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Tag: rock art

Happy Canyon & Poison SpringsHappy Canyon & Poison Springs

Happy Canyon & Poison Springs

Friday – Sunday, April 5-7, 2013

After work on Friday I headed back into Utah to meet a few friends in Poison Springs Canyon so that we could hike to Happy Canyon on Saturday and then spend some time visiting a few rock art sites on Sunday. I quickly made it to Hanksville and then to the turn-off for Poison Springs Canyon where I met up with Lisa. Since she was the only one in our group without a high clearance vehicle, she loaded her camping gear into my Jeep and we found a place to leave her car for the weekend. It started to get dark as we drove into the canyon in search of the rest of our party. I was under the impression that they were planning on camping near the Black Jump, but they were nowhere to be found in that area. We took the side road towards the Happy Canyon trailhead and decided just to camp along that road since we couldn’t find anyone else and it was getting pretty dark out by this time. We would search for them in the morning. We quickly setup camp and were soon getting some sleep. I got up early enough on Saturday morning to catch the sunrise.

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Monument ValleyMonument Valley

Monument Valley

Friday – Sunday, March 29-31, 2013

I’ve driven past Monument Valley many times in the past but have never actually stopped in the park before. I decided to spend all day Saturday at the park so that I could photograph the Mitten Shadow at sunset. Since that was my main goal this trip, I’ll start this report with the photo I was after. Twice a year the West Mitten casts it’s shadow onto the East Mitten just before sunset and it’s something that I’ve wanted to try and photograph for a while. There were a lot of clouds on the western horizon at sunset and I almost thought it wasn’t going to happen this time, but the sun did peek out for a few seconds which gave me just enough time to capture the image below. I’d say it was a successful evening!

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Collins CanyonCollins Canyon

Collins Canyon

Sunday, March 3, 2013

On Sunday morning I was up shortly before sunrise and quickly taking down camp so I could get an early start on the hike. I wasn’t planning on taking any photos at sunrise, but when I saw the sky start to light up I quickly grabbed my camera out of the Jeep and ran over to the nearest outcrop of sandstone above my camp. I’m glad that I did!

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Kane GulchKane Gulch

Kane Gulch

Saturday, March 2, 2013

On Saturday morning I headed south for an early season hike in the Grand Gulch area. I stopped at the Kane Gulch Ranger Station as they opened for the day to pick up an annual Cedar Mesa hiking pass and then started hiking down Kane Gulch from there. There was still quite a bit of snow and ice in places, but nothing difficult. In the morning everything was frozen which made things a little easier, but on my way back in the afternoon everything had started melting and there was a lot more slippery mud on the trail in places. I first visited the Junction Ruins found at the confluence of Kane Gulch and Grand Gulch and then I continued down Grand Gulch a little further to the Turkey Pen Ruins.

CONTINUE READINGKane Gulch
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