We just got back home to Colorado after a quick road trip to San Diego to visit my relatives and friends. Instead of doing the drive in one grueling day like I used to do, we took our time and broke up the drive into three days each way, giving us the opportunity to see some of the sights in the desert along the way. Here are a few photos from the trip! Above is Cedar Breaks National Monument, where we camped the first night.

On our way back we drove through Zion National Park, stopping to hike up to Angels Landing. This was a questionable decision for a September Saturday, as the [paved!] trail was clogged with people and felt like a Disneyland attraction. But regardless of the crowds, it is always a spectacular hike with killer views of Zion canyon!

We continued to Capitol Reef National Park and the next day we did a wonderful hike down Chimney Rock Canyon, where sheer sandstone walls tower overhead.

On our way back from the Sawtooths, on Tuesday Claudia and I did a day hike up Mount Timpanogos, the most famous and beloved mountain in the Wasatch Range in Utah. We started from the Aspen Grove trailhead, and our leisurely tour took us 9 hours up and down.

Looking up at Timp – the summit shelter is just barely visible at top right.

See some more photos below!

The views from the ridge are grand, looking out over Utah Lake and the city of Provo. I had to laugh when Claudia’s first reaction upon seeing the view off the west side (shocked to see the big city below) was a sour “Ewww…”

Hiking along the ridge after the summit, looking at the Timp Glacier which we would use as a quick descent route.

The only way down the Timp Glacier is to slide down the steep face on your butt! I takes some nerve to jump down into it, but Claudia did it like a champ.

Hiking behind one of the many waterfalls on the down.

Sundial Flowers : Prints Available

Wildflowers below Sundial Peak, lit by a half-set sun - August.

Here’s some photos from a nice hike we did in the Wasatch Range in Utah a couple days ago!

Sundial Sunset : Prints Available

Red sunset light on Sundial Peak - August.  In the foreground is the red glacier-scoured rock that surrounds Lake Blache.  Shortly after taking this photo, thunder clouds and lightning came over the ridge into the basin, sending us running for our lives down into the forest!

On tap: a week in the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho! Stay tuned…

I just posted a bunch of photos from my trip in Utah! Though I was only out there for two weeks total, it truly felt like a full month. It always amazes me how time slows down when I travel. I think that is the secret of living longer… to travel a lot! In that regard, I suppose it’s not all about how long you live, but how well you spend your time while you’re here. (I say that after having the last three days fly by while working on the computer again).

Anyhow, now I’m back home in Ouray, Colorado. It feels great to finally be back home. I’m really looking forward to summer.

>> Check out my new Utah photos here.

My winter season in Jackson Hole has come to a close. Though it’s actually snowing again as I write this, I am packing my bags and am excited to spend 3-4 weeks wandering around in the deserts and canyons of Utah. Tomorrow I drive to Moab where I will put all my stuff in a storage unit, then the adventures begin! My rough plan is to do some hiking and backpacking in the San Rafael Swell, then Escalante (shown above from my last trip there way back in 2001), Bryce Canyon, and depending on my timing and the conditions, perhaps Zion and Cedar Breaks.

My blog will be pretty quiet while I’m gone, but when I’m back home in Ouray in early May I will surely bombard my website with a heap of [hopefully decent] desert photos!

In the meantime, check out my collection of favorite skiing/snowboarding shots from my winter in Jackson Hole.

Dawn light on Mount Timpanogos, moments before Deer Creek Reservoir’s morning fog shrouded the scene. Happy holidays!

Sunrise at the Great Goosenecks of the San Juan River, as seen from Goosenecks State Park overlook on the southern end of Cedar Mesa in southeastern Utah, on the morning before my backpacking trip in the Grand Gulch this last weekend.

The San Juan River, which originates from the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado, slowly flows through the 1000 foot deep canyon walls, forming one of the world’s best examples of entrenched river meanders. This is one river in the photo – it flows from left to right via three immense meandering curves. It is a very impressive sight to see, and to portray the full scene with all the different river bends, I needed to create a panoramic image.

I made this panoramic photo by stitching together 5 vertical photos in AutopanoPro. Each of those 5 photos were made with dual exposure blends, prepared manually in Photoshop, to control the dynamic range of the bright sky and darker canyon. So that was a total of 10 photos needed, which I shot as quickly as possible using manual focus and two manual exposure settings (one for the canyon and one for the skies), with preset white balance for all. Between the relatively long exposures and quickly changing sunrise light, I only had about 2 chances to get this right.

Over three days and two nights this last weekend I went on a ~25 mile loop hike from Cedar Mesa in southeastern Utah. I hiked down Todie Canyon, to Grand Gulch, then out Bullet Canyon. Most of the way the hike passes through dramatic canyon scenery with vertical cliffs and dramatic rock formations. But the highlights were without doubt the numerous ancient ruins and pictographs along the way.

Check out all the photos from the Grand Gulch trek on my gallery site.

Brilliant backlit autumn colors in the foothills of the Wasatch Range, Utah.

Fresh snow blankets the North Peak of Mount Timpanogos.

>> See more photos from my weekend in Utah here. <<

[+] On my way home today from Midway, Utah (near Park City), I made a detour from Moab and drove up to the Island in the Sky, in Canyonlands National Park. There was still lots of snow on the ground, even two days after the Christmas dump, and the roads up there were sheets of ice! After a slippery drive to the Grandview Point overlook, I donned my down jacket and snowboard boots, and hiked a mile along the rim to take photos of the evening light and sunset.

More photos below.

[+] Sunset alpenglow lights up the La Sal Mountains as they tower over the canyonlands.

[+] Dusk light illuminates Monument Basin and the White Rim, as seen from the rim of Island in the Sky. Though not visible from here, the Colorado River flows through the distant canyons.

I took some 4×5 shots of a variation of this scene, but it might be a while until I get those developed. I haven’t shot my 4×5 camera in quite a while, and I must admit it felt great to use it again. The ability to use rear tilts gives you a three dimensional perspective that cannot be duplicated in an SLR camera (without a tilt/shift lens, that is). In fact, I took shots with both the 4×5 and SLR in similar positions, and eventually I hope to post a comparison to explain this concept further.