Wandering in Escalante, Utah

Exploring and photographing Escalante (in Utah) can be a daunting task, specially if you are there for the first time in your life, during an off-season and traveling all by yourself. On the other hand, the off-season tranquility offers you the chance to experience this vast expanse of desert and canyons all to yourself, feel lonely and insignificant (in a good way probably), and feel the joy of exploration in a unique way.

The remoteness of this land will easily blow you away - If you drive on the Hole-In-The-Rock-Road, you won't even see much. Hole-In-The-Rock-Road is a seasonally-paved, often-muddy and really-lonely road (only some company from cattle and horses roaming the grasslands) through a remote Utah backcountry that branches out from the highway a few miles east of the little town of Escalante. After you take an even-underdeveloped and more-muddy side road (after a lot of prayers to the Allmighty so that your rented car from airport won't get stuck) that abruptly ends at the rim of a sharp drop and then fancy to hike down the almost-non-existent-trails along the steep slopes to enter some wash or canyon, the landscape does not even start revealing itself to you. It's remote, it's wild, it's silent and it's hidden from all the crowd - beautiful in that sense, isn't it?

In early March 08, I ventured into such a wash/gulch off Hole-In-The-Rock-Road called Dry fork where a number of slot canyons exist. It's a popular hike (in Escalante standard - nothing comparable to any other national parks or monuments), but was pretty deserted as early March is hardly the ideal time for hiking. With little desert-hiking experience and a big camera bag/tripod, I initially had hard time to navigate through such barren and empty landscapes, but as I got used to the wilderness, it became easier. I started picking up hint of faint trails, and recognize features as described in the guide book and follow the topo. I won't bother you with the details - but exploring these slot canyons was really a thriling experience - satisfying for both the explorer and the photographer in me. Let me share a few favorite shots from there and also some field notes


Heart of the canyon:
This was probably my favorite and most original shot from Peek-a-boo slot. Even some very experienced Southwest pros (from the forums where I post images and participate) commented that they never saw a slot canyon photographed like this. I think that the originality of this composition comes from two factors -
1. from the surprising co-existence of blue sky and warm canyon glow at the same time (would be impossible in pre-digital era),
2. looking up angle with 2 arches positioned in a way that it looks like a human heart from inside (just an idea I got while munching my lunch sitting under these twin arches)
I used 3 exposures for this shot, blended in photoshop to achieve the even contrast, but the most difficult part was to compose the shot inside the narrow canyon space. D300/12-24 lens/tripod

Warped Space
I have got positive feedback about this image as well. This one has more of an abstract feel and that was intended. I passed this part of the canyon at least 3 times back and forth before the idea came to me that I can shoot just this part as an abstract. The hole that you see is actually a small arch - one can crawl through it - or you can also tackle it around the left by scrambling. Once I visualized the shot, I had to wait to get the nice warm glow on the wall behind and the sweet rim light along the front wall for better separation with the wall behind. D300/12-24 lens/tripod

Secret Passage to the inner light
Another image that I liked where I tried to add some originality and personal vision. To be honest, slot canyons are tough place to do any original work - as many masters of photography have photographed these amazing places where textures, light, shape and sandstone colors create some of the most unique views on the earth. Here I composed more of a standard slot-shot using the repeating and receding walls of the canyon to my advantage, but also used the near-most walls in the left and bottom to create a nice, smooth framing and the bright sunlight outside the entrance of the slot to attract and guide viewer's eye. I wanted the viewers eye to lead through the intricacies of the canyon passage to the very bright light (which is intentionally overexposed) - in almost a spiritual way. D300/12-24 lens/tripod



All other shots are in my website - please feel free to explore them here.

Slot canyons are far more interesting than I have ever imagined. I have to visit some of the more well known and easily accessible slots (say Antelope), but as I like to explore less-visited, far-away, wild places, I will probably end up going to remote canyons more often(may be with some experts next time). These are not easy places to photograph and though photographed from different perspectives by many others in the past, still offer endless opportunities to apply fresh vision and perspective.

What's in Valley of Fire?

I have always wondered about that - what's in Valley of Fire? It's a state park in Nevada - around 1.5 hrs away from the casinos of Las Vegas. In my earlier trips, I never had time or appetite to go this place, but later I heard from many in different forums that it's a magical place. So, this time I kept it in my initial plan, but still toyed with the idea since last day. But as a snow storm moved into Zion with 2-3 inches of forecast in its wings, I drove away from Zion with a smile: at last, I am going to explore what's in Valley of Fire.
It's a truly magical place - the color and formations are like nowhere else and even being so close to Vegas, retains a wild remoteness. Some areas are so breathtaking and jaw-dropping that I was wondering whether given a chance, I can probably spend weeks here - absorbing the beauty, exploring the remote deserts and photographing the unique landscapes. Here are some images from my one-day of shooting which left me hungry for more, but for now, that's all I could do..



Jurassic

This arch is VoF is not really far off the road, but to get this perspective I had to spend more than an hour here. I noticed the unusual formations on the left side of the arch, but they are not really that interesting with an intimate composition. Finally, when I realized that I need to lay down on my belly with my tripod close to the ground and include all of the wall and arch to get the image that I was after, the sweet light on the arch was gone, but some of that remained on the sky. I think the light fits the scen - giving it a surrealistiv look of an ancient Jurassic age. D300/12-24

Beehives

These formations are pure magic - not far away from the entrance of the park. The sky was fantastic and I had to work fast to keep the clouds in the image as I wanted. Taken with a wide angle from very close to the rock to emphasize the contour and shape of the formation, this image almost somewhere between an abstract and landscape. This area gets mobbed by the tourists, but as I was there in off-season, the traffic was not that bad. D300/12-24

15 Mph

Far end of the park, the landscape becomes remote as you can explore many official trails or just pick one through manginicent red rocks. Coming back from such a trail, the winding road caught my attention. Taken around overcast mid-day, the sky was boring and I neglected it altogether. Some PS contrast adjustment was required to bring back the true color and contrast from the pavement. D300/12-24

Painted Desertscape
From a remote corner of the park. I parked my car on a roadside and hiked a few miles on a no-trails zone to discover this beautiful painted desert area. The striped landscape is just awesome to see in person, and I tried some composition to capture that. You can see more from this place in my website. I am not sure which one I like most - but this one is a front-runner. D300/18-200

All other images can be seen in my website

Valley of Fire is more than just a state park outside Las vegas - it has National Park-like grand scenary and wild feeling which is hard to ignore once you been there once. I can't wait to go back there - probably with more time to spend on the remote trails and explore the infinite photographic and wanderlust possibilities in this Nevada desert.