My brother, whom I’m extremely close with… has travelled the world (Nepal, Bolivia, Vietnam, Europe, Bhutan) as a KE Adventures biking/trekking guide… once said…”you need to check out Zion.” This is a fella that’s made the Roaring Fork Valley his home for 20 years, and I can’t get him to join me for an Elk Mountain adventure, for 20 years! It just doesn’t motivate him. So Zion it is.
I made my first trip to Zion with the intention of breaking the typical rules for visiting. I will not shoot “up” at Zion. My goal was to find weaknesses in the canyons and the sheerness of the near vertical walls of sandstone that appear to be everywhere. That way I could level myself out with the terrain to shoot across the incredible landscape. Next, I needed great views. Not just a view of a vertical wall of rock with nice light, but more of a view that showed mountainous layering, with nice light. It’s the layering that’s key. Google Earth made this happen.
Next I contacted a few old acquaintances from my climbing days, and they helped me find starting points and cleared up all my questions that Google Earth could not answer.
Next I found partners. We agreed that we would need to carry a gallon of water a day minimum to survive the desert conditions. Then we decided that we would do two separate trips from Denver to Zion in May, and do two-day-two-night trips both visits. That meant backpacking up to 4 miles and carrying 2 gallons of water in addition to the food, camera gear and overnight pack gear for two night trips. Never carried that much weight!
First trip we climbed Progeny Peak and shot sunset and sunrise from the summit. The next day we headed into the southeast slick rock zone and shot sunrise and sunset near a locally named peak called “Destination Peak.” Both vistas centered on the great East Temple Peak, a massive mountain that cannot go unrecognized when visiting Zion.
The next trip to Zion was a pure backpack trip back into the southeast slick rock zone. Both nights we shot from a peak called “Roof Peak,” and “Hepworth Peak.”
Both trips we had excellent shooting conditions (nice clouds) with the exception of wind. On one occasion I came back from a sunset shooting to a flattened tent full of sand. I would call that day a “wind event.” Before the flattened tent episode, I laid in my tent, on my back, with my limbs spread out holding the walls up. Gail force winds would roar through our area and it would sound like a jet engine.
Both trips were incredibility intense shooting. The kind of shooting that you compare to your all time best outings. As my buddy Jim said, “this is flavor country.”
All in all I’m excited about my time in Zion. I will certainly be going back to explore different nooks and cranny’s. I hope you enjoy the gallery.
Great to see your meticulous planning and research pay off! Never have I seen any of those vantage points, and you really got some incredible light. I can't believe you got all those shots in a matter of 4 days!!! Thanks for sharing such a unique view of the parks high country.
It really is refreshing to see such unique views of Zion, and your hard work paid off in spades as far as I'm concerned (and I really enjoy your vivid descriptions!).
I'm especially fond of 'Timeless Zion', 'Forever Zion' and 'All Alone'. Like your image from the Green River Overlook, I love the colors, 'development' and originality of all of them!
Thanks to all for the comments. I love a pat on the back!!! I forgot to mention the technical aspects of the images. Most if not all of the sunrise/sunset shots are two image blends in PS. There's a few in there that are three image blends. The day shots are all single exposures. I only used my 14-24 and my 24-105. I never missed the 70-200 because everything in Zion feels right on top of you.
Discussion
16 repliesI made my first trip to Zion with the intention of breaking the typical rules for visiting. I will not shoot “up” at Zion. My goal was to find weaknesses in the canyons and the sheerness of the near vertical walls of sandstone that appear to be everywhere. That way I could level myself out with the terrain to shoot across the incredible landscape. Next, I needed great views. Not just a view of a vertical wall of rock with nice light, but more of a view that showed mountainous layering, with nice light. It’s the layering that’s key. Google Earth made this happen.
Next I contacted a few old acquaintances from my climbing days, and they helped me find starting points and cleared up all my questions that Google Earth could not answer.
Next I found partners. We agreed that we would need to carry a gallon of water a day minimum to survive the desert conditions. Then we decided that we would do two separate trips from Denver to Zion in May, and do two-day-two-night trips both visits. That meant backpacking up to 4 miles and carrying 2 gallons of water in addition to the food, camera gear and overnight pack gear for two night trips. Never carried that much weight!
First trip we climbed Progeny Peak and shot sunset and sunrise from the summit. The next day we headed into the southeast slick rock zone and shot sunrise and sunset near a locally named peak called “Destination Peak.” Both vistas centered on the great East Temple Peak, a massive mountain that cannot go unrecognized when visiting Zion.
The next trip to Zion was a pure backpack trip back into the southeast slick rock zone. Both nights we shot from a peak called “Roof Peak,” and “Hepworth Peak.”
Both trips we had excellent shooting conditions (nice clouds) with the exception of wind. On one occasion I came back from a sunset shooting to a flattened tent full of sand. I would call that day a “wind event.” Before the flattened tent episode, I laid in my tent, on my back, with my limbs spread out holding the walls up. Gail force winds would roar through our area and it would sound like a jet engine.
Both trips were incredibility intense shooting. The kind of shooting that you compare to your all time best outings. As my buddy Jim said, “this is flavor country.”
All in all I’m excited about my time in Zion. I will certainly be going back to explore different nooks and cranny’s. I hope you enjoy the gallery.
http://www.kaephotography.com/gallery/zion-hidden/
Guy
I think Brutal showed the trip for what it took to get there.
I'm especially fond of 'Timeless Zion', 'Forever Zion' and 'All Alone'. Like your image from the Green River Overlook, I love the colors, 'development' and originality of all of them!