Last week I took a road trip to Canyonlands National Park in Utah with my friend, Rick. The drive west was spectacular with beautiful fall colors along the Colorado River and near Vail ski area.
The plan was to be in the desert for both sunset and moonrise, which happens at the same time during the October harvest moon (full moon). The weather didn't cooperate with us as far as the sun and the moon were concerned. Since it was cloudy, I decided to use a camera that had been converted to shoot only black and white infrared images. Photographing landscapes in intense environments seemed simple enough, although it's difficult to capture an image that exactly reflects what it's like to be there.
In this case infrared made the scenery look like something out of Alice in Wonderland, which is pretty much what it was like in person. Infrared turns green and yellow leaves white, like they are snow-covered and brings up the clouds in high contrast. I hope to use this camera again in other environments, such as above timberline in the mountains of Colorado.
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flash playerWe arrived after sunset on Day One, and discovered that the four-wheel drive roads were too difficult to navigate in the dark. It did make for a couple of cool pictures though. So we headed out of the park to camp on BLM land nearby. We found a great spot and had dinner while the moon came up and then disappeared in the clouds.
The next morning we woke up to light rain. Not what we had planned for, so we didn't get in a hurry to go hiking. We checked in at the ranger station and learned that a big rain storm was coming in that night and was going to last a couple of days. We figured if we wanted to hike, we had better get going. The area we wanted to visit is in the southern part of the Canyonlands, about an hours' drive south of Moab called The Needles. The rain stopped and the sun came out about noon. We decided to do a hike that would take about six hours and finish just after sunset.
It was perfect weather for hiking and the incoming clouds made for a cool background behind the rocks. Taking time to make pictures put us a little behind schedule, and before the sun set, the storm had rolled in upon us. We were about four miles from the trailhead - in the rain and the dark. We hiked hard and fast as thunder boomed around us. Before long the trails became streams. We felt fine as we were prepared for rain and the lightning was up high and we were in a valley.
Then I heard what sounded like Niagara Falls. What had been a dry streambed suddenly turned into a roaring river about 50 feet across and five feet deep. There were rocks tumbling under the water and a big tree floated by. There was no way we could have crossed the rushing water. We also couldn't figure out where the trail would reappear. We decided to find some shelter from the rain and try to stay warm. We found a rock outcropping that blocked the rain but not the wind. Sitting there getting colder by the minute I couldn't imagine hanging out until dawn. The rain stopped about midnight and we decided to hike around to warm up and find a better place to spend the night. We found a spot and I even managed to get in an hour of sleep before I woke up in the cold. We hiked back down to the water to see if it was low enough to cross, since it hadn't been raining for awhile. The water was low enough but we had trouble finding the trail on the other side. The trail/road crossed the stream/river about five more times! We finally made it to Elephant Hill which is a four-wheel drive road - the one we tried to drive up the night before. It was a long, steep climb and a sharp descent to the parking lot. It was cloudy and raining by the light of dawn as we walked up to Rick's Ford Explorer.
So what started out to be a six-hour day hike had turned into a 19-hour adventure in the wilderness. All's well that ends well.
Cheers, Kent
Labels: Travel
