Little by little I am getting through editing the photos from the amazing trips we were lucky enough to take this past Spring and Summer. I will start with the one we took in April to Utah. This area is so striking. It looks other-worldly.

We began with a one night camping spot in Fruita, Colorado. It was a weekend night, so we felt we needed a reservation, and frankly this spot was the closest we could get to Moab with a reservation. It also broke up the drive nicely and allowed us to get an early start the next day. The site itself was nothing too special, but we did get some pretty skies as the sun was setting.

The next day we set out to find a first come first serve campsite heading into Moab. As you drive toward Moab, there are a ton of campsites that are all first come first serve along 128. If you are there on a weekday or get an early enough start on a weekend like we did, you can snag a good site. The only trick is that you need to make the choice of whether to grab a good one when you see it or try your luck at getting closer to Moab. We lucked out with a great one by the Colorado River about 20 minutes outside of Moab in a campsite called Hittle Bottom.

After setting up camp, we set out to Arches National Park. It has very impressive rock formations, but overall was not our favorite national park. We are certainly glad we went, but it was just very crowded. It felt a bit like the Disney World of national parks.

That night was a beautiful star gazing night and we enjoyed our campsite. I really didn’t have the proper equipment with me for star photography, but I placed my camera on the ground and took a few photos that way.

In the morning we drove over to Canyonlands National Park for a fabulous hike. I decided not to bring my big camera on this hike and just used my iPhone. I am sure I could have gotten creative with the big camera, but my iPhone did a pretty good job at capturing the scenery and it was nice to not have the extra weight for once.

It was a fun hike with a lot of technical aspects. I would definitely do this hike again. It was in The Needles section of Canyonlands.

While we were in Canyonlands, we stopped by the visitor’s center to obtain an overnight camping permit for the park. The Needles area was full, but we were able to get a permit for Island in the Sky, one of the other areas of Canyonlands. We stayed in the same campsite outside Moab again that night and then packed up our things to go backpacking the next day. It was like a reverse backpacking trip. We started in the late afternoon by hiking into a canyon and then the next day we had to hike back out of the canyon.

Here is day one, hiking into the canyon.

We set up our tent in the dried up river bed, as the ranger had suggested.

As the sun went down, we sat down to eat under the pictured rock-face. We almost put our chair on top of a beautiful flower we swore we had not seen earlier. We realized it was a night blooming flower, the Tufted Evening-Primrose.

It was super windy that night. We were basically in a giant sandstorm. Luckily we managed to fall asleep and woke up to this gorgeous sight.

Our Primrose remained open as long as a shadow was cast over it from the rock-face.

The sun was rising quickly, so we began our hike out. We spotted several huge lizards on our way out.

We made it out! The hike out was actually not as hard as anticipated. It was such a unique backpacking trip and such a cool memory.

Literally as soon as the car was in sight it began hailing! We could not have timed it better. It not only meant that we didn’t have to hike in the hail, but it also meant that I was able to take some awesome weather photos looking over another canyon in Island in the Sky. We usually want perfect weather for vacation, but many of the unique nature photos are not taken on a sunny afternoon. These photos truly look like another planet. It was breathtaking. I will just let them speak for themselves as words truly don’t do them justice. This was a luck of timing. I am so glad I had my equipment with me.

 

I love that my camera was able to pick up the streaks of hail falling into the canyon and the idyllic light cast on the rocks.

This giant crow was perched near our car, hail falling around him.

Speaking of weather, we continued to see a variety of weather as we headed home.

The next few are photos I plan to use in my “From the Window” series. I have photos from around the world for this and I really want to put it together. I hope to find the time soon. I really think they have a special feel to them. Perhaps it feels even more like a stollen or fleeting moment in time since they are all caught on the fly. The shot cannot be contemplated long when I compose it and the motion of it’s fleeting nature is often felt in the blurs.

Once we reached Colorado, it began snowing. The landscape and mood look totally different from Utah. It was a sight to see.

Next up…Iceland! I have been editing those photos for a while and I think I will break the blog up into regions.