I just returned from a pretty amazing trip in which I managed to hit 4 National Parks and a national Monument in a single trip of 10 days. Clearly, that is far too little time to allocate to explore even a single park in depth, but it just happened to work out this way and it turned out to be a great deal of fun. My main goal was seeing Capitol Reef NP, a place that I had not visited much compared to the other southern Utah parks, but the proximity of Capitol Reef to Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Bryce National Park made it easy to spend a day or two visiting those parks as well, and on my return to Salt Lake City, stopping at Arches and Canyonlands near Moab was pretty simple to do. All in all, the weather was very cooperative and I came away with a pack of interesting new photos, several of which seem to rank quite high up on my scale of keepers for my portfolio and web site. Two other brief stops at Utah State Parks, Factory Butte and Goblin Valley, completed this whirlwind travel to the Beehive State.
One of my favorite photos was the attached one of Factory Butte, which I had not planned to stop at, but a very cloudy grey morning started to give way to dissipating clouds and a burst of hazy sunlight, and Factory Butte lit up like a beacon. The sky was very interesting, though little color, but overall, the scene was a special one that I like very much. It is always great to add a special photo that is completely unexpected. I had photographed here many years ago, but came away with a picture that was only mildly inspiring, nothing all that special. Oddly, I completely missed the terrific colors in this area, since my original was a black and white photo, as that was all I was doing in those days. The landscape colors, however, this time around were what makes the photo stand out, especially with the enhanced sky above. This was a real favorite from this trip, though there were quite a few that I liked and I am still going through all the batch to see what the real highlights are. Also, I finally got out to Cathedral Valley, which I had wanted to go to for many years, and it did not fail to impress. All in all, a great trip.
Factory Butte, Utah