Lake Powell Adventure

 

Hot temperatures, thunderstorms and hordes of mosquitoes tried their best to make my journey to a remote section of the Lake Powell shoreline a miserable experience.  However, those forces could not overcome the satisfaction I felt after seeing and photographing these incredibly beautiful landscapes. I often sound like a broken record when I'm on a trip, repeatedly saying that I had an awesome experience and what I saw was so beautiful, but it's so true! The southwest constantly "one-ups" itself, time and time again. 

Beauty Every Day

 

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!

Slot Canyon Surprise

 

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. 

Changing Sky over Factory Butte

 

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!

The Henry Mountains

 

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!