Thanksgiving in Zion

Zion's West Temple

Desert Varnish in Zion

The Colors of Zion

Zion Narrows

Crescent Moon Over Zion

Angels' Landing

Angels' Landing in Zion National Park

Capturing the glow of the colorful monoliths found in Zion National Park is a difficult challenge.

The light in the canyon changes moment to moment, so that sometimes even a camera

can not record the mood and color as we see and experience it.

This is not a very good photo, but I have made a rough sketch and done a wet in wet
wash of pale yellow and cadmium orange over most of the paper.

Excuse the shadows, here I have added another wash with more cad orange on
the rocks and more yellows and some oranges in the mid ground, where the trees are.

Oops, several steps have gone by because I forget to record them.
More details everywhere,  keeping the mountains in the background faded since they are in the distance,
and gradually adding more detail as we move forward, with darker areas around the edges
of the trees to make them more defined and to indicated that they are in front of the mountains.

Here I have added some detail to the focal point which is Angels' Landing, and the trees in the mid ground.

Next the foreground grasses and bushes were added.
There is still work to be done on the focal point, Angels' Landing, as well as deciding what I want to do with the sky. 

Solo Hike

A little piece of Paradise that is not easy to find

Thanks to Jim and Gayle, we found Red Cliffs recreation area.  We have been coming to SW Utah for
close to 30 years and we never knew about this place.  There are very few signs so you must know where you
are going before hand.  And we hardly ever know where we are going. :-)

Once you find the correct interstate exit and the access road,  there are two small tunnels to negotiate

Goldie had to "suck it in"

A picturesque campground with just 12 sites
sits at the base of the cliffs

Mark wanted to work on his blog post, so I did a solo hike up Quail Creek on the Red Reef Trail

It was not always a trail

An oasis in the desert

This part looked interesting

Coming up was easy 

I soon ran into a tangle of boulders and vegetation blocking my way

Going back down was spooky.
A pleasant afternoon of exploration 

Ode to the Cottonwood

Fremont Cottonwood in Horseshoe Canyon

I love Cottonwood trees, they are like old friends, sheltering, steadfast, adaptable.  They may start out smooth and pale, but with age comes deepening furrows and darker complexions.

curvy

Groovy

Adaptable

This cottonwood had a large limb that stretched out from the trunk.  The limb reached the rock and started sending out tentacle like smaller limbs to find the way around the rock .  See another view below...

tenacious