Utah Plus

I decided not to spend a lot of time in Utah. Not that I couldn't find enough to photograph there. As usual, I feel like I only skimmed the surface. I moved on from there for a number of reason . Not the least of which are that I'm feeling poor and tired. The gas prices, truck repairs, and extra travel... along with all the miles of driving are finally catching up with me. I spent a few days at Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, and moved on to Colorado.


I started out at Arches. Don't be surprised if you find some of these scenes in your calendars, cards, puzzles... You see them everywhere. That made it a challenge to come up with something original.


I was elbow to elbow with a bunch of other photographers for this shot of Delicate Arch at sunset. Look familiar?


This view is at least a little different. The little things to the left of the arch are people.


This is Landscape Arch at sunrise.


I climbed up on a big rock to get this view.


The shots above are from arches as well.


Canyonlands is a larger park than Arches with a lot of big panoramic views.


They do have some arches though. This is Mesa Arch. The early morning sun lights up the underside of it. Look familiar?


Here's a somewhat different view.


And here's a very different view. I held the legs of my tripod, lowered the camera down between some rocks and shot up at it.


I met these young German ladies at Mesa Arch They are on a trip around the world. I know they've already been to Guatemala and I know they plan to go to New Zealand among other places. I gave my card to one of them (I never got their names) and she said she would send me a link to her blog. I hope she does even though it's in German. I can always look at the pictures.


This coyote got a little too comfortable with traffic. It just layed down in the road.


This flock of Chukars gave me a lot of photo opportunities.


On the way out of Canyonlands I took a "road" called the Schaffer (sp) Trail over to Moab. The scenery was great but the road itself was punishing. It has to be the roughest road I've ever been on.


Here's a view of the Colorado River from the trail.


The town of Moab has some interesting things right near by like these dinosaur tracks.


And lots of petroglyphs.


The next stop was Colorado National Monument. It was nice, but not great. Sort of like Utah in need of steroids.


The next stop was The Black Canyon of The Gunnison National Park. A few years ago I found the park disappointing. That was in March and a lot of the roads were closed off due to snow. It was much better this time around.


They call this The Painted Wall. Those are small trees in the upper right corner not grass. The canyon is very deep.


This juniper tree caught my eye at sunrise.


Mule deer are common there.


I found this track on a trail within a quarter mile of the visitor center. I thought the people there would be interested in knowing they had a Mountain Lion that close, but all I got was "yeah, we have them here". Other parks I've been in had warnings posted Mountain Lions. These folks didn't seem to care. Pretty disappointing.


I'm now at my nephew's house in Conifer, near Denver. Ben and his wife Ashley have two kids. Avery who will be three next month and Adeline who will be one. It's been good to once again talk to someone I didn't just meet. The last time I did that was at Roy's down in Hollywood, in June. It's also been fun with the little kids. Last night I got treated to Little Einsteins on television, and there are always toys to be played with.

This morning I woke up in a nice warm bed and I had a hot shower. Doesn't sound very adventurous does it? Am I fraternizing with the enemy? Maybe, but for now, this comfort is doing wonders for my tired. Not to worry, I'll be back to adventure soon enough.

This week I plan to spend some time at Rocky Mountain National Park and I have a few more birds that I can look for too. I got in touch with some local birder and they gave me some places to look. I was supposed to be able to find a couple of them in the Black Canyon area but I had no luck with that there. Hopefully I'll do better up here.

I have a cousin in the Boulder area but I haven't had a lot of luck reaching him. Maybe I'll be able to connect with him some time this week and next week I hope to get together with friends down in Colorado Springs. I'll report on how that goes next time.

Last week I went to a church that meets in a theater. It was sort of an alternative church. I saw a lot of tattoos and piercings. There's a need for Churches like that but I just didn't feel comfortable there. I guess I can't expect to feel comfortable everywhere. This morning I went to Belleview Community Church down in Denver with my nephew's family. Church was good but the roads were snow covered and slippery. They had bad news there too. A single mother in the church died in a car accident that morning. You can pray for her four kids and for the rest of the church.

Take care until next time.

Steve