Category Archives: Photographs: Utah

Juniper, Boulder, Cliff

Juniper, Boulder, Cliff
Juniper, Boulder, Cliff

Juniper, Boulder, Cliff. Capitol Reef National Park. October 21, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small juniper tree grows next to a sandstone boulder at the bottom of a cliff, Capitol Reef National Park

I’m digging back into the October Utah photographs yet again for this one. It comes from Capitol Reef National Park, where I spent about three days out of a longer visit to Utah. I started in far southwest Utah, wandered a bit in the Vermillion Cliffs area, followed a back road north to highway 12, then headed over Boulder Mountain to the Park, where I met a friend and got a campsite for a few days.

I’m gradually pushing out the boundaries of my knowledge of this park, and part of that growth on this trip involved shooting in some tricky light. On this late afternoon, between some other subjects, we ended up in a well-traveled canyon as the tall canyon walls and some cloudiness softened the light. After reaching our furthest point in the canyon we turned around and started back, and as we passed back through one twisting section we saw several interesting photographic possibilities, stopped, and spent a bit of time looking and photographing. This small juniper tree stood in front of an old red rock boulder, and the green of the tree and red of the rock complemented one another. I was also fascinated by the complex, angled, and sometimes-curving patterns on the vertical cliff wall in the background.


G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Cottonwood Tree and Canyon Walls

Cottonwood Tree and Canyon Walls
Cottonwood Tree and Canyon Walls

Cottonwood Tree and Canyon Walls. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. October 24, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Red sandstone canyon walls tower above a lone cottonwood tree with early fall colors

This tree is becoming my favorite (or maybe only second favorite…) tree in this part of Utah. It grows in the bottom of a canyon in a place that requires a bit of hiking — and a bit of driving — to access. It is perhaps not all that much better than hundreds or thousands of other trees in such places, but it happens to be one that I saw and photographed!

A group of photographers walked down this canyon on a beautiful October day when sunlight filtered down into the canyon from high above. We were in no hurry, and we frequently stopped to work a particular subject and often separated as each of us focused on his or her personal discoveries. This section of the canyon is one of those where you have route options — you could either walk down the bottom of the canyon in the creek bed (which I did on my walk back out) or you could take a slight shortcut up and across the higher ground on the inside of one of the bends in the canyon. For no particular reason that I can recall now, I decided to take the higher route in this spot and as a result I ended up with this view of the lone cottonwood tree tucked into the canyon at the base of this gigantic sandstone cliff, the intensity of the color of its autumn foliage increased by the soft, reflected canyon light.


G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Fractured Stone, Desert Plants

Fractured Stone, Desert Plants
Fractured Stone, Desert Plants

Fractured Stone, Desert Plants. Capitol Reef National Park, Utah. October 21, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sparse desert plants grow among fractured sandstone slabs

Though the title of this photograph mentions plants, there are small and rather hard to see. In terrain like this that should probably not be surprising, since I made the photograph in a place that was very rocky and rugged. I had walked out a bit into the landscape to get a view into a nearby gully that marked the beginning of a much larger canyon when I looked down and noticed these patterned rocks.

Here the rocks are almost entirely in layers, or strata, as is typical in this part of the Southwest. We most easily notice the huge, think layers than make up cliffs like those found elsewhere in this national park. But there are also some very thin layers, and these rocks comprise on such layer that happened to be exposed at this particular spot. If I recall correctly, I first noticed this as I came to the edge of a drop-off and noticed that these were the rocks at its edge. They are apparently are hard enough to resist erosion a bit more than the underlying material. This also explains why, a moment later, I stepped back from this edge — the harder rocks actually extended out over the drop-off a bit where the underlying ground had eroded!


G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | FacebookGoogle+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Autumn Cottonwood, Kolob Canyon

Autumn Cottonwood, Kolob Canyon
Autumn Cottonwood, Kolob Canyon

Autumn Cottonwood, Kolob Canyon. Zion National Park, Utah. October 28, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A bright yellow autumn cottonwood tree in a valley below red rock cliffs, Kolob Canyon

I have visited these trees — and this tree — in Zion National Park’s Kolob Canyon area before. I’m familiar with this beautiful little valley that runs up toward the head of a canyon bounded by red rock cliffs, and shaded from the early morning sun. Each time I have visited it has been a bit later in the morning when direct light was still blocked, but when ambient light began to fill in the shadows a bit.

A creek runs up (or down, depending on your perspective!) this little canyon, and it is lined with vegetation, notably including cottonwood trees. Higher up there are conifers, whose green color stands out against the red of the Utah rock. Further along the canyon narrows, twists around turns and disappears from sight. Although the colors might have been even brighter few days before this visit, I like the way that the colors of the foreground tree contrast with the more skeletal shapes of the bare and nearly bare plants beyond.


G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | FacebookGoogle+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.