Posts Tagged ‘star trails’

Arches/Isky 3.2012

Friday, April 20th, 2012

Typically our first family camping trip of the year happens around my birthday in March but due to our already jam packed spring camping schedule Clint and I made a quick trip to the Moab area to celebrate the occasion.   The plan was to make a quick cheap trip in the Camry to and  shoot some star trails and do a bit of hiking.

We left Thursday after work and went directly to Island in the Sky with plans to shoot stat trails at False Kiva followed by a Mesa Arch sunrise.   We grabbed the last site in the campground and drove out to the False Kiva trail head and began hiking just after sunset.  We rushed down the trail and got the cameras setup just in time to catch the last trickle of day light.  I forgot my flash in the car so I used my black diamond orbit lantern to  illuminate the the Kiva and alcove and it worked out pretty well. We spent a few hours in the dark shooting then hiked out from False Kiva and drove back to our camp site.   After setting up our tents we went for a walk to the green river overlook where it was so  dark you couldn’t see anything but stars.

Friday morning we were up before sunrise and headed to Mesa Arch.    To our delight only 8 or so other photographers there. I’ve  heard at times it can be a real nightmare of people trying to capture this iconic shot so we were pretty lucky to have such a small crowd. (more…)

Escalante 3.2012

Wednesday, April 4th, 2012

I had received word from a few flickr contacts and friends on facebook that Zebra canyon was once again dry. Typically there is a long cold pool between the mouth of the canyon and the slot and occasionally it fills up with sand and dries out between storms.  Now if you follow my blog here you know I hate cold water and will walk miles out of my way to avoid it because I’m a big wussy so this was my chance to see the famous Zebra slot and stay dry.

In typically fashion (at least for us) the weather forecast for the weekend was sketchy. Mid 60′s on Saturday turning to snow mid afternoon with lows in the 30′s and snow all day Sunday.  We picked the boys up from school a bit early then drove down to Escalante, we had planned on camping on the Hole in the Rock Road but due to the sketchy forecast we decided to stay at the nearly empty Calf Creek campground. (more…)

Escalante 10.2011

Monday, January 9th, 2012

With the new baby arriving soon (but not too soon) we decided to make one last desert backpacking trip before the little guy arrived. For this trip it was just Clint, Whitney, Lanik, and I who tossed around a few different ideas in the days prior and finally settled on a return trip to Willow Gulch.

Our trip started out by Clint picking Lanik and I up at my place in his Tacoma. This was my second trip in the new truck this year and I must admit that I’m pretty jealous… I think I need one but without the payment. We then stopped by my parents house to grab Whitney and load up on firewood (thanks mom) then headed south to Escalante. (more…)