Impressions from the Western US

[simsurace]

I'm re-posting and continuing the thread I started over at FZ. These are my Impressions from this Spring's trip to the US: Utah, Arizona, and California.

By right-clicking on the image and selecting "View Image", you can see larger versions, which I encourage you to do!

I started in Salt Lake City, Utah. A couple views from Ensign Peak, an important historic site:

1 - City center and Wasatch mountains


2 - A pano of downton SLC:


3 - Some details


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After having visited SLC three times, I keep coming back to the State Capitol, to me it is by far the most interesting building in SLC. Two images with the Samyang 24mm T-S, it's nice to fiddle with the perspective in camera and have an almost perfect file to work with.

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6 - This one is a two frame stitch, straight and shifted up. Left a bit of keystoning on purpose.


7 - This is perhaps a silly shot, but - stubborn as I am - I keep trying. There is no room to set up a tripod, so this has to be done hand-held. This time I tried with the tilt and shift. More variables to negotiate, so it is not easier per se. The result is that I still haven't managed to get everything straight, but it is better than the last attempt.

[simsurace]

As last year, I rented a car in SLC and drove south on Hwy89, this time stopping in Bryce Canyon. It was pretty cold at that elevation (approx. 2500m above sea level) and the ground away from the road was still covered in snow. The hoodoos only had a bit of snow left, and I saw some pieces of rock detach from them while I was walking around there. Freezing and melting water is one of the dominant forms of erosion there.

Due to the intense overcast and snowy conditions this might be a bit different from your run-of-the-mill pictures from the place. The flat and soft light nicely reveals the subtle spectrum of hues in the rock.

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The contrast between the red rock and snow is pretty impressive, so I include two very intimate shots of that.

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[simsurace]

On to the Vermillion Cliffs, which is much less crowded (it is basically a huge area with only a few unpaved roads and no real marked trails). The famous Wave is also in this area, but it didn't work out for me to get a permit because you basically have to be at Kanab Visitor Center for the lottery early in the morning and I was not planning to stay there but in Big Water instead. I was too lazy to drive back especially for that, so I visited something else instead (I will write about it later). First I spent some time along House Rock Valley Road with close-ups of the various plants inhabiting the Great Basin desert.

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21 - A crop of the above: It's not just sand laying on the ground, but an intricate and very fragile biological soil crust. What looks like black specks to the casual observer is really a very sophisticated structure.


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[simsurace]

Now from the details back to the grander scheme. Along the stretch of US 89 passing north of the Vermillion Cliffs there is a short trail going north into the terrain of the Grand Staircase National Monument. The trail is marked with `toadstools' and leads you to a nice terrace where you are surrounded by very beautiful rock formations, some of them having a somewhat loose rock sitting on top (hence the name). Three images from there:

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[simsurace]

I went for a one day hike in Vermillion cliff. The area is very big and there would be lots of opportunities for multi-day hikes to interesting places. Not this time since I was alone and didn't have any camping gear. Even though it was spring and not extremely hot, I found the dry climate and lack of shade to be pretty tough conditions to hike in. You have to carry a lot of water (3-4 liters) to be safe for the entire day. I didn't do much photography, but just absorbed the place. I made it to the beginning of the slot canyon of Buckskin Gulch. This is about 6km one-way from the Buckskin trailhead. I didn't continue further into the slot canyon because the water was roughly 25cm deep and there was a fair amount of quicksand. You do not want to get stuck with both feet in quicksand when you're hiking on your own. So I turned back. It's good to know your limits. Pretty amazing place though, I have to come back!

29 - That's where the slot canyon starts.


30 - Found a stable ledge in-between all the weak quicksand.


31 - Fascinating mud cracks.


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33 - A 180 degree view of the wide portion of the canyon, maybe 2-3 km from the trailhead.

[Frank Fremerey]

Simone.
Thank you.
So many heart warming wonderful pictures.
Details later.

[simsurace]

Simone.
Thank you.
So many heart warming wonderful pictures.
Details later.

Frank, thank you!
I'm happy to hear your and everyone's comments!

[simsurace]

The trip proceeded through Page, Horseshoe Bend (of which I don't have any pictures worth sharing) to Grand Canyon. As everyone might imagine, this canyon is almost too big to take in, at least the first time. For anyone making a trip to this area, I suggest flying out of Las Vegas towards the East. My flight, which was headed to Newark, flew over the Grand Canyon immediately after leaving Las Vegas. The flight over the Canyon takes something like 30 minutes, which speaks to the sheer size of the thing. But more importantly, the view from the plane was so stunning that I didn't even photograph it.

Anyway, I will still share a few from the ground (South Rim). Starting with a pano from the first few minutes after sunrise:

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31 - With each degree the sun rises, it exposes more and more layers of rock:


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[HCS]

Wow, Simone, just wow!

I've been to many of these places as well quite some time ago, but it was before i photographed myself. Someone else in my travel company took pictures, in the end infecting me with the photography virus. Not that i could have mustered this level, not at all.

[pluton]

The monochrome images from the toadstools area are a pleasant antidote to the tired cliché "perfect color in morning light" work that I've seen. 
RE: quicksand:  It can be amusing when you get one foot caught in it, two feet becomes a different story.

[Frank Fremerey]

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[Jakov Minić]

Simone, lovely images!
All roads lead to Utah!!!
I really wan to go there 

[Frank Fremerey]

#2 loads now

[simsurace]

Wow, Simone, just wow!

I've been to many of these places as well quite some time ago, but it was before i photographed myself. Someone else in my travel company took pictures, in the end infecting me with the photography virus. Not that i could have mustered this level, not at all.

Thanks! It's definitely worth it to go back to photograph them yourself.

[simsurace]

The monochrome images from the toadstools area are a pleasant antidote to the tired cliché "perfect color in morning light" work that I've seen. 
RE: quicksand:  It can be amusing when you get one foot caught in it, two feet becomes a different story.

Thanks!
I had not researched this spot before the trip, so I happened to find it by surprise. It was late afternoon, and a storm was about to come in. The color was kind of flat, therefore I went with a B/W treatment.

Yeah, the quicksand is quite amusing after the first 'what the heck' moment. The force that was required to pull one foot out again made be wary. I'm sure there are some tricks though, similar as the tricks you have to use when caught chest-deep in snow; there are some movements which one makes intuitively, but absolutely make the situation worse. It would be less of a problem if you are hiking in a group.