Utah Archives ~ Rambling ranger

January 13, 2023

Favorite Images of 2022

For this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, we’ve been invited to share our favorite images of 2022. I’ve been sharing this year’s favorite images in my last two posts, so I won’t be revisiting those images here. You can go back and look at those posts if you missed them!

One of my favorite images of 2022 — The God rays are still one of my favorites!

But I would love to share some other favorites. A few of them I’ve published in earlier posts, but most are brand new. It seems my favorite images change weekly! Because of the scarcity of electricity and internet access during my summer months in Alaska, I have still not caught up with my image processing for the past year, and I discover new favorites every day.

Cascade Falls Moran State Park, WA — This is becoming my favorite abstract image for 2022.

There are so many photos I haven’t even really looked at yet, including winter in Arches and most of my fall shots from Alaska and Washington State. It’s like Christmas every day for me as I continually find new favorite images.

I saw some amazing places in 2022. One that has been on my mind continually this week is the California Coast. Most winters I spend either January or February on the California Coast. I’m not there this year, which may be a blessing. My heart goes out to all the folks struggling with too much of a good thing, with the atmospheric river and torrential flooding.

I spent the month of February 2022 housesitting in Pacific Grove on Monterey Bay. I was 4 blocks from the coast and made a point of doing photography nearly every day while I was there. That is also the batch of work I am currently processing, so a lot of my favorite images in this post are from that visit.

Another fantastic roadtrip was driving the Cottonwood Canyon Road in Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument. It was on my bucket list for years, but usually this is a road that requires 4-wheel drive. I called the ranger station to see if it would be safe to drive in just a couple of miles to do some dispersed camping and the ranger told me the road was in great shape and my little Toyota truck would make it end-to-end just fine! Quick change of plans for me, I could not miss that opportunity. The highlight was visiting Grosvenor Arch, and it was every bit as beautiful as I had imagined it would be.

I’ve also spent a lot of time in Olympic National Park this year. I haven’t processed the fall images yet, but I’ve included a spring sunset in this collection.

My last post included a lot of my favorites from the time I spent at home in Alaska, but I am revisiting my favorite flower photo from this summer.

Bog Bean flowers — I love the pattern displayed by the flowers and their shadows in this image.

My best sunset/sunrise of the year was traveling south down Canada’s Cassiar Highway. Every image in the series is so rich and so different. That sunset went through every shade a sunset could possibly have. Intense. I did a series on Instagram last week with a few of these images, 7 Shades of Sunset.

This image looks like I tweaked the color in LightRoom, but honest, it was really that red. I did not saturate the color, I even used Adobe Neutral as my color profile. I published a different swatch from that evening’s palette of hues in last week’s post, ‘cuz this one looked too over the top to me. But now I think it is my favorite.

I traveled the Mt. Baker Highway for the first time this fall. Although the conditions were less than ideal due to wildfire smoke, I was amazed at the astounding views and the easy access to hiking in the alpine. I can only imagine how stunning it must be when there’s no smoke. A new favorite place, I will definitely be checking that road out again!

And of course now, I’m on Orcas Island for the winter, where there are some lovely waterfalls. This image is a favorite.

I look forward to seeing what favorite images 2023 will bring. If you have been following my travels on Facebook, though, it seems that Facebook has not been circulating my posts much lately. I urge you to subscribe to my blog instead, so that you won’t miss a post.

Happy 2023!

North Cascades National Park — I had to include some fall color.

April 2, 2021June 1, 2021

Geometry in Ages Past

When I saw that this week’s Lens-Artist’s Photography Challenge was geometry, I was at a bit of a loss at first. After all, I do primarily nature photography and although Mother Nature loves a circle or a sphere, she isn’t much into squares and cubes.

Colorado Plateau — Trapezoids, circles and ovals

Then I happened to notice a similarity in the rock art of many of the ancestral peoples of the desert southwest. These folks were really into geometry! Even their sheep were made up of squares and rectangles.

Squares and circles on this petroglyph from Three Rivers Petroglyph Site in New Mexico.

Stylized, geometric depictions of people and animals can be found in rock art from the Fremont culture of northern Colorado and Utah to the Ancestral Puebloans of the Four Corners region to the Mogollon culture of southern New Mexico and Arizona.

Mogollon culture — Rectangles and squares – These ruins at Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument in southern New Mexico date back to the 1200s.

Most of the ruins and rock art date back 700 to 1100 years. There are thousands of sites throughout the canyons of the desert southwest, some in quite remote locations. It is so thrilling to walk around a bend in a canyon and discover these traces left behind by people who lived there a thousand years ago!

Petroglyphs — Rock art panel near Moab, Utah

My first backpacking trip into the desert was in Grand Gulch, Utah. Back then it was just BLM land, in the middle of nowhere. Now it is part of the disputed Bear’s Ears National Monument. After walking around many bends in the canyon and discovering rock art and ruins here, there and everywhere, I was hooked for life. Searching out Ancestral Puebloan sites on the Colorado Plateau became a hobby and a passion of mine every spring.

Dinosaur National Monument — The trapezoidal body shape of this petroglyph is typical of Fremont Culture rock art.

By the end of the 1800s, many ruins were damaged and destroyed by pothunters, who would tear up the dwellings in their search for the buried treasure of the artifacts left behind. In 1906 the Antiquities Act was passed by Congress to protect these national treasures.

Agate House in Petrified Forest National Park was built out of petrified wood.

Since then, only 5 presidents have not used the Antiquities Act to protect additional lands (Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush Sr. and Trump). Trump is the only president who has attempted to remove lands from Monument status.

Ancestral puebloan rock art — Many rock art panels have been defaced by bullet holes and graffiti

Theft and vandalism are still major problems faced by those trying to preserve both ruins and rock art. When I worked at Death Valley, we were not allowed to publish any pictures of rock art in the park or disclose locations to visitors because people would literally chip the panels right off the cliffs!

Graffiti and target practice deface many rock art panels. This damage is difficult and often impossible to repair. I can’t help but wonder why some people feel this need to destroy the work left behind by others. I just don’t understand it.

Thompson Utah pictograph — Triangles – Why would someone deface a painting that had lasted a thousand years?

Since enforcement is so difficult, the key may be education. If we can convince others of the value of these ancient artifacts, and how that value is enhanced by being left in place for future generations, perhaps we, and our grandchildren’s grandchildren, may enjoy the geometry of ages past for many more years to come.

Fremont Culture — Rock art in Dinosaur National Monument

Thank you to Patti of pilotfishblog for this week’s Challenge, Geometry.

February 28, 2019

Close-Up Lens-Artists Challenge #34

Thank you, Ann-Christine, for such an excellent topic for this week’s Lens-Artists Challenge.

Close-up shots are great for when your subject is very tiny

Camp Nine Road, California — Butterfly on vetch, Sierra foothills

or when you want to show a lot of detail

Leaves, Moss and Lichen — Spring in the Tundra

or both.

Belly flowers in Death Valley National Park — Lilac Sunbonnet

But what’s really special about close-ups is they allow you to explore concepts that transcend the mere material object, making images that celebrate topics such as color

texture,

or both.

Petrified wood — Agate House, Petrified Forest National Park

Good rule of thumb for photography – if you’re having trouble capturing the essence of your subject, just move in closer!

Miner's Creek Road, Valdez, Alaska — waterfall in Valdez, Alaska

January 29, 2018

Marvelous Moab

I used to hang out around Moab a lot, BMB (before mountain biking). From the mid-eighties through the nineties, I would spend a month every spring hiking on the Colorado Plateau.

It was just a cow town then, a place to get gas and groceries. We would camp for free along the river, on the River Road, Kane Creek and the Potash Road. In Arches, we’d get up before dawn to get a jump on the masses and have the most popular trails to ourselves. If we felt like sleeping in, we’d find more obscure routes to follow. After all, it’s not wilderness if you can’t find solitude. Once, we spent three weeks straight trippin’ in the Needles District of Canyonlands, seeing ice cream flavors in the colors of the slickrock – fudge swirl and neapolitan.

Arches National Park — Alpenglow on Skyline Arch

It was a free life, both in cost and the freedom to do what you wanted whenever and wherever you wanted.

Things changed. Moab was discovered. It got crowded. We still came to the Colorado Plateau every spring, but we passed through Moab and didn’t linger on our way to points further south. Just gas and groceries.

It’s the first time I’ve been back in quite a while. The old cow town now smacks of the overkill typical of National Park gateways, reminiscent of Estes Park, Glitter Gulch outside of Denali, West Yellowstone.

New construction is happening everywhere. The Rock Shop used to be WAY on the outskirts of town, but now it’s motel after motel all the way past the river on Hwy. 191. There’s even a tram and a zip line.

It’s been years since you could camp free on the river. Designated fee campgrounds are the way to go now. You can no longer spend three weeks lost in the backcountry of Canyonlands. There’s a two week maximum limit, a $30 fee, permits to be acquired, designated backcountry campsites. And Arches? Ed Abbey would roll over in his grave. Talk about being loved to death.

I understand. We need to manage the impact on this fragile environment. Rightly so, there’s a lot of impact. Still, I cherish the time I had here when it WAS free, a little known secret paradise.

Of course, it’s mountain bike Mecca now. I don’t mountain bike, so if you want to know more about the Moab biking trails, check out this article on GoNomad. It’s also a hotspot for four-wheeling, with all the old uranium mining roads, rafting, and rock climbing. The hiking is still great. In addition to the national parks, there are the Behind the Rocks, Mill Creek and Negro Bill WSAs among others. The dining options and the nightlife are a lot better than they used to be, I’ll give it that!

Potash Road — Check out the petroglyphs and rock climbing on Highway 279

I have no desire to be here in the peak season of spring anymore, when the crowds are insane, but it’s winter now. Off season, no crowds. I can love this place once again, and I’ve found some deals.

Due to Park Service budget cuts, the visitor center, and the entrance booth, at Island in the Sky in Canyonlands are closed in January and February. There’s nowhere to pay your fee, so the park is free for a little while. Quite a change from the proposed $70 per vehicle fee (up from $30) that may be charged beginning in June.

Kit fox at Island in the Sky, Canyonlands — kit fox napping

Although there are always a lot of visitors in Arches, even in winter, you won’t find any problems with getting a parking space, even at the most popular viewpoints and trailheads. And then there’s still the Potash Road. I may have to do an entire blog on that one. I fell in love with it all over again.

One of the best wintertime deals, though, is lodging at the Lazy Lizard Hostel. It’s cold outside. I don’t really want to camp in the cold. I need a place to stay.

Lazy Lizard Hostel, Moab, UT — Lazy Lizard Hostel

The Lazy Lizard is a great deal year-round, with $12 bunks in the dorms. However, I find in my old age that I’m no longer comfortable sharing my sleeping space with half a dozen other people. The real deal at the Lazy Lizard in winter is private rooms and cabins. You can get a private room or cabin during December, January and February for only $22 a night!

That’s cheaper than rent in Denver. You get privacy, Wi-Fi, kitchen privileges, heat …and good company. There’s a great mellow vibe to this place. I find myself continually coming back. It’s allowed me to fall in love with Moab all over again. So if you’re passing through Moab in the winter, give the Lazy Lizard a try. It may become one of your new favorite places!

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February 4, 2017February 4, 2017

The Colorado Plateau

I love my home in Alaska, but there ARE a few things I miss about the Lower 48. Of course I miss family and old friends. I miss hummingbirds. I miss thunderstorms. Living in the Rockies, I had them three times a day. In McCarthy, it’s more like three times a summer. But what I miss the most is the Colorado Plateau.

The Colorado Plateau is where the mountains meet the desert. It’s the best of both worlds. When I worked ski resorts, I used to spend a month here every spring. It’s a magic place. There’s a reason why the Colorado Plateau has the highest concentration of parklands in North America. Ten national parks, eighteen national monuments, and all sorts of state parks and national recreation areas, too.

Geologically, the Colorado Plateau is an island of stability surrounded by chaos. A single intact tectonic block, it has survived relatively untouched by the dramatic episodes of mountain building taking place to the east or the stretching and tectonic events of the Basin & Range Province to the west. Erosion is the main force shaping this landscape.

Hiking or floating through the convoluted canyons will reward you with spectacular scenery, slickrock hoodoos, secret slots and hidden arches. You never know what you’ll find around the next bend.

You can travel through deep time, finding remnants of past worlds in the layered rock. Dinosaur tracks and bones. Ancient forests turned to stone. And, oh, the colors!

This is a sacred land. You will find traces of those who lived here before us. Petroglyphs, pictographs, and ruins from Ancient Puebloan cultures abound. Many Native Americans still call this place home.

Walk out into the night. You will experience some of the darkest skies on the continent.

I’m just passing through this time around. But I will be back – to one of my favorite places in the world, the Colorado Plateau.

Tag: Utah

Favorite Images of 2022

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Geometry in Ages Past

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Close-Up Lens-Artists Challenge #34

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Marvelous Moab

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The Colorado Plateau

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