Category: Photos (page 1 of 28)

Photographs

Bush Fire from Fountain Hills

Marilyn, Marie, and I went for an evening walk on Saturday, the 13th.  Marilyn noticed a reddish glow in the distance; we walked up a nearby hill to see better.  We saw an orange glow in the distance, behind some hills.  When we concluded our walk, I brought my camera out to get this photo.  It was much less bright than shown in my photo below; actually, at the time we were there, it was less bright than earlier in the evening.

On the ten O’clock news we learned that it’s called the Bush Fire, it’s in the Tonto National Forest, and that traffic has been blocked of on SR 87 (Beeline Hwy).

Update – 2020-06-14:

Marilyn and I went out for another walk, shortly after 8:00pm on Sunday, the 14th.  We first walked up to the top of the hill where I had taken the earlier photo. We returned by walking down the street upon which we lived.  At the top of the street (which is on a hill), we found quite a dramatic view…

Update – 2020-06-15:

On the evening of Monday, the 15th, I walked across McDowell Mountain Road, hiked up one of the hills to the north, and took some more photos.  According to InciWeb, on Monday evening, the Bush Fire is 37,900 acres in size and is still 0% contained.

Remember, this is a long exposure; this scene did not appear this bright while I was there. I was able to see some lights on the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, I certainly wasn’t able to see this community in the level of detail shown here – it was much too dark. Likewise, the smoke didn’t have much of the color or glow shown in this photo; that too is due to taking a long exposure.

Update – 2020-06-16:

According to InciWeb, the Bush Fire grew to 64,513 acres in size, still with 0% containment. However, when I went out on my balcony in the evening to look, I saw only a faint glow in several areas. That being the case, I decided against going somewhere to take a photo and instead just took a shot from my balcony. Although my eyes couldn’t see much activity in the distance, a three and half minute exposure picked up a lot of hot spots on Four Peaks in addition to the usual glow in the smoke. I think that the long exposure smoothed out the smoke in addition to making the trees appear out of focus – they’re not out of focus; it’s just motion blur.

Kolob Canyons in the Fog and Rain

On Thursday, the 23rd, we had hoped to hike the La Verkin Creek Trail in the Kolob Canyons area of Zion National Park. The morning started sunny, but by the time we arrived at the Kolob Canyons area, it was raining on and off, mostly on. The trails were wet and muddy; visibility was poor; we decided to take a few pictures and take a rest day.

The first two photos were taken from the same overlook that Marilyn and I had visited on the day before. The final photo was taken from a switchback on the road back down to the park entrance.

Capitol Reef – Egyptian Temple

On the 16th, we drove from Moab to Torrey. I didn’t take many pictures that day, but I did get out to photograph a formation known as the Egyptian Temple along the Scenic Drive in Capitol Reef National Park. I don’t know why we stopped for this formation in particular; it may just be that we felt the need to stretch our legs after the long drive. Prior to this stop we had driven to the end of the Scenic Drive and then into the Capitol Reef Gorge. We want to go back and hike some of the trails in the Gorge someday.

Shafer Canyon Road / Island in the Sky

Snow!

After raining most of the day Thursday, we got snow on Thursday night into Friday morning. I took these photos from our yard.

Niagara Falls

Hickman Bridge

Fairyland Canyon – Bryce Canyon National Park

View from the Springdale La Quinta

Views from just outside our room at Capitol Reef Resort

We stayed three nights at the Capitol Reef Resort just outside of Torrey, Utah. To the best of my knowledge, this motel is the closest to the Capitol Reef National Park of any in the area.  That said, Torrey isn’t that far away and there are plenty of places to stay there too.

As shown below, the views are outstanding. However, there is quite a lot of nearby exposed dirt, making it very dusty on windy days. On the day we left, the parking lot seemed to be ensconced in a dust storm.

The beds were firm and comfortable. Room size was barely adequate for the three of us with all of the stuff that we bring with us.

There is no complimentary breakfast – it’s $10 per person. The breakfast buffet provided plenty of choices, but the scrambled eggs seemed a bit greasier than I was accustomed to. Marie didn’t feel well after her breakfast there and ended up staying back on that day. We bought cereal and milk from the General Store in Torrey and ate cereal on the remaining days.

When we visit again, we’ll stay somewhere else. It’s not that the Capitol Reef Resort was bad; we just want to find out what else is available.