Death Valley 2010
The Colorado Plateau is covered in snow, it’s freezing cold, and we’ve all got canyon fever. We need a destination. Warm? Check. Huge? Check. Lots of people? Check. Canyons? Check.
So having very little in the way of preconcieved notions, I immediately volunteered to be in attendance for the 10 day trip. Heck, as long as I could enjoy some sun and 75 degree days, I figured it’d be like an early spring break.
Alex has been inviting me on these trips for something like 2 years. Our schedules have never synched up. Finally, last week, we made it happen. 4 day trip down Ruby/Horsethief and Westwater.
The legend precedes this canyon. With only a handful of known descents, limited beta, complex logistics, and extremely remote access, it is certainly one of the plateau’s premiere wilderness slot canyons.
In true wilderness ethic, our team set out to document a descent, applying various low-impact techniques developed over the course of year’s of canyoneering experience.
Stay tuned in the weeks ahead, this is just a preview.
35 mile solo backpacking trip through Mt. Olympus, Twin Peaks, and Lone Peak wilderness areas in the Wasatch. Approximately 15,000 vertical over 3 nights.
I think it was Thomas Edison who said “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” While I don’t honestly think it takes a genius to make a great photo, 99 times out of a hundred, it has little to do with the photographer, and everything to do with persistence. (more…)
Man, it feels like I haven’t had a good trip for a couple months now. Work has been super busy in Alaska this summer, but fortunately, I was able to get some time off for a trip I’d been planning for a little more than a year. And what a trip it was. This might go down as the single best backpacking trip I’ve done. Ever. It really was that good.
I arrived in Fairbanks for the summer this past week, and was surprised to find the weather consistently in the 70’s, with no clouds to be seen for hundreds of miles. I quickly pulled some strings at work to see if I could get a few days off, and headed straight to Denali National Park.
Responsibility is finally getting the best of me, and it’s time to find a real job again. (although “real” is fairly subjective…) I’ll be making the drive back to Alaska in a few days, which means I had exactly one last trip to wrap up my spring canyoneering season.
I can probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve headed out to the Great Salt Lake to take some photos. I’ve always thought’ve the lake as something of a nasty swamp with few redeeming features. All it took was a few minutes browsing the Great Salt Lake group on Flickr to realize the great potential.
It’s been far too long since I strapped on a backpack and disappeared for a few days (13 months, to be exact.) I was able to break the streak with a nice 4 day affair on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
Spent the first week of October running around Yellowstone chasing the Elk while they were in the rut. Had a few surprise appearances from some Grizzlies in the Hayden Valley, a couple black bear in the Lamar Valley, and a very tolerant coyote near Madison. Saw alot of elk, but was a bit disappointed by the lack of activity. Lots of hanging around, not much other action. The Druids made one small appearance as well, but they were 400 yards out, so no pictures.
I’ve really been slacking on getting the posts up. This is from a couple of days in late September, in Denali National Park. My buddies Joe and Ashley joined me for a nice little jaunt up Primrose Ridge to find the big group of Dall rams. We found some spectacular views, and of course, the sheep were impressive as well.
I was fortunate to spend a week in Denali last month to photograph the moose rut. The weather was unbelievable, the park was almost completely empty, and I was actually able to spend enough time following the animals that I got to observe some really amazing behaviors. And, got in some nice hiking too. (more…)
While photographing the moose rut in Denali last month, I stumbled on this pack of wolves. A couple of the younger guys got split up from the main pack, and one in particular was quite unnerved to be separated. Howling filled the air on all sides of me as they tried to get reunited. Eventually, he ran about 35 yards in front of me before turning and finding his buddies. All images 40D with a 600 and 1.4x. (more…)
Finally got a good night up in the bird with my friends Lauren, Joe and Ashley, and Ashley’s parents. Spent about 90 minutes flying over Wrangell St. Elias National Park. Might be the best part of Alaska…
I know these posts are months old by now, but I figure better late than never. This is from my first trip into the park this year, in early June. Road was only open to Fish Creek, but the wildlife was out in huge numbers. Saw 14 grizzlies, dall sheep, a wolf, red fox, caribou and moose. Productive first day.
Made another run out to the park in early July, this time with my friends Joe and Ashley, and Jodi. Weather was spectacular, wildlife was all over the place, and the mountain was out for a few hours. I lugged my 600 through there, got some nice images of a few grizzlies.
The grizzlies in the Toklat and Stony Creek areas are very active this year. We saw 8 or so today. 14 last time. No real big males yet though.
Due to some less than ideal situations at work the past four days, I’ve found myself stranded in Fairbanks with nothing to do. I spent a night down in Denali, and the weather was horrible. So, I retreated back to the ‘banks, and went searching for moose. Chena River State Park is rumored to be the moose hot spot around these parts, so I figured I’d better confirm or deny said rumors…
Turns out, the rumors are true. Saw at least a dozen moose last night, and 6 more this morning on the way back. Mainly cows and calves, with one juvenile bull. The stretch on Chena Hot Springs Road from mile 28 to 36 might be the moosiest road in all the world. They were coming out of everywhere.
With the ridiculous amounts of rain coming down, the river and sloughs were tip-top full, and perhaps a bit warmer than usual. Lots of fog and mist everywhere. Made for some neat images. Enjoy.
Spent another night in Denali National Park. This summer is really starting to wear me down. It is the last day of July, and it was 48 degrees. Rained some more. I slept at Wonder Lake, and wondered what in the hell I was doing… Colorado Plateau, sometimes I miss you.
I spent most of my free time over the long weekend following the elk in Provo canyon. Unfortunately, the winter has been really hard on the animals. That’s good and bad for viewing them. It means that most of the elk are much lower than typical winters, so they are easy to find. The bad is that they are very stressed right now, and the temptation to get close to them is overwhelming for some people. There were a couple of really good days where some big bulls would’ve photographed nicely, but they never did come closer than about 150 yards. So this is my best efforts from the few days. If you are curious and go up to view these animals, please be respectful and view them from the road. The last thing they need is to be pushed all around exerting energy they don’t have. Most images are with a 600 f4 and 2x teleconverter on a 40D, and heavily cropped.
I’ve never had a chance to see owls in flight, let alone photograph them. So when I heard a few other photographers talking about the great owl images they made at Farmington Bay, I jumped off the eagle bandwagon and headed down to the barn owl lot. These buggers are fast! All images 40D, 600 f4, 1.4x extender.
Decided to make one more run up to Farmington Bay to see if the eagles wanted to play with me one more time before heading north. Met a couple of the old Farmington standbys who had been there on Saturday, and said the eagles were plentiful. With blue skies on Sunday morning, it was nearly perfect conditions.
The ice is thawing out more quickly, and the eagles are more spread out. Not as many chances to get close to them as I had last time. Either way, it was another fun day, and the eagles again made it interesting. All images 40D, 600 f4, 1.4x extender.
Another night, another quick run up into the hills. I was trying to find the bighorn again, but didn’t see a trace of them. After scanning the mountain for awhile, I spotted a few bucks, still with their antlers on. I packed up the 600 and the monster tripod, and started hiking. Got to about 75 yards of them, with the light disappearing quickly. All images 40D, 600 f4, 1.4x extender.
Got off work tonight with about an hour of sunlight left, so I took a run up to Rock Canyon to check on the bighorn. I figured the recent storms would be pushing them lower and lower. I was surprised to find them in the usual location, but I could only spot 3 or 4. As I started hiking up the hillside, more started to slowly reveal themselves. I couldn’t believe there were so many, concealed so well. Normally I feel like I have a keen eye for these guys, but not tonight. I didn’t see the nice mature ram until after the sun had gone down, so most of those are shot at ISO 1600, 5.6, between 1/30th and 1/100th. Not bad for an hour’s worth.
I’ve been waiting to head up to Farmington Bay now for a few weeks. A few guys on the bogley forum were checking regularly to see when the eagles would arrive. Apparently, they came in last week. Excellent news! I met up with a couple of them to see what all the fuss was about.
The eagles were everywhere. I counted close to 85 from where we were on the dike road. About 15 or 20 were feeding right in front of us. Couldn’t have asked for a better day, nice and warm and clear skies for some good light.
If anyone is interested, the next five days will be the best of the year, so if you want to see eagles, go now.
