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Friday, April 3, 2015

A Quiet Canyon

After spending a couple of nights on the eastern edge of the desert, we moved to a canyon that is very quiet and rarely visited. We arrived late in the day, and we didn't get an ideal campsite. You can see where we slept the first night in the next photo. It's fun to be in the middle of a canyon but the downside is the lack of early and late sun.
Soon after arriving, I realized that one advantage to that spot was that star photos would be really fun with jagged cliffs so close to us. My camera even recorded a faint outline of the Milky Way in the early morning hours.
During our night sleeping inside the canyon, I made a star trail photo with those jagged cliffs in the foreground. It is incredible how many stars are visible in the dark desert far from any cities. There as even one shooting star, much to my delight!
The next morning, the sun didn't hit our campsite until after 10AM, and it was cold down in the canyon. Consequently, Shyla and I got off to a late start on our mountain bike ride. Our trail went almost straight up the canyon wall aiming for the gap between the two rock formations.
It was a tough climb for me on my mountain bike (but easy for Shyla the super athlete!). Here's what it looked like when we were almost to the plateau. I think the formation to the right looks vaguely
like a castle.
As soon as we were in the sun, we both felt the heat. After this photo, we took a break in the shade under a huge boulder.
I love riding places that seem so alien. The rocks themselves seemed like nature's art.
Soon enough, it was time to descend to our campsite, having enjoyed a good frolic in the desert.
That afternoon, we found a far better campsite in the same area where we stayed for the next couple of nights. In that site, the sun shined on us from early in the morning until the evening. It was warm and beautiful! And, it even came with a tennis ball, much to R's delight!

15 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing your beautiful time in the desert. I love the star pictures.

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  2. How wonderful to have such an amazing place to get away to enjoy! I'm glad you had an enjoyable and relaxing time, and got to warm up too! :-)

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  3. I agree with you! I think the rocks are art! The desert is art...and the mountains ... and the sea! It's all in your own vision!! Love that place. What a beautiful place to camp! We are on the road again, but most of the time, we are quite near some sort of city where we get lights! And sometimes noise as well...

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  4. It is so gorgeous there! Shyla and R look so happy and I love the star photos! They are so neat.

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  5. I love the bazillion stars shining pictures, I live in a town where we see a night sky and much sparser stars. Not complaining mind you, just one time I'd love to look up and see a sky full of stars!

    Hugs and smooches to the pooches, mostly Prince Arrr.

    Jo, Stella and Zkhat

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  6. OMD ..... that is soooooooooo beautiful!! Shyla certainly is a super athlete with the body to prove it. Mum's promised to take me to our deserts. They are a lot redder than yours and beautiful too but very different.

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  7. What a fun playground and beautiful too!

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  8. what a wonderful photo... I would like to sit there, watching the stars on the sky. It's a beautiful place, I wish all this stones could talk...
    easy rider

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  9. The sky looks so crisp and clean. Glad you had a nice time camping.

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  10. That looks like such an amazing place!

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  11. Gotta admit, Utah has some amazing geography!

    Your Pals,

    Murphy & Stanley

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  12. What a beautiful place, it looks so isolated - the stars are beautiful
    hugs
    Mr Bailey, Hazel & Mabel

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  13. I love that picture of R with his tennis ball!

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  14. so you are escaping Co. spring. I can see it was wonderful with your beautiful images.

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  15. I much prefer being out in the open, for those exact same reasons.

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