Tag Archives: Comb Ridge

New Work at the Gallery

Yesterday, I trekked to St. Charles, and deposited a boxful of new pieces at Framations. Being framed for the wall are:


Tenaya Creek
Tenaya Creek

Goosenecks
Goosenecks
Comb Ridge
Comb Ridge

Moki Dugway
Moki Dugway

Printed on metal, Sarah and Amy are mounting these images:


Lake Granby #1
Lake Granby #1

Moon over Byers Peak
Moon over Byers Peak

And finally, I dropped many new works into the sale bins. These images are matted, and ready to be installed in your favorite frame:


Orange Glow
Orange Glow

Zig-Zag Bridge
Zig-Zag Bridge
River of Leaves
River of Leaves
Leaves in Decay
Leaves in Decay
Bel Air in Motion
Bel Air in Motion
Mandolin Bridge
Mandolin Bridge
Claw of Ice
Claw of Ice
Road Less Traveled
Road Less Traveled
Pink Skies, Monument Valley
Pink Skies, Monument Valley
Wagon Wheel
Wagon Wheel
Bridge Pins
Bridge Pins
Aspens in Fall
Aspens in Fall
Mine Entrance
Mine Entrance
Patriotic Building
Patriotic Building
Balanced Rock
Balanced Rock
Patriotic Cadillac
Patriotic Cadillac

Reflection in Blue
Reflection in Blue

As always, these images — and many others! — are available at my online gallery.

FST II : Day Four – Southern Utah Loop

After a slow start this morning, we decided to make a loop around the area — about 150 miles — visiting Valley of the Gods, Mexican Hat and Natural Bridges National Monument.

Valley of the Gods was billed as a smaller version of Monument Valley, and it lived up to it. Plenty of red rocks catching plenty of sunlight… and clouds, but more on that later. We toured around the area, along a 17 mile road that went from gravel to rutted and back again. Frankly, the Acadia did well with the unimproved road.

However, I had a little less sure footing. Early in the drive, we stopped to take some photos, and I climbed atop a little knoll to grab some images. When I came back down, the rocks shifted, and I tumbled pretty well down the hill. The good news was that I tucked the camera (and my noggin), and rolled pretty well into a three point landing — my left hand, my right knee and my right hip. 🙂 Nothing bad, but some pretty good bumps and bruises. I’ll survive.

Once we were done with Valley of the Gods, we zipped down to Mexican Hat for a little lunch, before heading up the road to Natural Bridges National Monument. To get there, we had to travel across Moki Dugway, which is a crazy unpaved road with tremendous switchbacks, no railing and terrific views. Remember those clouds I mentioned earlier? As we started up the road, the clouds began to produce a little bit of rain, and after turning a corner, we saw a tremendous vista with a wonderful rainbow! It was absolutely stunning. We found a place to pull over, and snapped quite a few images. Way cool.

When we got to the top of the hill, we started getting into colder weather, and some rain from the clouds we’d spotted from down in the valley. And then the snow came. Yep, snow. In fact, a snowstorm. The flakes were huge, and coming down with a vengeance. It snowed on us for about 45 minutes, right up to the entrance to Natural Bridges NM.

Natural Bridges was great, and definitely out of the way. In fact, I wouldn’t have been surprised if we were the only people there today. We got our parks passport stamped, and took the nine mile drive through the park. Nice drive, and the bridges were nice to see from the overlooks. In theory, we coulda hiked down to some of them, but with me having already put myself down a hill today, I figured I didn’t need to tempt fate.

From the park, we headed toward Blanding. This was pretty much a big ol’ downhill drive, leading to the base of Comb Ridge. Comb Ridge must run dozens of miles, and was catching the sun just right. We found a place to stop at the base of the ridge, and shot down the length of it. With the fading sunlight, it was simply amazing.

By the time we got back to Bluff, we’d been on the road for almost seven hours, and some of the best photography and weirdest weather I’ve seen in quite some time!