Category: American Southwest

  • Photographers Guide to Rafting through the Grand Canyon Part 4 – the Lower Canyon

    Photographers Guide to Rafting through the Grand Canyon Part 4 – the Lower Canyon

    It’s high time I finished my series on rafting the Grand Canyon now that it is December and I’m about to head off on a new adventure (Christmas in Toronto). Part 4 covers the lower canyon (you can see the earlier posts in the series here, here, and here.) Granted the lower canyon is typically…

  • Photographer’s Guide to Rafting through the Grand Canyon, Part 3 – the Little Colorado through Deer Creek

    Photographer’s Guide to Rafting through the Grand Canyon, Part 3 – the Little Colorado through Deer Creek

    Before I get into the photo highlights of this section of the canyon, I want to discuss some basic geology of the canyon because the landscape is based on the geology. Below the Little Colorado River, the canyon changes as the Marble Canyon ends and the Grand Canyon proper begins. The look of the canyon,…

  • Photographer’s Guide to Rafting through the Grand Canyon, Part 2 – Marble Canyon

    Photographer’s Guide to Rafting through the Grand Canyon, Part 2 – Marble Canyon

    Unless you hike in at Phantom Ranch, your raft trip through the Grand Canyon will start at Lee’s Ferry. At Lee’s Ferry, the Colorado River runs green and cold, as the water is freshly released from Glen Canyon Dam several miles upstream. The color often seems impossibly green, especially when shooting with a polarizing filter.…

  • Photographer’s Guide to Rafting through the Grand Canyon, Part 1 – Overview

    Photographer’s Guide to Rafting through the Grand Canyon, Part 1 – Overview

    It’s hard to believe I haven’t yet posted this year; not that I’ve done that much to post about, except for one big trip – a raft trip through the Grand Canyon. Back in March, I took a 17-day private rafting trip through the Grand Canyon. I’ve rafted the Grand Canyon before, but it has…

  • Mossy Cave

    Mossy Cave

    One quick, last post about my recent trip to Utah. On our last morning there, before driving back up to Salt Lake City and the airport, we took the short hike in Bryce Canyon National Park to Mossy Cave. This short trail travels along a stream up to a mossy grotto that weeps groundwater. It…

  • Hiking in the GSENM

    Hiking in the GSENM

    On our recent trip to Utah, Tanya and I (with our friends Jim and Kris) spent two days in the Escalante area in the heart of the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. I first took Tanya here about 15 years ago, when the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument was still relatively new and unknown to…

  • Cathedral Valley

    Cathedral Valley

    In the half a dozen trips I’ve previously made to Capital Reef National Park, I was enthralled by descriptions of Cathedral Valley and knew I had to go there. However, until last month, I had never made it. Cathedral Valley is in the northern portion of the park. Park. There is a loop road through…

  • Nighttime Etiquette

    Nighttime Etiquette

    I recently returned from our quick trip to Utah. While there, I spent several hours in the middle of the night doing some Milky Way shots at Devils Garden in Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument (a fantastic place that I love and that my so-called President is trying to take away). I arrived at…

  • Heading South

    Later this month, Tanya and I will be off for a quick trip to Utah with friends. Nahla, unfortunately, gets to stay home with our housesitter. Rather than driving down like we usually do, due to only having a week for the trip, we will fly down to Salt Lake and rent a car. We…