One of the things I enjoyed the most about my June trip to the southwest was how much the weather changed throughout each day. Every day I was treated to amazing skies filled with awesome clouds and storms. Changing weather makes for a lot of unique and interesting conditions for a photographer, and this trip certainly did not disappoint in that regard!
It pays to pore over maps, whether old-school paper maps or modern digital maps. I found this place by investigating the base map in my Gaia GPS app on my phone. I was driving through a large canyon and had stopped at a pull-off to really look at the terrain on the map. That was when I noticed this side canyon quite close to the road. A short (less than 5 minute) walk revealed a wonderland within the tall canyon walls. The lush green vegetation really added a lot of atmosphere to this incredible place.
Factory Butte, Utah was an amazing place to spend 24 hours. I specifically wanted to photograph the Milky Way over the butte, but I never expected the daytime hours to be as interesting as they were. Of course, it didn't hurt that I had a lot of very interesting clouds during my time spent in this area. This meant the sky was constantly changing. I love spending time in one spot when the conditions are like this, because the changes come to you instead of you having to look for the changes. I certainly had a lot of different sky conditions in the 24 hours that I spent here. It was a highlight of my trip for sure!
I think I may have found my new favorite place in Utah... the Henry Mountains. I spent 3 incredible days exploring the mountains on my recent trip to the southwest. Over the course of those 3 days I only saw 4 other vehicles, 3 of which were traveling together. The rest of the time I was by myself, and it was glorious. I was blown away by the beauty of this small collection of mountains. There is a very nice network of dirt roads that provides for lots of exploration opportunities and I only scratched the surface of what's there.
The most interesting bit of trivia that I've heard about the Henry's is that they were the last mountain range in the lower 48 to be surveyed. Also interesting is the fact that the mountains are home to about 350 bison. The Henry Mountains bison herd is one of only 3 free-roaming and genetically purebred bison herds on public lands in the U.S. I never saw any of the bison during my visit, however. What I did see was some pretty incredibly scenery and nights with skies absolutely packed full of stars. Like a lot of places out west, I can't wait to go back and explore some more!
I went for a drive in the woods today and in addition to the hordes of black gnats and mosquitoes, I saw this bald eagle perched atop a tree overlooking the Pigeon River. He was quite a long ways away so I had to zoom my camera all the way in to 600mm to get this photo of him.
It sure is a peaceful night out there. The moon is very bright tonight and Lake Superior is amazingly calm. And the bugs that have been so prevalent during the day lately are nowhere to be found!
A great memory of an incredible night spent in an unforgettable place. Vermilion Cliffs National Monument in northern Arizona is a place you have to see with your own eyes to believe it. To say the landscape is otherworldly is an understatement.