boo slot almost straight ahead the same distance. That was our first destination.
Now I’ve been in a couple slot canyons before, like Little Wild Horse mentioned earlier, and Wire Pass and Buckskin Gulch, and they are generally considered pretty easy. Right off the bat, I knew this one would be a little different! It starts with a 25 foot climb up to get in! Currently, there is a little rock pile to help you up a little, then a series of 3 or 4 “steps” worn into the sandstone. These are very shallow, and a bit slippery. It levels out for a couple feet, then another little funky move up to the next level. It all takes just a little planning, trying to decide which foot/hand goes first, and which foot/hand goes where! Jerry is a bit more nimble than I am, and really had no problem getting up and in. I on the other hand, took a few tries!! The first “step” is actually higher than I liked, and just had a tough time pulling myself up. Finally, after another hiker came by and piled the rock pile a bit higher, I was able to make it up! Sheesh!
Once up and in the fun just begins!! The other slots I’ve been in have required a little scrambling and climbing, but for the most part, have had sandy, flatter floors to walk on. Not Peek-a-Boo! It had mud filled pot holes, super curvy corners, small archways to crawl under, and tighter sections that make you suck your stomach in. OK, I had to , not Jerry so much!! What a blast!!!! We were at least smart enough not to bring our full compliment of camera gear with us, but we still had small back packs, and Jerry a monopod, and me a tripod. Even with these, we found ourselves handing gear back and forth. Jerry would set his gear down, climb a tougher section, and I would hand all of our stuff up to him, and follow. Did I mention it was a blast? We didn’t end up shooting to many serious images really. Since we were there mid day, the sun was beating straight down into the slot much of the time, and the contrast of light just too darn much for good photography. That’s OK; we still managed to take a ton of snapshots!!
We got to a super narrow spot that looked like the end of the road for us, and climbed up and out of the slot. We knew that there was a trail above ground that led about a quarter mile away to the top of Spooky Slot, and headed that way. Well, turns out we hadn’t actually gotten to the end of Peek-a-Boo after all, so weren’t quite in the right place to get to Spooky. Instead, we came out back in the main wash, fairly close to the beginning of Peek-a-Boo. Oh well. So, we hiked about 10 minutes up the wash to the beginning of the wash leading into Spooky Slot. The wash is super wide here, and nothing but sand, very cool place. After about an 1/8 of a mile, the slot began, and got narrow real fast!!! I’ve got to say, this was probably the coolest slot I’ve ever seen! Not super deep really, but narrow as can be!! The majority of the way we had to walk sideways, carrying our daypacks behind us in one hand, and our tripods in front in the other. At one point, it got so narrow up about four feet, that I literally couldn’t squeeze my chest through!! Luckily it widened out a little closer to my feet, and I was able to squat a little and get through! Fun! Jerry pretty much took the lead, being the skinnier and more nimble one. He would work out each obstacle first, I would hand all of our gear through or up to him, and then climb up after, more often than not getting a helping hand from him!
About three quarters of the way through, we came to the wildest spot. The slot was pretty deep here, and in front of us were three or four huge boulders, wedged down tight into the slot. I mean these things were enormous! To continue on, one needed to climb up through these, maybe twenty feet up. It was quite a trippy spot, and looking up to the top, you could see plenty of grass and twigs caught between these boulders from the last time the canyon flooded. Quite the reminder of the forces that shaped these kinds of places! After this, is was fairly easy going really, a few more tight spots, but not too bad. With in about ten minutes, were out of the narrows, and into another wide, very sandy wash. Now that was an adventure!!
We hiked up the wash for about 50 yards, and found the small trail up the hill and out, and onto the trail we had originally tried to find when coming out of Peek-a-Boo slot earlier that afternoon. Along the way came across a nice couple and their three young kids, four, two and about 9 months, having a blast! The husband had been in Spooky years before, and really wanted to show his wife and kids. This concerned us a little since it had taken us a while to get through ourselves, and it was quite late in the afternoon at this point. Going through with three youngsters like that would take even longer. They agreed and thought better of it, and we showed them the “shortcut” we had found earlier back down to the main wash. We hiked a bit further back over to Pee-a-Boo, found the spot we were supposed to come out originally, and then followed it along the top edge down a ways, finally heading back to our shortcut route, catching up with the family, and hiking back down to the main wash.
We parted ways with them where the trail heads back up to the parking lot. We had originally planned on shooting sunset further down the Hole in the Rock road, at a place called Sunset Arch. Well, it was a bit later in the day than we had planned, and knew there was no way we’d be able to make the drive, and then 1 mile hike before sunset. So, we decided that just relaxing and hanging out down here a while longer sounded like a good idea. So, we headed about 50 yards to the entrance of Dry Fork slot. This one is quite different than Peek-a-Boo and Spooky, as it starts deep and quite wide, and the floor is sandy and flat for a good ways in. It was an easy walk, nice and cool in the early evening. After about 10 minutes, the floor got a little rockier, and the canyon narrower. A couple of places we could look up and see logs wedged across the canyon, twenty feet or more above our heads. Really makes one think of Mother Nature’s power!!! After about 20-25 minutes, we decided to head back out, we were getting tired and hungry. The hike back to the car was slow, but pleasant in the early evening.
After getting back to the truck, we drove a little ways back towards the Hole in the Rock road, and took another spur road we had seen that morning. Maybe a ½ mile back, we came to several very nice little camp spots, picking one a little more hidden, right up against a rock wall. We cooked some dinner, had a beer, were quickly asleep!
The next morning, Jerry got up first to try to shoot sunrise, but I just decided to take it easy, and get al little more sleep! Not too long though! We took out time packing up camp, and headed back to the trail head for Peek-a-Boo and Spooky. We had decided to make the trek back down with all our photo gear this time, and take some pics inside the Dry Fork slot. So glad we did! I’d say we spent a good couple hours in there, and I finally found some cool cracked mud to shoot! We had one small group of students on a wilderness trip pass us by, but that was it. Nice relaxing morning!
Once back to the truck, we took our leave of the Hole in the Rock road for this tip, and headed back to the highway, and on into the town of Escalante. We stopped at the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument visitor’s center to get a current weather forecast, and the use of some real restrooms! We headed to the small city park, and made some sandwiches for lunch. On the way out of town we stopped for gas, when a funny thing happened. OK, not so funny really. We noticed that the price of gas had gone up fifteen cents a gallon since we drove by a half hour earlier on the way into town!! DOH! Couldn’t believe it!! So, we drove the mile back into town to the only other gas station, where the price was still lower! Funny thing is, both stations are owned by the same folks, so we got lucky they hadn’t raised theirs yet!!
Back on highway 12 finally, we headed towards Boulder but turned on to a dirt side road I’d been down a couple times, one of my favorite spots! It’s a fairly smooth dirt road, winding through some incredible slick rock country, mostly the cool white or lighter colored rocks. After about five or six miles, and numerous photo stops, we got to yet another side road, this one a little rougher than the last. Well, the cool spot we were headed to, which was where we wanted to camp, is a little less than a mile and a half down this road. It’s normally a very sandy road, with a couple spots that can be a little difficult, but usually not too bad for a higher clearance 4WD vehicle. Well, that wasn’t going to be quite true this time! About ¼ mile in, we hit a roadblock! It was fine, and then all of a sudden, a three foot drift of sand, about ten feet long on one side of the road, and on the other, a foot deep rut made from recent rain run-off! Not a good combination! We must have spent a good 15 minutes checking it out, walking further down the road to see what it was like, looking for a safe way around and so on! We finally came to the conclusion that we should just be smart, and not risk it! Our wives would be so proud!!
So, we grabbed a quick bite to eat, and packed up our photo backpacks with all our gear, and extra water, food, jackets and headlamps, and headed off! It was a nice little mile hike, really kind of fun, just following the sandy road. A tad warm perhaps, but not too bad. We did it in record time it seemed.
