A Quiet Conversation Among the Rocks

I often feel that the rocks around me are involved in a never-ending conversation. This isn't something you hear so much as something you feel. In this case, the rocks look like they are waiting for something to happen. If they are, they are going to have a long wait. Nothing much happens out here in the high desert except an occasional rainstorm or windstorm. There is not even much snow in the winter. That is one reason the rocks can stand out.

Escalante River Gorge

Just east of Escalante, Utah, the land drops off into a maze of sandstone canyons. This image was taken from the Escalante River overlook. You can't see the river down at the bottom of this canyon primarily because it is a very small river, but also because of the cliffs and the angle of view. The rock formations in this area seem almost impossible. This area is so rugged that traveling in almost any direction would be very difficult. The only option is to follow the water courses. It is amazing that there are any roads at all to travel. The turnout here is off of Highway 12, probably one of the most scenic highways in America.

Advancing Storm

The last month has been cool and very rainy. This seems to be the case in a large part of the United States during May of 2015. We have had a storm like this one coming into the mountains almost every day or so. Finally, today, the skies are clear and the sun is shining. But on the other hand, Utah is in a severe drought situation and any rain is more than welcome.

A Foggy Cloudy Day at the Grand Canyon

 A rainy day here in Provo, Utah turned to bright sunshine. This reminded me of a day at the Grand Canyon when the clouds and fog made the Canyon into a wonderland of light and dark. The views were not those of the standard tourist photo of the Canyon, but as the fog lifted and we could see the views, the views were spectacular. Now, almost every day, I can see the clouds on the mountain tops and watch the rain and snow showers move across the valley.

Lower Part of Bryce Canyon

Some of the more interesting experiences we have had in both Arizona and Utah is when we stop at places we have passed dozens, if not hundreds, of times and take a look around. This is one of those places. Technically, this is part of Bryce Canyon National Park, but it is located on a pull-out along the side of the road and is well outside of the regular tourist area of the Park. We found a lovely trail along a river with a waterfall and all the gorgeous Bryce Canyon spires. What was different was we were looking at them from the bottom of the canyon not the top.

Yellow-headed Black Bird

I guess my question is why isn't this a black bodied yellow bird? These birds seem to be very territorial. They are lined up in the marsh about 25 yards apart. They have a very distinctive call that sounds like a squeaking or raspy gate and is quite loud. We were carefully watching the weather when we out with the long lens taking this photo and others. We could see the rain coming across the lake and just made it to the car in time to avoid getting a soaking.

The Y at BYU

There is an interesting phenomenon in the western United States of putting large letters on hillsides. These letters usually represent a school located in a nearby community. Here in Provo, Utah, I can see a view of the Y on the mountain to east of the Brigham Young University campus nearly every day. Because there is another hill, or the edge of the "Bench" between our home and the mountain, I really can't see any part of Y Mount from our house except the very top of the mountain. The Y is very visible from most other parts of the valley. As you drive along the Wasatch Front you will also see various other letters such as the giant U above the University of Utah. These letters are usually maintained by an annual painting of white or other suitable color.

Sunset at Kodachrome Basin

The light changes from minute to minute. If you are not out taking photos, you probably do not notice the changes. This is especially true at the beginning and ending of each day. The quality of the light determines the colors. Here the red and yellow from the sun create an entirely different color scheme. The trees are almost black but the rocks appear a vivid reddish brown. I could have taken a dozen photos of this same scene and gotten that many different effects.

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Spring Snow at the Family History Library

We are still seeing snow fall on the mountains and only a few short weeks ago, I was walking through deep snow to go to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. The flowers had all bloomed and were covered in about eight inches of snow. It was a very different scene for this old desert dweller to see what a cold storm could do in a very short time.

Petrified Wood

I have been around chunks of petrified wood almost all my life. I commonly have had a piece or two or more sitting in my front yard. Petrified wood is commonly found throughout the Colorado Plateau and even today. Here are the current regulations from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management:

Petrified wood can be collected too for personal use — up to 25 pounds each day, plus one piece, but no more than 250 pounds in any calendar year (43 CFR 3622). These materials must be for your personal collection and cannot be sold or traded.

Any commercial gathering of petrified wood, unless on private property, must be done pursuant to a permit from the government. Of course, you cannot collect any samples in any protected areas such as state of national parks or monuments. My main experience in viewing large quantities of petrified wood came from visits to the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. But recently, we visited Utah's Escalante Petrified Forest State Park near Escalante, Utah. I was almost overwhelmed at the quantity and beauty of the petrified wood in this park. Access to see the rocks is much more difficult than the National Park. In Utah, you have to hike over a mountain on a very steep trail. In Arizona, you can drive to see most of the wood.

Honeycomb Cliff

This is the dramatically honeycombed cliff I have ever seen. In fact, this whole canyon was a vast wonderland of rock formations. The canyon is way off the main roads, but the road, at this point at least, is paved. But the road begins in a remote small town in Central Utah called Boulder and ends many miles of dirt roads later. This type of formation has many names: fretting, cavernous weathering, alveoli or alveolar weathering, stone lattice, stone lace or tafoni. I like the name "tafoni" best because there is such a variety, the descriptive names fall short of the reality.

Figuring out the path

Figuring out where to go when walking around in sandstone maze can be an extraordinary challenge. There do not seem to be any discernible pathways through the maze of rock. One of the rules of walking in an area like this is simple. It is much easier to go up the rock than it is to come down. It is not usual to find yourself sitting down and trying to keep from slipping off of a steep pitch that you just easily walked up. It is a temptation to walk along the ridges, only to find out that there are deep canyons blocking your way. All this time, you need to remember not to slip. Now that I think about it, everything about the sandstone is a lot like life itself.

The Final Fall

I always notice balanced rocks. In the Southwest, they are not that uncommon. But it is seldom that we see one that this close to becoming unbalanced. I am not quite sure what is keeping this massive rock suspended and balanced on the side of base rock. It is hard to visualize the size of this rock but it is about 15 feet high and probably weighs several tons. This is probably one of the most persuasive arguments that there is very little seismic activity in this area.

Form and Substance

I have a never ending fascination with the formations of the Colorado Plateau. Even in areas that seem almost empty with views that stretch vast distances, you can go over a hill or around a bend in the road and see marvelous wonders carved by wind, water and sand. It is a pity that most of the main, paved roads avoid these areas and it is necessary to take side trips and hikes to see most of these wonders. This area is down the famous Hole in the Rock Road, but you have to turn off of the road and drive and then hike to see this beautiful area called Devil's Garden, an unfortunate name for a beautiful place.

A Canadian Stream

In Arizona or Utah, this would be a major river. In Canada, it is not uncommon and falls into the category of stream or creek, although it may be called a river. We have been having quite a bit of rain here in Utah recently and it reminded me of this very wet part of the world.

Reflections before the storm

We woke up to a calm, but cloudy day. It didn't last long. The wind began to pick up and soon this placid lake was awash with waves. In addition, the temperature began to drop precipitously and later in the day, there was snow in the mountains This image has a lot of detail that is lost with viewing at a small size and so you may wish to click on the image and view it at a larger size.

A Touch of Snow on Bryce Canyon

Normally, my rule is that the best time to visit one of the National Parks is during the "off season" when the weather is uncooperative and the crowds of visitors have disappeared. This visit to Bryce Canyon National Park was in May. It was supposed to be warm and sunny, but the hoards of visitors were surprised when it was very cold and extremely windy. We went to the Park specifically to see if there was any snow, but this is all we found. Too bad, we will have to go back in the middle of the Winter when there has been a more substantial snowfall.

Very Mysterious Mud Slides

While hiking around in the backcountry of the Kodachrome Basin State Park in Southern Utah, we found these mysterious sand/mud paths down the hills. They are obviously formed by water running in paths down the sides of the hills, but the mystery is how they remain as paths with raised sides. There are other nearby places there the water simply cuts into the sand or mud and makes a miniature gully or wash, but these seem to be stuck on the surface of the sand or clay. Here is another close up of the mud slide. 

I cannot find any reference to these strange formations online. Perhaps I do not know what to call them.

Late Spring Snow at Bryce Canyon

While camping recently near Escalante, Utah, we woke up to rain and very cold weather. We packed up and were driving back to our home, when an increase in the elevation of the road, took us into the evidence of a heavy snow storm. We decided that it would be impressive to see Bryce Canyon in the snow, so we drove directly to the National Park. We were surprised that all the snow we had driven through at lower elevations had almost entirely missed Bryce. At over 8000 feet above sea level, we assumed that there would be even more snow than what we had already seen, but as you can see in this image, all the snow is on the distant mountains and there is almost none on the beautiful spires of Bryce Canyon. For someone who is used to seeing it rain on one side of the street and not on the other, I was not very surprised at the lack of snow.

Positive and Negative Space

Many of my photos are composed based on considerations of negative and positive space. This is an example of of photo that verges on the abstract. You can see through the image out into the sky, but the composition is dominated by the shapes of the sandstone walls of this small slot canyon. Ideally, the sand in the entrance to the canyon, would have been smooth and unmarked, but the footprints add a measure of interest to the image. What is behind me, as I take this photo? When I was taking painting and drawing at the University of Utah as an Art Major, they used a projector to put an image on a screen so blurry that you could only see the dark and light spaces. We practiced in drawing only the parts of the image that were light and dark. They instructor would then sharpen the image slightly to increase the detail as we added the detail to our image. The idea was to highlight the contrasting areas of light and shadow. I guess that concept became part of the way I view the world.

Supervolcano

Recent newscasts have featured the discovery that the magma chamber beneath Yellowstone National Park is much larger than previously known. In celebration of that discovery, I watched the BBC production of Supervolcano, a two part series. The production was well based in "science" but the fear of such a cataclysmic event is not something that is going to disturb me. I look on those types of hand-wringing as irrelevant to my daily life. If there is a volcano or earthquake or whatever, I will either die or survive. How much different is that from driving almost every day in Utah Valley traffic?

Summer Dandelions

We culturally define dandelions as weeds. If the flowers were slightly larger, they would be prized as ornamental flowers. We often make these types of cultural value judgments even about people and their abilities. Dandelions are one of my favorite flowers. Their ability to survive constant persecution is an inspiration. I have never been able to understand why we prefer a blah green lawn to the gorgeous display of beautiful yellow flowers.

The Curse of the Grave Walker

This strange grave walking creature was probably related to the Doctor Who Weeping Angels. Every time I looked at it, it stopped moving. When I took my eyes away, it had moved slightly closer to covering up these grave markers. It was a very tall creature and all I could get into this photo, before I ran away, was the bottom part of its legs and its tentacles which, by the way, were disguised as roots.

Jungle Luxury

Seeing a cactus is not that unusual for me. I took several photos of cactus plants this past week. But this photo from Hawaii looks unbelievably foreign to me. Taken on the island of Oahu, I can certainly say that I am not used to cactus plants that grow this tall or look quite so healthy. This photo is even more interesting because there are no native species of cactus that grow in Hawaii. In fact, cactus only grow naturally on the American continents. There is one species of cactus that migrated across the ocean to the African coast, but otherwise if you see a plant that looks like a cactus outside of the Americas, it is either imported or not a cactus.

Landforms in Southern Utah

I find it to be fascinating to contemplate the vast geologic forces that created the landforms in Southern Utah and Northern Arizona. This is a series of five photos. You can see all five photos by clicking on the main photo shown here. These images come from the Kodachrome Basin State Park near Cannonville, Utah. The Park contains 67 monolithic stone spires called sedimentary pipes. The origin of these nearly unique geologic structures have yet to be adequately explained. 

We hiked along the Angels Palace trail and looked down from the 200 foot cliffs into the "basin." This is one of my favorite campgrounds and, in my opinion, one of the most scenic locations in the Southwest.

The main red sandstone layer of the park is the Entrada Sandstone of the San Rafael Group. This on the Colorado Plateau and this particular formation was deposited during the Jurassic period sometime between 180 and 140 million years ago in tidal mudflats, beaches and sand dunes. See Entrada Sandstone.  This layer of sandstone is also visible in the Arches National Park, the Capital Reef National Park and Goblin Valley State Park.

The lighter colored sandstone above the Entrada is the Curtis Formation.

Here is one of the mysterious sandstone pipes.

Travels in Southern Utah

Breaking with a long tradition, I am posting a photograph showing me standing next to a huge petrified log at the Escalante Petrified Forest State Park. This log is one of thousands in the huge area on the side of a very steep hill. This photo does not show the beautiful colors of the petrified wood. I was amazed at the quantity of petrified wood (aka to mineral collectors as "wood") there was. My only other comparison was the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. There are five photos in this post. Click on the photo of me to see the rest.

This next photo is at the Kodachrome Basin State Park. The tall pipe-line stone formations are a mystery. There are several theories about their formation, but none of them are very persuasive.

The high desert land is full of contrasts. Utah is undergoing a severe drought and will probably persist in a drought condition for the foreseeable future. This image reminds me that life in the desert is harsh and insecure.

This is the Shakespeare Arch. There are hundreds of rock arches, bridges and windows throughout the high Plateau (mostly over 5000 feet above sea level).

The land formations are a wonder and amazing. I love the contrast with the dark green of the Utah Junipers and the yellow of the few wildflowers.

Marbles

I haven't seen anyone playing a real game of marbles for a long time. When I was a lot younger, playing marbles "for keeps" was a big deal. We would play at recess and lunch time at school. I was never very good at the game and lost quite a few marbles, but it was fun anyway. Today, unless an activity has educational value or is an organized sport, or is online, there isn't much interest among the children or their parents. These marbles probably are used in some other game as game pieces unrelated to their existence as marbles.

The Supremacy of Light

There are few places I have been that have such dramatic changes in the light over a very short time. I stood outside in the cold air, watching the light change on the mountains and taking a photo every few minutes. this was the most dramatic of the series. We have already started into the thunderstorm season and the clouds will change and perhaps there will be more dramatic photos?

Never Ending Tulips

There is the beauty of one tulip and then there is the endless beauty of hundreds of tulips. Sadly, the tulip season ends suddenly with the blooms disappearing within a very short time. But the promise is that the next round of flowers, the iris, are already starting to bloom. They are incredible.

The Last Spring Snow

We had temperatures in the 70s and beautiful Spring weather when a cold front moved in and dumped a few inches of new snow on the mountains and into the higher parts of the valley. The early morning clouds showed the effects of the storm, but by mid-day, there was almost no snow left on the mountains and none in the valleys. I think we a through with the snow and cold weather for the season.

New Payson, Utah LDS Temple

Last week, we had the privilege of visiting the Open House for the new Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Payson, Utah. This was a great experience. Everything about the Open House was well organized and the Temple was very impressive. We were scheduled at 10:00 am on a school day (week day) but the parking lot was almost full and there were long lines of people waiting for the tour. We moved right along and did not have to wait very long for a tour. The Payson Temple is one of the largest built recently and the seemed very large compared to our recent tour of the Phoenix, Arizona Temple. The interior has an apple blossom theme and the windows and other elements combine into a remarkably beautiful experience. I could immediately feel the spirit of the Temple even though there were lots of people on the tours.

The imminent storm

There is a dichotomy between being out in the desert because of the beauty and solitude and the reality of thunderstorms moving in and making the road you just traveled impassible. Shortly after this photo was taken, it began to rain rather heavily and the washes began to fill. We drove as quickly as you can through mud and slippery roads to see if we could beat a flash flood that would strand us for hours or days. This time we made it. Actually, there are three roads out of this area of Southern Utah and it was unlikely that all three dirt roads would be closed at the same time. We do drive an all wheel drive Subaru and that helps when things get rough. We hope to camp more regularly and that will mean more photos.

Red, Green and Gold

What value can you place on this beauty? Think of the expense, the time and the effort to create these hybrid flowers and then plant and display them. It is certainly true that the best things in life are free. At least, here on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah and in the block to the east that has the Church Office Building and the Joseph Smith Memorial Building among others. These flowers are provided simply for the enjoyment of the the millions of visitors a year that come to this hallowed ground.

Spring Goslings

This pair of Canadian Geese are tending their young family of goslings (1375-1425; late Middle English goselyng; cognate with Old Norse gæslingr) in the shade on a warm Spring day. I kept waking closer and closer because I didn't have a very long lens with me at the time, but I could tell that they were getting nervous and so I took the photo as close as possible.

Sculptured Collonade

There are few places I have visited that command more awe and inspire more photographs than Northern Arizona and Central and Southern Utah. I will be taking advantage of some excursions into different parts of Southern Utah this spring and summer. I may even make it into some the Northern Utah wonders. This is only a small part of a huge curving wall of eroded clay and sandstone. It is almost impossible to covey the scale of these cliffs without being there and even then, your brain refuses to grasp the scale.

An Extravagance of Color

This is another image that does not look real, but I can assure you that it is. I don't suppose that most of us will ever see such brilliant and complex color. When you are there, looking at the flowers, the total image is overwhelming.

Sandstone Swirl

There is a face in the rock. There are always faces in the rocks. There are so many forms and fantastic shapes that erode from sandstone, it could keep me busy taking photos for the rest of my life and probably will.

A Slot Canyon

Slot canyons are uncommon but not rare. There are likely hundreds of these unique canyons in Utah and Arizona and other states. I went through my first slot canyon when I was a young teenager and that set the pattern for a lot of my hiking since then. The longest hike involved the Pariah Canyon in Southern Utah across the border into Northern Arizona, but only portions of that canyon could really be considered a slot canyon. Most of the canyons are dangerous during rainstorms and some, may become flooded even though the rain is miles away. Every so often, people get killed hiking in slot canyons from the floods. If you want to see what it is like to get caught in a flash flood in a slot canyon see https://youtu.be/wj7WnkgjhM0

Dancing Poppies

Poppies have always been one of my favorite flowers. I have seen them a few times in the Phoenix area, but because of the high temperatures, the flowers generally lasted on a few days. These robust plants are here in Utah. These are very controversial plants and the status of the law in the United States regarding their cultivation is unsettled. Notwithstanding the legal issues, they seem to be quite commonly grown around the valleys of Utah.

Fancy Frilly Purple Tulip

Fancy tulips of this type are usually classified as "fringed." Even these outstanding blossoms tend to blend in with the huge plantings here along the Wasatch Front. The two most notable areas are located at the Thanksgiving Point Garden in Lehi, Utah and around Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. There are quite a few beautiful gardens on the campus of Brigham Young University also. The plants begin flowering in early April and are mostly finished flowering by the first week of May. This has been an extraordinary year for flowers, or so we have been told.