Category: landscape

Arizona- A Natural and Historic Wonderland

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After spending a few short days in northern Arizona in 2016, I have been planning to go back for an extended trip. That opportunity arose in April, and I was very fortunate that Cathie was also able to go on this trip. It’s always more fun to share amazing experiences with someone else.

Sedona and the Grand Canyon were on our list, as Cathie was only able to join me for the first few days of the trip. During Cathie’s time on the trip, we also visited the meteor crater outside of Winslow. Having seen it in photos, I still was surprised how massive the crater is. Not only did the size of it amaze me, but there was the added bonus of having incredibly strong winds, gusting to will over 60 mph. The winds were due to two storm systems in the area.

After Cathie had to return home, I still had two full days on my own before I returned home. I was not sure how I would fill those days, but after doing some research, discovered there were sites in around the Flagstaff and Sedona region that I was not previously aware of.

Montezuma Castle National Monumenthttps://www.nps.gov/moca/index.htm– A Sinaguan cliffside dwelling built somewhere between 1100 and 1300 AD.

Montezuma Castle- Infrared

Tuzigoot National Monument https://www.nps.gov/tuzi/index.htm– the remnants of another Sinaguan village, built between 1000 and 1400 AD.

Tuzigoot- Infrared

Montezuma Well https://www.nps.gov/moca/planyourvisit/exploring-montezuma-well.htm– A limestone sink formed naturally ages ago, continuously fed from the bottom. The Sinagua irrigated their crops with its waters. And the remains of their cliffside dwelling above the well still exist, as seen in the photo below.

Montezuma Well- Infrared

Wupatki and Sunset Crater Volcano National Monuments https://www.nps.gov/sucr/index.htm–https://www.nps.gov/wupa/index.htm both are within 20 miles of each other, separated by part of the Coconino National Forest. The volcano last erupted around 800 years ago. Thousands of people were farming in the nearby Wupatki pueblos, and they witnessed the eruption. They vacated the area not long after, but the structures they built remain to this day. You can hike the lava field at the base of the volcano, then drive to Wupatki to see how people lived when the volcano last erupted. The prairie between the two sites is one of the most astonishing landscapes I have ever seen.

The Lava Field Below Sunset Crater Volcano
Wupatki Pueblo
Coconino- The Prairie Between Sunset Crater and Wupatki

These are places everyone should see. And there are even other sites that I have learned about but have not yet seen. There will be another trip, I have barely explored the wonders this state has to offer.

The Smokies- Back of Beyond

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“The dreamy, blue haze that ever hovers over the mountains softens all outlines, lends a mirage-like effect of great distance to objects that are but a few miles off while those farther removed grow more and more intangible, until finally the skyline blends with the sky itself.” Horace Kephart


It is becoming an annual tradition now, where Cathie and I head to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. In 2018, we went twice. I wrote about the first trip, from April, but didn’t get a chance to write about the Thanksgiving excursion. Having just come back from there now, I have decided to just write a little about the park, not necessarily what I have done there, but the experience of being there.

It’s one of the few places where you can be in a heavy, tourist area like Pigeon Forge or Gatlinburg, but a short drive later, you are off the grid. Twenty minutes out of these heavily populated areas, you have no cellular signal. And while it is the most heavily visited parks, outpacing all of the others by quite a substantial margin each year, you can find yourself away from others. As primarily a landscape and nature photographer, hopefully it’s not hard to understand why I’m drawn to this place. After all, the park owes its existence to photographers.

I had the chance to see the park in late fall, over Thanksgiving last year. There were a few days where there was a heavy frost in the valleys. The park still held tremendous beauty, even if a little stark, with winter about to set in.

Prior to November, my trips had been in spring, although they were after the wildflowers had bloomed. This time, we planned our trip to be closer to bloom. The forests and valleys were awakening, we had timed our trip well this time. The day I arrived was quite rainy, and the rain continued the first full day in the park last Monday. As a result, the streams, rivers and waterfalls were raging. This offered us a myriad of photo opportunities during the week, which we took full advantage of.

Mostly, this past week was about detaching from day-to-day life. I didn’t come back with a tremendous amount of photos. I tried to make the photos count, though. And I also wanted to just be in the moment. Hearing the streams running. Walking out onto the balcony of our cabin with a cup of coffee in the morning, with the only sounds being birds chirping and wind blowing in the trees. It was sublime. It was a fantastic week, as was the week we spent there in November. And while I might not be able to return to the Smokies this year, I will be back, to the back of beyond.

First Road Trip for 2018, Part 3

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Monday, April 30, was my 50th birthday. Spending my birthday with my two favorite people is what this was all about. We had breakfast at the cabin, and then ventured into the park. Whether it was too warm, or we arrived too late, the Cades Cove area was not blanketed in its usual morning fog. And there was not much going on around the loop road, so we ended up stopping only at the Cable Grist Mill. I had the chance to finally use the new Lee neutral density filters there, getting some long exposures of the turning water wheel. We then stopped at the souvenir shop, and since I needed a hat, I bought a Smokies trucker cap (two of them, I couldn’t decide on one or the other), plus a few other items. We had lunch, and then scouted the Foothills Parkway for sunrise locations. On the way back into Townsend, we stopped at a country store, where Cathie found a table that she fell in love with. The table was a bear holding up the glass table top. It was hand carved, really well done, but, was quite expensive.

These mid-day diversions became a necessity for most of the trip. Although the weather was spectacular, there were little to no clouds during that week. This makes more for some very harsh light, particularly from mid-morning to late afternoon. Whether you’re shooting in the visible light spectrum, or infrared, that harsh light from the sun directly overhead does not result in the best photographs.

Once we finished at the store, we headed back into the park, and went to one of my favorite roadside rivers, on the road to Cades Cove. We stopped there for close to an hour, and because there are tall hills on both sides of the road, the sun was blocked, giving us some more even light. I utilized the filters again, getting some long exposures of the raging waters (the featured image at the top of this post was taken there). When we finished, our original plan was to head back in the direction we came. But, traffic was backed up all the way to our spot, due to road resurfacing near Tremont. Knowing how far that road was, we decided to head back to Cades Cove and then take the Rich Mountain Road, and head back to Pigeon Forge that way for dinner. It turned out to be a happy detour. First, at Sparks Lane, there was a large group of horses grazing, and walking right up the fence to check out us crazy humans. I was able to get some photos after I was freed from Cathie’s car. For some reason, Cathie decided to park right next to the only road sign on Sparks Lane, blocking me so that I could not open the door. After about 10-15 minutes of her merrily photographing the horses for herself, she realized I had not gotten out of the car. That’s when I pointed out where she had parked. Thanks, Cathie, lol! Once I was able to start getting some photos, the first of a few weird occurrences happened with my workhorse Nikon D800. As I was rapidly firing, the viewfinder suddenly went dark, and the metering was not working. Even after turning the camera off and on, taking out the battery and putting it back in, it was only when I had changed lenses that it started working ok. I went back to the lens I was using, and it seemed to be working fine again. This happened a few other times on this trip. I’m still researching what the issue could be. 

We continued on to Rich Mountain Road, and on the drive up the hill, we came across a bear. It was the first one I had seen in the park in my two trips. I was on the wrong side of the car to get any kind of decent shot. At one point, I had gotten out to try to retrieve my camera from the trunk, but this got the bear’s attention. To be safe, and to not encourage her to approach closer, I got back in the car. Cathie got several photos, that was good enough for both of us. Finally, we headed out to get dinner. I chose Bennett’s Barbecue Pit for dinner, we ate there the last time. The food is excellent, as was the beer, and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly after a great first full day in the park.