Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park

We wanted to see the Antelope Canyon, the Wave and visit some other Slotcanyons. But this week was really frustrating. Antelope Canyon has doubled its prices since last year when I planned that trip. 80$ for a two hours phototour. A lot of money. What will you do … the weather didn’t look so good. Thunderstorms and clouds the next couple days … so we decided not to spend 80$ when there is good chance to get bad light. And there were thunderstorms … a lot of them. We drove to Kanab to get a permit for the Wave. And that would have been realy easy. But the rangers there warned us. The thunderstorms this season are the worst since years. Highway 89 was closed south of Page, because it was wahsed away. Another road has now a 6 feet canyon going through … and all the other roads to the Canyons and the Wave are dirtroads and impassable right now. A jeep was stuck on the road to the Wave for 4 days and three people died on the trail.
And we just have a van … so no chance and way too dangerous. That was really frustrating. That calls for another Phototrip in a few years.

Instead we decided to drive to Zion National Park. But before we visited the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. A Park which should not call itself State Park. Fun Park would be more appropriate. They are allowed to drive there Sandbuggies and Off-Road vehicles over the dunes. Not a pleasant sight and really annoying. Just retarted people racing up and down and destroying a really beautiful landscape.

Here are some pictures, right before the next thunderstorm …. click to enlarge

Petrified Forest National Park

From Gooseneck we started pretty early to get to Petrified Forest National Park. Although Petrified is a pretty small park it is definitely worth a visit. Here you find the biggest collection of petrified trees in the world. Scattered trunks lying around in the desert. There is the painted desert in the north and the petrified trees to the south. Sadly you can’t really go between the scattered pieces everywhere. So ne nice pictures you see on the parkwebpage are almost impossible to take. I asked how you get a permission to do such pictures and the rangers told me you need a permit which is very hard to get. The other negetaive point is, that you have to leave the parks in the early afternoon. So you don’t have nice evening light for taking pictures.
But nevertheless there are some trails where you see some nice petrified trunks. And when you are there, do the trails in the Blue Mesa. Absolut amazing.

As always … click to enlarge.

Monument Valley & Gooseneck SP

After the two big National Parks we headed to the famous Monument Valley. And we couldn’t be more disappointed. The whole area is on Navajo Country and you have to pay 5$ for a day. There are no signs from outside what you will see. These Towers for what it is famous you see from outside of the park. A dirtroad in pretty bad shape is doing a 17mile loop and you see nothing special. Maybe I expected too much.
In the afternoon we drove up to Gooseneck State Park. It is just a parking lot, but with an amazing view over the river below and three bends in a row. It is also a perfect place to camp. And it is free.

Click to enlarge.

Arches NP & Canyonlands NP & Big Bend Bouldering

From Boulder to Arches NP you just have to cross the mountains. Driving along the Colorado River where everything is green, down the river where everything is red. It is a nice change in the landscape and really fascinating. We spent two days in Arches NP and one day in Canyonlands NP. These parks are in a desert enviroment and the funny thing is it rained every day. Thunderstorms were coming in the late afternoon, so no sunsets because of the clouds. Even in the morning, when I wanted to take pictures of the sunrise at Mesa Arch there were clouds covering the sun. But one evening we got a little bit of sun at Delicate Arch. We stayed one night in Canyonlands and it even started to hail … I am not lucky with the weather in the desert.

Besides we were bouldering at the Big Bend bouldering area near Moab. Its bombproof sandstone and sandbagged liked Yosemite. But nevertheless a really nice area for a day or two.

Here are the pictures. Enjoy and click to enlarge.

Boulder & Rocky Mountain NP

At first we wanted to stay in Boulder and RMNP for a week, but after a small accident we were driving to Great Sand Dunes (see last post). So we had just a few days in Boulder and its beautiful rainy weather. There were thunderstorms almost every afternoon. We had two days of bouldering and about two hours in RMNP before we came in a thunderstorm. After about 10 minutes everything was soakwet and I had problems to get my camerastuff all under my rainjacket.
Nevertheless, here are some pictures. Click to enlarge.

Great Sand Dunes National Park

Two days we have been there. And it was almost raining two days. We had short periods where it was just windy and fizzling and we headed out to the dunes. Sadly I wasn’t able to manage the photos I wanted to take … sunset and beautiful colors … but you can’t have perfect conditions everywhere.

So here are some impressions. A visit is totaly worth it because it is an weird landscape. You have forest, a river, mountains and a lot of sand in between.

Devils Tower

Not really a National Park but the first National Monument in the US. Somewhere in Wyoming in the middle of nowhere. The Devils Tower is an eroded intrusion and stands free in the prarie. Blacktailed prarie dogs live there and a big areal is covered with their holes. Snakes crawling around and hawks circling over Prarie Dog Town, trying to get one of these cute animals. But they are way too fast and not easy to catch.

We climbed there for two days. If you don’t like cracks, forget Devils Tower. There are more than 200 routes and every route is a crack. But if you like cracks it is a perfect place to be. But bring a lot of cams.

Here are some impressions. Enjoy! Click to enlarge

Yellowstone NP Wildlife

I never thought that I would see a grizzly here. But after the first two hours in the park I saw two grizzlies. Two days later there was a grizzly with her two cubs and luckily they were very relaxed. I know we were way too close but it was cute. And the car gives you some saftey.

Best places to watch is the northern part of the loop. Most of the grizzlies were very close to the road (i.e. the grizzly with the cubs just 5m beside the road).

The Hayden Valley is very good for bisons. With luck there are big herds near the road.

In Mammoth, there was a big herd of elks living between the houses.

An other good place is the Lamarvalley in the northeast of the park. Big bisons herds and with luck wolfs.

Around Tower Falls there is a lot of bear activity. So go there if you want to see some bears.

Now the pictures, enjoy.

Yellowstone NP Landscape

A dream come true for every photographer. Wildlife and amazing landscape. Yellowstone is the place to be when you want to take pictures of wildlife and crazy landscapes. I’ve been in the park for two hours when I saw my first grizzly and bison. After a week we just see the main attractions around the big loop through the park. We just did one-day-hikes. There are more than enough reasons to come back more than ones. It is the perfect place for photographers. The geysirs, mudvolcanos, springs, pools, colors and structures are one thing. The animals the other. And of course the landscape. As a photographer you could stay here for a year and it would never be boring. There will be at least three parts in the Yellowstone series. Enough words, let the pictures talk. As always click the pictures to enlarge.