The Subway at Zion National Park

On my recent trip to Zion in Sept. I wanted to go to what is called the "Subway" but did not have enough info on the hike as there are two ways to get there, one is with swimming in ice cold water and rappelling down ropes. The other is just a long hike which is the route I wanted to take. So after more research, my friend Rory and I went back in the first part of Nov.

The Subway is a fantastic land formation along the North Creek at Zion National Park. It is one of the more remote areas at Zion and requires a Backcountry Permit. For those interested in doing the hike, the part where you DON'T do any swimming and rappelling starts at the Left Fork trail head. After all my research I was still thinking I needed to start at the Wildcat trail head which would have taken me into the rappelling stuff. Glad I verified with the rangers at the Visitor's Center when I got the permit.

Since this was a long hike I did not want to do it alone so my friend Rory who is a master hiker came along to keep me in line. Since Rory had not been to Zion before and was chomping at the bit to do some serious hiking, we hiked Angels Landing on our first day. Here is Rory hanging over a ledge about half way up Angels Landing.

Most of the photos in this post were taken by Rory as we hiked along the creek. He used my 2nd camera and it reminded me that I need to get a little point & shoot camera to document these trips as it's a pain to take off my camera backpack and setup/teardown each time I need to take a photo along the way. Most of these "hike" photos were taken on the way back as we did not get our cameras out until just before the subway but I'm posting them in geographic order so you get an idea of the hike. My photos of the actual Subway will be at the bottom of this post.

Here we are at the bottom of the canyon after coming down a steep 400' incline. We made a mental note of this cobblestone area to know where to find the trail that heads back up. We started down into the canyon at about 6:30 am. and were out here for a total of 11 hrs. Other than the approx one hour we were at the Subway, I was hiking steady with my 35lb pack for about 10 hours straight. That's about my limit, especially when it came time to start hiking back up the 400' incline at the end of it all.

Looking up from the bottom of the canyon, that is the height we had to come down.

Since this is a "back-country" area, there is no paved trail like the main tourist areas of Zion. We had to follow what's called a "social trail" along the creek. There were times we had to make a choice of whether to walk directly in the creek or maneuver around large boulders like you see here.

Never turn your back on someone with a camera. Here Rory catches me at a defenseless moment. Part of the back-country policy is you bring out what you take in. Fortunately we did not have to do any "real" business while here. Where you get the back-country permit they have special bags you can pick up for that. Lovely. (I'll get you back for this Rory) ;-)

Here I am taking a shot of a pool where the cliff reflection in the water was super.

Here is looking up at the fall color canopy we had along the trail. I'm glad I came back at this time as the autumn colors were in full swing.

Here is a spot where the trail and creek starts to become slick-rock with small water falls as we get closer.

Ok, we are almost there. This is what is commonly called The Crack and is a narrow water channel cut by the creek as it rounds the bend from the Subway. It's around 11am at this stage of the hike. Just around the corner is the Subway

Here I am just a speck in the middle of the shot up against the left wall. I was getting excited as we got closer and started leaving Rory behind.

Here I am (in shorts) at the entrance to the Subway. The photographer right behind me is Steve Liverman who I met here. He gave me a few tips on where to walk that was not too slippery as this was his second time here.

Here I am in the Subway taking a shot looking back on the way we came in. The entire area is now slick-rock and is EXTREMELY slippery. There were a couple other photographers that showed up and at one point there was one to my left and he slipped and both he and his camera/tripod went sliding all the way down to where it was dry. Fortunately his camera was still functional even though I heard it hit the rock floor. I kept having to rub my shoes back and forth to dig down beneath the moss to the rock to get a grip.

Below are some of my final images. The rest can be seen larger in the gallery HERE. 12 images uploaded to gallery.

The Luminance Within

Pools of Wonder

The Last Flow of Autumn

Gold and Green

Channel of Light

Path of Least Resistance

Until next time, wish me drama in the skies and awesome light.

Zion National Park & Angels Landing

Angels Landing

The Angels Landing gallery is a photojournalist's view of my hike up this thrilling trail. I wanted to do this hike but was a little scared and also not liking the idea of doing it with a 30 pound backpack. So I had a day which started out with clear skies which meant no great photos so I decided to do the hike. I left my backpack behind and slung my backup camera over my shoulder and took a deep breath !! Angels Landing here I come.

The series of photos in this gallery are simply for those who might want to do this hike at some point and have wondered what is entailed and also for me to look back on and say "I hiked Angels Landing !!!". Please view the photos HERE and after reading each caption, view the photo larger to get the feel of the hike. 19 photos total in this gallery.

Watching the Virgin

For this whole trip of Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend, if I did not get any good shots except this one, I would be happy. I am VERY happy I got this shot. This is the one shot I purposed to get on this trip.

This is from the bridge that crosses the Virgin River in the middle of Zion Canyon with the Watchman Mountain in the distance. I was the first person to set up here for the sunset shot. I was shortly joined by a very nice gal photog named Jean and we debated whether the sky would turn red or not (both of us hoping so). By the time things started looking real good we had a crowd of about 50 people around with various types of cameras waiting also. By the time the light was at it's optimum, everyone had given up and left except us two. It pays to wait.

8 photos total in this gallery. Please view them HERE.

Until next time, wish me drama in the skies and awesome light.

Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend

The Shoe Tree

I thought I would start this post out with an interesting and amusing spot in the Nevada Desert. Somewhere past Fallon Nevada is the "Shoe Tree". Not only are there lots of shoes in the tree, there are just as many if not more around the base also. I did not have any shoes I wanted to part with here but saw a couple of good pairs of hiking shoes I almost grabbed (kidding)

Illumination

When I left the Grand Canyon I made a last minute change in plans and went to Page Arizona which is about 60 miles from where I was at the North Rim. At Page is the Horseshoe Bend and also a wonderful "slot" canyon called Antelope Canyon. My purpose was to get a Sunset and then Sunrise shot of Horseshoe Bend but I got here early with plenty of daylight left so I thought I would try to make it to Antelope. I was here two years ago and did the normal "tourist" tour where you are shuffled thru with a large group and not much chance of getting any good shots. Several tour groups comprising about 300 people total are meandering thru the canyon on a constant basis throughout the day. This time I was fortunate to get in on a "Photo Tour" where the guides have the power to hold up the other groups and keep them out of sight while you get your good shots. They also get you to the "light beam" areas at the right time.

Abstract Synapse

A very pleasant Navajo woman named Carol Bigthumb runs the photo tours and her family owns the land where the canyon lies. I asked her to show me her big thumb and she held it up but then said that the real big thumb comes from her husband and that he would tell me the story of how that name came about. He started to tell me but then got caught up with customers so I'll have to get the full story next time I'm here.

It was interesting that as I was here there was a "pro" photographer conducting a workshop. As I was listening to the questions his group was asking and the answers he was giving, I thought "Man, I could do that!" Perhaps I might start doing that later on, not at the moment though.

Ephemeral Falls
to see photos in gallery click here

During a sand storm, these sand falls occur naturally, but during the tours the guide throws handfuls of sand up there and then you get your shot. I was very happy with the shots I got here. Eleven photos total uploaded into this gallery. Please view them larger.

Bending Space and Time
to see larger click here

This was my second time here and it still took my breath away as I stepped to the edge. Not that I was afraid of the height but that as the title alludes, you cannot help but think of the time that it took the river to cut this and the space that you can actually "feel" across the expanse.

I was again fortunate to get a fantastic sunset. As I sat at the edge waiting for the right light,........ and I was literally sitting about a foot from the edge with my tripod low and setup where my lens was actually peering over the ledge, I met a nice young French couple who I saw twice again over at Zion NP. Also a very nice Asian woman named Jean came up for a moment, looked around and went off to another area with the little bell she had on her camera backpack tinkering away. I met up with her also again on my last day at Zion. That's when I learned her name and that it really was her here at Horseshoe because of her bell.

If you view this photo larger in the gallery, you can make out some river kayaks down at the edge of the water. Several docked there and it looked like they were going to camp for the night. I would love to do that trip sometime.

Stay tuned for Zion Nation Park and "Angels Landing"

The Grand Canyon

Step into my Office

Right behind me it's about 1,000 feet down.

Photo taken with my 2nd camera via wireless remote.

Last Light

This is looking extreme west at Cape Royal which is the furthest point at the North Rim. It was good that I was able to spend 5 days here as I returned to this point for two more sunsets trying to get the best light. I got it on the first try.

The Grand View

There is no photo that can truly convey the Grand Canyon. When you are here, you can actually "feel" the expanse in front of you. It is absolutely amazing. This shot is from a ledge just below the main Lodge. There are two tourist viewpoint (with rails) on either side of me but I like the road less traveled and so I saw this ledge (no rails) and found the small path thru the trees to get to it.

Time to Change

I was hoping for lots of autumn colors but there was just a few here and there. This was a small patch of aspens turning color along the road to the North Rim from Jacob Lake where I was staying. I met a nice couple out here who trying to capture these trees as well. I hope their photo was good.

Over the Edge

to see photos in gallery click HERE

This is a ledge across from Angels Window which is a hole or arch of sorts thru a viewpoint area. The "window" has the tourist rails and again I saw a ledge where most people would not have gone. I found the small trail leading to it and thought it would take me right to the top but when I got to the formation, the trail stopped and it was obvious if I wanted to get up there I would have to free-climb for about 10 feet. That may not sound like much but when everything is sloped around you where if you fell you would tumble a good distance if not quite a ways and also the 30 pounds of gear on my back did not help either. When I got up here, I scared two condors that were hanging out. Magnificent birds. At Cape Royal there were six of them flying around.

Journey to the Center of the Earth

to see photo in gallery click HERE

This is a place in Nevada close to the Utah border called Cathedral Gorge and is similar to a small Bryce Canyon. I walked into one of the "slot" areas as far as I could go and then looked up and there was my shot.

Stay tuned for Antelope Canyon photos and Horseshoe Bend

Peaceable Kingdom

Peaceable Kingdom

to see larger click here

"And they will actually sit, each one under his vine and under his fig tree, and there will be no one making [them] tremble" (Micah 4:4)

"The whole earth has come to rest, has become free of disturbance. People have become cheerful with joyful cries. Even the juniper trees have also rejoiced at you" (Isaiah 14:7)

"They will not do any harm or cause any ruin in all my holy mountain; because the earth will certainly be filled with the knowledge of Jehovah as the waters are covering the very sea" (Isaiah 11:9)

Last year I took a shot from this same spot and called it Peaceable Dawn, and it certainly was.

Can you imagine for a moment the whole earth existing with the above conditions. Take a moment, sit back and IMAGINE IT. What would it take for the above conditions to exist? I'm reminded of a phrase from a famous song...."nothing to kill or die for".....IMAGINE IT. For the above conditions to exist, the things that people around the world are killing and dying for would have to become non-existent. IMAGINE IT.

Hopefully I will be able to have quite a few more peaceable photos as I'm headed for 5 days at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Then 4 days at Zion National Park and all points in between.

Someone asked me today if I do these trips solo and I said that unless they were also photographers, it would probably not be fun for anyone as I'm getting up at 4am to get to hopefully catch a rockin' sunrise and then staying out on the trails all day or walking in knee to waist deep water for 8 hours as I'm going to at the Narrows in Zion. Then after I've gotten an also rockin' (hopefully) sunset shot and it's totally dark by the time I get to my car, get back to town and go into the grocery store all sticky and stinky to get food for the next days activity, get to the motel (yes, motel, I'm not that hard core) and eat something, shower, try to sleep till 4am and repeat it all over again............but it's where I find my peace.

Wish me drama in the skies and awesome light.

The 8th Wonder

The 8th Wonder

The Quiet Hope

to see photos larger in gallery click HERE

The 7 Wonders of the world are truly wonderful but for most of us they are distant lands which we will only read about. Don't feel too bad though, your 8th Wonder may be as close as your next dawn.

FINALLY, I get a break from the cloudless hazy skies we've had for too long a time. I took advantage of this morning's scene and needless to say I was late for work but it was worth it. And the next day? Back to hazy skies. I'm quietly hoping.

Dreamscape

Dreamscape

The Mist
click HERE to see photos larger in gallery

I feel very fortunate to live where I do as I can head over to the Mendocino coast in the afternoon, shoot until dark and get back home by 11pm.

Another gamble with the sky. There was the possibility of patchy clouds which is what I was hoping for but as I pulled into Ft. Bragg the high fog bank had moved in. There was this very thin sliver of clear right at the horizon that you can see in the above image and I was hoping as the sun set it would make an appearance and make some magic but it set too far to the left where it was not clear.

In the "Dreamscape" image above, I was positioned high on the bluff above Glass beach and using a long exposure, I tried to get the feeling of flying over the coast as if in a dream. Please view it at Large x3 in my gallery for full effect.

The "mist" image was my last shot of the night (9pm) and it was almost pitch black. I normally manually focus to get the sharpest photo but it was too dark to see enough detail in anything to focus on and it was too dark to use Auto Focus so I had to get out my little flashlight and manually set the lens on "Infinity" and hope for the best. This was a 30 sec exposure which gave the white waves that came in and out several times during the exposure the look of a low mist or fog and it makes the image seem as if it's not that dark. The small starburst on the horizon is a light from a ship in the distance. I was surprised how bright it was given how far away it was. Had to use the flashlight to get back to shore and on the trail back to car.

Potpourri

A Pier Worth Peering From

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I've titled this post "Potpourri" as it's a mix of things because the weather has been so "touristy" lately, meaning clear skies and warm days. Great for tourists, terrible for photographers. So when I read a weather report that shows some interesting things happening, I try to be there but that is not happening with much frequency.

The above photo is from the north east side of Clear Lake looking at Mt. Konocti in the distance. On my way home from work in the Napa Valley which was completely cloudless with lots of haze, I started to see cloud patterns as I entered Lake County.

I drove around the opposite side of the lake as to where I live at the suggestion of a friend, looking for a particular road that would take me way up to a grand overlook of the lake. Well, typically me, I could not find the road but was able to find this wonderful view off this pier.

The View From Up Here

The Spattered Sky

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Again searching the weather reports showed there was possible thunderstorms happening at Table Rock which is at the north end of Napa County. It is the hike in the opposite direction of the Mt. St. Helena area. I was going to go Sunday late afternoon as I had read there was going to be scattered clouds but then mid-day Saturday the weatherman said there was the possibility of thunderstorms on Saturday!! I thought it strange as there was nothing happening around there, just at Table Rock.

I got there about 4:30pm hoping to get a few good sunset shots. It is an approx. 5mi round trip hike and by the time I got to the overlook it was obvious there was not going to be any thunderstorm. Clouds started coming in but stayed to the south which is the view direction of the two photos above.

I stayed as long as I dared and it was a good thing I left when I did as the last half mile I was waking in pitch black. I only see a faint glow of yellow leaves on the main trail and then had to resort to my mini flash light that holds one AAA battery and has one LED bulb. Surprisingly it was pretty bright. I was glad I remembered it as at one point I shut it off and it was so dark, if I had forgot the light, I would have had to just find a place to sit down spend the night as I could not see anything.

The Weeping Wall

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Since the skies have not been so great, I went back to Socrates Falls where I did not need any skies to get a good photo. The creek was still running but a little less than usual.

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Burning Off The Dawn

Burning Off The Dawn

(click here to see larger in gallery)

When checking the weather and scene of a location where I have some commissioned work to be done, I came across this scene in Lower Chiles Valley in Napa County.

The morning sun is silhouetting through the low fog across the vineyard.

The Uncommon Calm

Pt. Arena Lighthouse

(click here to see larger in gallery)

The weekend before the vineyard photo above, I went to Pt. Arena to test out my new camera. It's a Canon 5D Mark II which has the largest sensor of Digital SLR cameras. The sensor has 21 megapixels which is also next to the highest pixel count of DSLR's. The highest pixel count is 24mp but I did not want to spend $8k on a camera. Any larger of a pixel count, a person would have to get a Medium Format digital camera and they run between $15k - $30k and up!! Ouch!!! With the camera I also got an ultra wide angle lens which I'm still getting used to. I have wide angle lenses with my other camera system but not quite this wide

The water was unusually calm this day. Normally I'm fighting strong winds with lots of spray and waves that would really like to take me for a ride. I really liked the no wind part but would have liked to have a little more water action.

Pt. Reyes California

Only 100 More

There are a total of 300 steps going down to the lighthouse. It was fairly easy going down but coming back up was another story. They had resting stations along the way. Did I use them? Is Arnold Schwarzenegger a "Girly Man"? By the time I got to the top I was wishing my lungs were twice their size.

Pt. Reyes Lighthouse

When I got to Pt. Reyes I went straight to the lighthouse and was glad I did. On the way over, the radio said there was going to be very strong winds and there certainly was. The shadows from the clouds and patchy fog on the way over were traveling across the ground so fast it looked like shadows from low flying aircraft.

I was only able to stay about 1/2 hour here and right after taking this shot they yelled for everyone to leave as they were shutting down the lighthouse area as the winds had now gotten over 40mph. Fortunately I had a wind break here to set up my tripod. The sky was changing by the moment from completely fogged over to the break with nice clouds that you see here. A sign said the highest recorded wind here was 133mph !!! It was tricky climbing back up the 300 steps in that wind as with my backpack on, I was blown back and forth against the railing all the way up.

This lighthouse is not tall like most and that is because the fog stays relatively low so they needed to get the lighthouse below that so ships can see it. That's the reason for the 300 steps also.

At Trails End
McClures Beach

After leaving the lighthouse area the wind was still strong but not as much and even here along the creek emptying out at McClures beach the wind was almost nonexistent. The ravine along the creek and trail was almost completely covered with wonderful yellow lupine. I took some photos along the trail but the sunlight was pretty harsh at that direction.

The Sand, The Tree & The Sea
McClures Beach

The trail empties out to the ocean at McClures Beach. I really liked the patterns and colors of the sand as well as the combination/mix of fresh water and salt water plants and birds. I don't think this area is quite large enough to be called an Estuary but it certainly had the plant and animal life of one.

Monument To Memories Past
McClures Beach
(to see these images in gallery click here)

Not sure who or for what reason this was set up but I liked the combination of items here and how it really did make me think how I need to remember these places that I come across. I tried to give this the dreamy effect of a memory.

Socrates Falls - Revisited

Socrates Falls - 5th Fall


Socrates Falls - 4th Fall
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Had some nice filtered light this day so I thought I would revisit the falls. The trail to the falls has gotten worse since last year. Much more loose gravel. Especially the trail leading to the 5th fall where you are walking laterally across an approx 70% slope and your 1' wide foot path is slightly sloped and pretty much nothing but loose gravel. Fortunately it was not that long of a trail.

When I got down to the 5th and lowest fall a helicopter came over the area and hovered for a moment. There was one other car at the clearing up top where people park so I wondered if perhaps someone got hurt. The helicopter moved on and did not return. Hmmm.........these falls are up by the Geysers where there's lots of seismic activity and ...................you know what? None if the above really happened. What happened was there was a very strong but pinpoint earthquake which only I felt and a wall of lava came down the falls and the helicopter pulled me up on the rescue ladder just as my tripod and camera burst into flames and disappeared into the lava flow. Yeah, that's what happened. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!

If life was only half that exciting.

Stay tuned next time for more highly embellished photo excitement.