Into Utah

When I first saw pictures of The Wave, I was impressed by the curvy shapes of sandstone carved by erosion, the smooth lines, and the blend of warm colours. The Wave is located in Coyote Buttes in Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, in northern Arizona right on the Utah border. It involves a 10 km return hike through the desert without clearly marked trails. The tricky part is that they limit the number of people that can go by issuing permits with only 10 groups allowed to obtain permits four months in advance, and another 10 the day before. The permits are issued by lottery as usually there are more people wanting to go than permits available.

And so, or early in the morning I set out from Page to drive to Kanab, Utah, a couple hours away to be there at 9 AM when the lottery for permits occurred. I had phoned the day before and learned that on Thursday they would be releasing permits for Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday because of the New Year’s holiday. This meant there would be 40 permits available, and that the woman told me that if I was flexible on days I had a reasonably good chance of getting one.

As I drove, it was still dark, and I could see a big around the full moon right ahead of me setting behind some buttes, so I stopped my car and shot some long exposures. There was a lot of snow on the ground in many places hanging to the few trees, and a hoar frost clung to many of the plants. When the sun came up the sky was blue, but Kanab itself sat in a thick fog.      

Setting full moon, southern Utah - © Richard McGuire

I found the office that issues the permits, and there were already about a dozen people there. We all selected the days we would prefer, and were told we could switch dates immediately before the draw, if it looked like certain days were full and others were not. I chose the Monday, knowing this would give me a little time to visit other parts of Utah, visiting The Wave on the way back. We counted down to 9 a.m. when the lottery would occur. Although more people trickled in, by luck none of the dates were completely full, and so everybody got their pick without a lottery happening. At 8:59, I joked that there was a bus arriving in the lot, which cost a few chuckles, but fortunately didn’t happen. In fact, the woman said this was one of the few days when everybody got what they wanted without a lottery.       

After breakfast of huevos rancheros at a local diner, I continued to drive back to Page via the scenic route to the south. This cross through mountains and there was some packed snow on the roads, but the driving wasn’t bad and the snow glistened on the pines. Descending the mountain, you could see the bold outline of Vermilion Cliffs rising from the desert as a big massive body of sandstone.       

Closer to Page, I came to the turnoff for the walk in to Horseshoe Bend, which I had tried to photograph the previous day. It was much sunnier, so I tried again, hiking the half-mile to the cliff’s edge. This time the view of the river 1,000 feet below was very clear. There were numerous Japanese tourists taking pictures of the view and some went right to the edge of the cliff and leaned over for their shots. I suffer far too much from vertigo to try that, so I edged closer to the cliff on hands and knees and got on my belly. Even then, the only way to see the bend in the river, is to actually lean over the edge. Even on my belly, I felt dizzy even attempting this and was unable to shoot a picture this way. At last I attached the camera to my tripod, lay down with the tripod and extended it out over the edge as though it were a long pole with the camera aimed at the right few with a super wide lens. I triggered multiple exposures with a cable release, and got some shots without actually hanging over the edge myself.       

Horse Shoe Bend, Arizona - © Richard McGuire

By now it was getting later in the afternoon, and I had a long drive ahead of me as I planned to drive all the way to Moab, Utah for the night, and hoped to drive through Monument Valley during the day. It was a long drive through the desert on a fairly rough paved road, but traffic was not too heavy, and even though it was getting late I made a reasonably good time. That is, until I came to Kayenta. Here, the road ran right through the town, and speed limit dropped drastically. I slowed down, but not enough. Suddenly there was a cop car behind me flashing his blue and red lights. He ticketed me for speeding, taking a long time to issue the ticket. By the time I finally got going again, it was starting to get dark.

Monument Valley had some attractive buttes and mesas sticking up from the flat desert. But from the main road there were few places to stop and so the photo opportunities were very limited. I understand that to really see the best views you must visit the Navajo Tribal Park, but as it was getting dark this was no longer an option. I stopped and took a few photos of the sun setting behind the buttes and the full moon rising ahead, but I don’t think I did the area justice.   

It was quite cold as I set up my tripod for some long exposures in a few of the pull offs. At one, a car stopped right in the area I was photographing. I waited a while, and it still stayed, so I picked up my tripod and walked past it to photograph with a clear view. Behind the car a young Navajo man was pissing a big stream. He greeted me as I walked past and struck up a conversation. He’d obviously had a few drinks. He asked me about my photographing, and in where I was from, and I told him I was admiring the beauty of the land. He said he was always from this area, and the land was very special to him and his ancestors.       

   

Monument Valley, Arizona, at sunset – © Richard McGuire

   

It was a long drive the rest of the way to Moab, and I got the feeling I was missing some spectacular scenery in the darkness. I arrived and checked into the local Motel 6. I was tired, and then sat up for a while going through my pictures and sending e-mails, but didn’t pay attention to the new year and decade.  

 

    

Antelope Canyon and Horse Shoe Bend (obscurred by fog and snow)

It was a cold grey day and threatened snow. That didn’t matter for the morning because I had booked a tour with a small group and a Navajo guide for a photography trip to Upper Antelope Canyon. Antelope Canyon is a slot canyon carved by water over the years into the desert sandstone. Its swirls and shapes have impressed many photographers, who make it a destination, as do many tourists. 

Our guide was good, and quickly led us to the far end of the canyon to work backwards, and sometimes managed to hold back crowds when we photographed. But it was simply too crowded to do serious photography. I dread to think how much worse it would be in peak season. As the canyon is quite dark you need to take very long exposures using a tripod. For each shot, I took either five or seven separate exposures because the range from light to dark was so huge I knew that the only way to capture all the detail would be by combining separate images on a computer afterwards (HDR or high-dynamic range photography). Unfortunately taking that many long shots meant the odds of being disturbed were huge. Tourists often walked by, sometimes accidentally kicking the tripod. Sometimes their guides shone laser pointers onto the rocks leaving red squiggles on my images. For certain scenes, photographers lined up taking turns moving their tripods into place, sometimes lining up the tripods in a row with the legs woven in and out of each other. 

That doesn’t take away from the beauty of the canyon, but it did make it hard to photograph it. In hindsight, I think I should’ve gone to one of the lesser-known slot canyons in the area, including perhaps even Lower Antelope Canyon across the road, which apparently is just as beautiful but much less crowded. 

Upper Antelope Canyon, Arizona - © Richard McGuire

I wanted to photograph Horse Shoe Bend, a dramatic river bend below a steep cliff south of Page. It was now foggy and starting to snow, but as I didn’t have many alternative destinations, I set out anyway. It’s a walk of about a half a mile from the parking area on a trail through the desert to the edge of the cliff. In what must have been the understatement of the year, one Chinese tourist told me: “The visibility is not very high.” That didn’t stop a number of tour groups from making the walk anyway. Only occasionally did the fog lift just enough that you could see the faint outline of the river more than 1000 feet below. At other times it was just old white of fog and falling snow. Some of the tourists went right to the edge of the cliff and took pictures of the fog. I took a picture of one Chinese tourist woman standing about 2 feet from the edge of the precipice and snapping a picture of the fog. 

Horse Shoe Bend in the fog - © Richard McGuire

Grand Canyon, Arizona

Monday, December 28, 2009

I was up early before the sun to take a drive on a circular route through the desert. Unfortunately the sky was still very overcast and the light was flat, so I didn’t get any great pictures, but I did admire the desert scenery and cacti.

This was the closest to Mexico that I got — so close in fact that my cell phone thought I was in Mexico, while in fact I was a few kilometres north of the border. From there I began a long drive north into colder parts of Arizona. Soon I was leaving the warm desert behind me and climbing up into snow-covered forests of Ponderosa pines north of Phoenix, as I reached Flagstaff for the night. Flagstaff was the closest thing to winter I’d experienced since the snowstorm on the journey south.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

The weather forecasts were for calling for several days of cloudy snowy crappy weather, so I wasn’t sure what to do. I decided to take my chances and go to Grand Canyon anyway, knowing that the option remained of returning if I didn’t see it at its best.

I caught bits of sun here and there, and the clouds even had a bit of drama, but on the whole it was pretty cloudy and dull. The canyon itself though is still amazing — much more vast than I ever could’ve imagined.

Even at this time of year, it was jammed with tourists, and finding a place to park was no easier than West Edmonton Mall on Boxing Day. I would hate to see it at peak season. Sometimes I have to laugh at the antics and behavior of some of the tourists. Classic case in point, some bratty children who would rather be playing video games were running around near the edge of the canyon and driving their poor mother crazy. Her retort: “I brought you into this world, and I can just as easily take you out of it.” I frankly hoped she would push them over the edge.

Fortunately, you only have to walk a short distance to get away from the crowds. It seems most people won’t walk more than 100 feet from their cars, so there were very few people on the trail that ran along by the edge of the canyon. I admired the many views staring down into the depths of the canyon and miles across it.

Grand Canyon, Arizona, in winter - © Richard McGuire

That evening I drove to Page in northern Arizona and bought a ticket for the next day to take a photography tour of Antelope Canyon.

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Arizona - © Richard McGuire

Sunday, December 27, 2009

I drove to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument where I camped for the night. I had a bad headache and the sky became quite overcast so I didn’t appreciate it at its best. Still, it’s a wonderful desert setting surrounded by beautiful mountains and many desert plants. The Saguaro cactus of course dominate as they are so tall, but this park is known for its organ pipe cactus, which are common in Mexico, but this is the only part of the United States where they grow. The organ pipes are smaller than the Saguaros, and they grow in clusters from a base on the ground. Unlike the saguaros, they don’t have branches.

It was cool and windy in my tent that night, but I’m not sure that even went below freezing.

South of Tucson

Saturday, December 26, 2009 (Boxing Day)

I drove on back roads down close to Nogales, but didn’t see any point in putting up with the hassle of crossing into Mexico. At one state park (Patagonia Lake) I went for a hike through all kinds of desert scenery. It was so peaceful being out in the desert alone with occasional deer or hares, etc. I returned along a desert river that was an oasis of green attracting many birds. I recognized a pair of cardinals, but people come there from all over the world to see hundreds of different species. It’s apparently a birders paradise.

Then I took the very rough twisty dirt Ruby Road through the mountains and some incredible scenery. It was quiet, but there were other travellers going through, and many, many border patrols in the area looking for illegal immigrants and smugglers. Ruby itself is a ghost town. I didn’t stop to visit due to shortage of time and an admission fee. The scenery around it for me was the main attraction.

The Ruby Road, southern Arizona - © Richard McGuire

Back in Tucson for the night, I ate much better than Christmas, finding one of the many wonderful Mexican restaurants in town.