Two Days In Escalante

The Set Up

Every morning these days I wake up and the first step hurts. Ever since I got foot surgery in December I have been dealing with Plantar Fasciitis. So when I woke up and took my first step on Friday it was no different. But this was the pain of pleasure, because I was going to Escalante today to photograph.

About 8 months ago I announced a photography workshop in Escalante that subsequently didn’t get filled. Apparently, it's hard to convince people to walk miles over uneven ground, slippery rocks and stuff. But that is not the important part of this story. The important part is that I convinced a Texas photographer, Michael Rung to join me on this little adventure. So at 1PM we parked in an overly packed parking lot at the bottom of a canyon and got our gear ready to go on an adventure.

The Adventure Begins

Every Adventure should begin with a wise old man to give you advice before you wander off into the wilds. Elron in the council of middle earth functionally played that role and sent Frodo off to Mount Doom to save Middle Earth. My elderly hero was a stooped hermit with a pipe in hand, about 8 inches of scraggly beard and a floppy wide brimmed hat that set him apart as “Camp Host.” I had three questions before I started my adventure.

Question 1- “Can I fly a drone here?” Answer- Yes… sorta as long as the other people are ok with it.

Question 2- Can I park over on the side of the road?” Answer- “uhhhh yeah… as long as the road isn’t blocked.”

Question 3- “Do National Park Passes count as parking fee substitute?” Answer- “Yeah.”

And just like that, my elderly hero set me up for victory. In the end I took his advice about the drone and decided to leave it. I didn’t want to bug people, and I also didn’t want to carry the weight. With food packed and a wild plan we set off into the desert to chase fall colors and waterfalls.

Don’t Mess With The Process

Ben Horne, a photographer from California, often talks about the first photo of a trip. It’s job isn’t to be good, its just supposed to get the creative systems going. So yeah, my first photo sucked (See image below). But that was the point. The first image of the adventure was a scraggly tree surrounded by other scraggle trees. The hope was that it might stand out with some fancy editing foot work... it kind of does....

Never underestimate the process of progression in a photoshoot. This photo hike was primarily to photograph the waterfall at the end, but a good photographer knows there is a lot of canyon between the beginning of the hike and the waterfall at the end. All of that canyon is the warmup for the finale.

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Oasis

Calf Creek is in my opinion the prettiest waterfall in Utah… and many other places as well. I have seen waterfalls in Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, California, Alaska and Wyoming and I would put Calf Creek Falls above almost every waterfall I have seen in these states (except maybe a few). I had a lady once in Hawaii say the 120 foot waterfall we were about to go see was going to be the prettiest waterfall you will ever see. I think she had island bias but when we were there, I leaned over to my wife and said “I think I know a prettier one.” She agreed that Calf Creek was better too.

What ever. Let’s get past the humble bragging about Utah.

Work It

The proper way to photograph a waterfall is kind of like photographing a pretty girl, from as many angles as you can. Like the female body, waterfalls have curves, elegance, power and beauty. So I took this opportunity to photograph the falls from at least six or seven angles. Wide shots, zoom shots, reflection shots and iconic shots, and a few that didn’t work. Luckily I followed the process and was fully warmed up photographically by time I got here.

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Never Miss an Opportunity.

“Never miss a chance to have sex or appear on television”

Gore Vidal

was the quote that my wife had to discover in her puzzle game the night I got home from my trip in Escalante. Let's modify this a little to match the photographers mantra “never miss a shot because your camera is in the camera bag.” Once the photography begins I almost never carry my camera in my bag anymore, I shift it to the top of my tripod.

After we finished our photoshoot at the waterfall, we set out to return in the dark, me with camera in hand. By time we left we had about one hour of light left before we were walking in the dark. Sometimes on the walk out, late in the evening, after you have done everything you came to do, you discover a few images that were not quite ready yet. They creep up on you and if you are not willing to stop you just might walk right pass them. Luckily my camera was still out so the motivation was there to catch one last image of the night. 

Day 2- From The Depths to the Temples

Depths

One side effect of photographing with someone who isn’t a photographer is that they kind of move at my speed, particularly if they were invited by me to come along. So I dictate the pace. Photographing with a different photographer actually means there are two different paces that are both valid. Michael is slower and more methodical than I am. I apparently photograph like teenager thinks, all over the place.

So, when we began our day two adventure down the upper Escalante, I told him some good ground rules so that we were not interfering with each others photographic styles. I outlined a good stopping point that he shouldn’t go past just in case he gets ahead of me or vis versa. This meant that we could go at our own pace and still see all the canyon we could generally see in a day photographing.

I thought it worked.

Water Works

Two days before our morning hike Escalante got one inch of water and the mountains the drain into the canyons… Some amount. One inch of water doesn’t sound like much, but for a place like southern Utah that functionally equals the end of the world if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time. And if you were in the Escalante River on Thursday you might have died.

Evidence of the flash flood in our section easily put the water about 4-5 feet above ancle level like it normally sits. I suspect the lower section of the canyon was comfortably sitting at “I’m Screwed! I’m Screwed!” levels of water. Sections of the river had easily overflowed its bank and had carved new side channels. It also meant that the river also had a bunch of really cool wud patterns forming with freshly falling cottonwood leaves settling on them.

With that, I channeled my inner Eric Bennett and photographed leaves on mud. You know what… I freakin loved it. I ended up spending about an hour in this section of the canyon because it provided so much. Big walls, a place to get high above the river and some narrow curves to create interesting compositions.

Horsey Visitors.

Horses stink. But they are one of those animals that are photogenic beyond what they should be. When you combine horses, cow boys and canyons you just kind of get cool photos. While we were photographing this lady came down with her horse, donkey and dog to see how the river was so she could guide a client the next day through the area. Following her, was another surprise horse troop that brought about a dozen horses through the canyon on some sort of guided horse adventure. I eventually said hi but left them to their own devices. It’s not every day you get to photograph cowboys and canyons together in real life.

Temples

I managed to hike three and a half miles crossing the Escalante river crossing it nearly a dozen times without getting my socks wet. On my second river crossing on the way back I stepped poorly and got water down the inside of my leg and into my shoe.

Dang. My perfect record lost. Then I did it three more times.

Generally speaking hikes out are a lot faster than hikes in. The walk out took about 1/3, but we still didn’t get out of the main canyon until 3ish or so. I like a fool didn’t pack lunch so ended up eating granola bars for a meal. Luckily I was able to remedy my foolishness with a burger in town. (I recommend Nemo’s. Not the best burger in the world, but a great way to finish an Escalante Adventure.)

As we ate, we began to look at the weather and try to figure out what the next best plan was. We had three hours till sunset, but when looking at the weather apps we could see a cloud bank sitting to the west of us in that was only going to get more thick. We were on the wrong side for light, so we did what any good landscape photographer would, throw out our earlier plans and go to Zion. Two hours later we were in the park hanging out waiting for sunset.

The upper east side of Zion is kind of defined by big cracks and stand alone temples of rock in every direction. East Temple is back dropped by the West Temple. Checker Board Mesa is bordered by two unnamed mountains. Tucked between these unnamed sandstone monoliths are endless compositional possibilities in the forms of hay stacks, river beds and trees.

I had plans to photograph a particular tree, that has some fame for those who know where it is. It was made famous by a photographer named Marc Adamus some years ago. When I first discovered it, I just happened to be driving by and picked it out amongst all the others in the area. Since that first attempt many years ago I haven't really bothered to try to photograph it. I figured tonight would be the night to give it another shot. Unfortunately, it’s at the top of a stupid hill that is roughly 200 feet tall with no clear/easy way up. Just another day as a landscape photographer.

If you really want, I could turn this next part into a word exposé on the emotional state of a landscape photographer. How I pondered and thought about the purpose of life and my meaning in the cosmos. But that’s not me. Religion is for that, and I already have that. I don’t need to spend my days twiddling my thumbs on that topic. Today was the waiting game and I was not waiting patiently for the light to happen.

I paced. I chatted a bit with Michael, I looked for the big horn sheep that I saw on the way in (didn’t find him again), and I composed a shot or two or three… or four. Once again my inner squirrel was showing again. Soon the sun appeared to have set and I was left feeling a bit disappointed, and I worked my way off the mountain back to my photo compadre.

As I was chatting with him, I looked up and suddenly realized the sunset had come roaring back and the sky turned brilliant crimson and pink and purple and all the other colors a good sunset should have.

Dang.

Fear not dear reader, I happen to be somewhat competent in what I do and have actually been in this area before. On my way to photograph my original tree I had scoped out a few compositions as I walked by. I don’t consider it a super power, but a skill developed over years and years of work. Outside of my scoping, I have photographed this particular spot a few times so I knew where the interesting compositions were as well. So, in my seven minutes (max 10 minutes) of interesting light, I lined up a few images and snapped away. I didn’t get a lot of time to dial and tweak, just enough time to get a few nice shots.

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The light faded, and then it was dark.

I parted ways with Michael after that. Off to return home, back to life and kids and work. Life has been kind of a stressful treat these days. Photography has been a bit of an escape while also managing to be a ball and chain. It hold’s me steady when the winds of life blow, but drags me down into the depths of frustration and despair when it begins to interfere between me and those around me.

But I guess that’s work isn’t it. I just happen to do a weird job.