Sleeping with goblins

Yesterday was a Capitol Reef and Goblin day. I returned to Capitol Reef National Park after 8 years and went on one of the same hikes to find an amazing Sleepy Hollow tree and pointed dome that I had photographed back in 2005. Amazingly enough I found it again and it is pictured here: the photo from May 2005 and the one I took yesterday. It has changed very little in 8 years and both subjects are still wonderful to photograph.


Photo from 2005

Photo from 2013

Just before sunset I arrived in the Goblin Valley State Park to photograph the goblins, castles and other mud-like formations.




Since the goblin park campground was full, I had to fend for myself and find a BLM free campsite. Not a bad location.



The previous night I had stayed in a cabin in Torrey and even though it had a heater, I was still cold with 4 blankets and my sleeping bag on top. In retrospect, should have climbed inside the sleeping bag and zipped it up. Last night, camping in that spot and sleeping in my car was much warmer, it seemed. Although this morning was quite cold outside of the sleeping bag and I didn't want to leave it.
So I had stayed one more night so I could visit one more slot canyon before leaving as it was just around the corner from the goblin park: Little Wild Horse Canyon. It was quite a nice slot canyon and was more sparsely populated in the morning, but come noon and the hoards arrived all with several yelling children in tow, it seemed. Now, THIS was Disney Land rather than Antelope Canyon. I turned around and came back the same way rather than doing a loop as many others do, because the other canyon was not supposed to be as photogenic. I took some pics on the way out also, but it got to be a pain as group after group of people (some with 6 or 10 people in the group kept passing by, so it got a little bit old. Loved the canyon in the morning though. :) Didn't have to take off the backpack this time as it was not as narrow as Spooky. Although Spooky is still my favorite canyon now, narrowness and all. :)

Little Wild Horse Canyon

Me in Little Wild Horse Canyon
So the journey has come to an end and I'm on my way back. Currently in the land of wild potatoes - my own private Idaho.

Gnarly Trees and Red Canyons

Burr Trail

This day didn't start out so well. Well at first it did - I was camping last night and got up early (6:50am), so I thought, great, I can get an early start. While having coffee at the cafe this morning and checking my email and posting here, I decided to look to see if I could find a place that rented cabins near Capitol Reef NP. Well, I found one, Sand Creek RV Park, and so I decided to call them. So...I look for my phone and don't find it anywhere. I searched all my bags and on the floor of my car. I took EVERYTHING out of my car and still no phone. I search all my backpacks again. Nothing. I borrow the phone at Escalante Outfitters and call Virgin Mobile and have them shut off the service my cell phone because it's missing. So I wasted almost 1.5 hours on it this morning. I drive to the petrified forest and am loading up my hiking backpack and lo and behold, hiding behind a chocolate bar is my phone! I had looked in that pack several times and somehow did not see the chocolate bar or the phone! How stupid did I feel? I guess I should have turned my pack upside down and shook it. Well, I had my phone service restored and all is good now, but that was scary. Yes, I have a code lock on it, but I can just imagine if someone figured that out and started using the data roaming. Yikes! Scary thought.

Petrified Log

After the petrified forest hike, I headed over to the Burr Trail which you access at the town of Boulder, UT. It winds down a red canyon with juniper trees perched here and there, big red and golden walls with huge flakes cut into the stone. Hopefully a flake doesn't fall when I'm driving by. I was here in 2005 also and remembered the short slot canyon about half way through. I walked throug it again. It's very wide, unlike spooky was yesterday, and very short.

I end up eventually at an overlook and go past it a bit to see a sign for several destinations down a dirt road. I look up in my book I bought on photographing the southwest and one of the options is Death Hollow which is a cool slot canyon. It's 7 miles long and has very technical parts, but the beginning is not technical and you can hike it for a while. It's 13 miles down the road says the sign. But the book says 5 miles to Horse Canyon and THEN 13 more miles after that. Hmmm. I start down the road and get to Horse Canyon and decide not to proceed. The road is fine, but I just think it's getting late and I wanted to get to my cabin in Torrey before dark. So I eat lunch in Horse Canyon and I have the place to myself (there's a trail head there but no one is there - much less popular than Spooky Canyon). But there are some cool canyon walls and an awesome tree, so it's not a bad place to be. I pull out the viola and play a few songs. Good, it survived the cold night last night. It was in the upper 20s - kind of cold for my poor musical instruments left in the car. This is the main reason I opted not to camp again tonight (although it IS nice for me not to be cold too). I got a cabin for $30 with heat! Hey that's cheaper than camping in a CA state park (which is $35 now).

Horse Canyon

Awesome Tree in Horse Canyon

So no slot canyon today, but hopefully tomorrow I'll get to Little Wild Horse Slot Canyon after my visit to the Goblin Valley. If I have time I'll hit those after Capitol Reef which is first, but if I stay all day in Capitol Reef, I think I'll head to Goblin the next day instead.

Spooky Slot Canyon Adventure

No, the experience wasn’t “spooky,” but the canyon itself it named Spooky Canyon. Perhaps it is such named because the walls are very high and it’s very narrow, so it can be on the dark side. Some of the walls are dark in color too.

I drove from Escalante down the “Hole in the Rock” road to access Spooky and Peek-a-boo slot canyons. You travel down a dirt road for 26 miles before turning left on Dry Fork Wash. It’s just another 1.7 miles to the trail head where you hike down into a wash where you can access both canyons. I was trying for Peek-a-boo first, but the entrance proved too difficult to climb up with my heavy backpack and tripod. I had strapped my tripod to my pack, but after getting half-way up the entrance, I backed out of it and descended. The weight of the pack just made it too sketchy to proceed. So I decided to go to Spooky instead and I heard you can hike from the Spooky entrance and enter the end of Peek-a-boo and go the other direction. So to Spooky I went with big backpack and tripod in hand.

Slot canyons are better photographed with tripods since they are often dark inside and you also want a large depth of field in your photos (and not to use 6400 ISO). So being, the dutiful photographer, I brought my tripod. Well, let me tell you, Spooky was the most narrow slot canyon I’ve ever been in. For quite a length of it, you can’t even walk forwards, but need to turn to the side to go through and also you need to take off your backpack and hold it in your hand to the side. So there I was scraping myself through the walls with a tripod in one hand and the backpack in the other, each arm to the side. It seems that later on that I became known by the other hikes as the "woman with the tripod."

At least the canyon was very interesting and I did indeed use my tripod to take some photos. It actually worked better to leave it extended as it sometimes was helpful to come down a section. There were a few sections where you need to climb up or down AND they are very narrow. I wonder if anyone gets stuck in these things. Lucky I’m pretty small. LOL You can always tell when someone else is coming as you can hear there scraping and slithering along the walls long before you can see them. Best not to wear clothes that you don’t want shredded. Luckily my clothes seemed to wear well and weren’t damaged, but it’s a good thing to know for the next narrow slot canyon I decide to slither through. Checklist: slender backpack, no tripod, light things and clothes that won’t rip while sliding along rock.

I would like to have more slot canyon adventures and it would be fun to do a more technical one with a very light and slim backpack (and no tripod). I did slither through the canyon a bit without my pack and tripod to scout ahead for potential photos, and the freedom was wonderful.

So after Spooky, I hiked over to the end of Peek-a-boo and did it backwards. It was interesting, but not nearly as nice as Spooky and by then the lighting wasn’t good anymore for pics, so the little windows I had wanted to photograph didn’t look that great by the time I did it. That’s the only interesting part of it photo-wise and it’s in the very beginning. This canyon had some water in it here and there, but it was easily avoided.

So then I had to descend that steep entrance….or walk back through to the end and hike over the top to the entrance of Spooky to get back to the wash. Very doable, but much longer of course. As I was perched at the top contemplating how I could lower my pack and tripod and then climb down, a very spry elderly couple came over and asked if I needed a spot. So I said yes and lowered them my stuff and the guy gave me a spot as I down climbed. They saved the day! Yeah! So happy they came along and helped me out.

After the canyon adventures, I went back up the dirt road towards Escalante and visited Devil’s Garden on the way – an area of weird sculpted sandstone shapes, bridges and arches.

So now it’s time for the Petrified Forest and Burr Trail and then head to Capitol Reef.

Antelope Canyon as Disney Land

Antelope Canyon

I visited Antelope Canyon near Page, AZ for the first time back in June 2005. At that time, you did need to go with a Navajo guide and there were groups of people in the canyon. But, these were more like groups of 10 people at one time. Back then, if I recall correctly, it was something like $30 and I was with a small group. About 3 of us were more into photography and had tripods, so the guide said that we could stay longer and left us there while they shuttled the others back and said we could ride back with another group since they brought groups in every hour. So we stayed and had the place to ourselves more or less until another group came in. But it was always something like a small group of ten or less. So, I had assumed I would have the same experience this time around. Ummm, no. A lot has changed in the past 8 years. I am pretty sure that at times there were more than 50 people in the canyon at once. It was crazy. Also, we were restricted to stay with our group and basically had to get stuck in one position with the group where our tripod was placed. No moving around as we only had 3 minutes in each spot. I understand that this is a good business for the Navajo people involved, it being so popular and all, but I must say that I won’t be going back. Being in a slot canyon with 50 other people isn’t my idea of a good time. I did get a few nice shots nevertheless, although the infamous beams of light were elusive since while we were in there, the clouds decided to cover the sun.

I went on a tour with a company that provides “photographic tours” of the canyons and included two other canyons besides Antelope. The other two were Owl Canyon and Rattlesnake Canyon. The guide was very knowledgeable about the canyons and photography, so this part of the tour was good. Also, the first two smaller canyons were inhabited only by our small group (3 of us in owl and 5 of us in rattlesnake).

It was quite expensive to do this as I also had to get an additional $50 permit for commercial photography in case I get some good shots and want to try and sell them. I’m glad I included the other two canyons and not just Antelope as at least we got to spend some time in some canyons without hoards of other people with us as the other two canyons were only $20 extra for each canyon. So that was a good choice, on my part, as I had contemplated only going to Antelope.

Antelope Canyon

Antelope Canyon

Rattlesnake Canyon

Rattlesnake Canyon

Rattlesnake Canyon

So now I’m in Escalante, UT and this morning I’m going to explore some slot canyons on my own (although likely there might be a few other people exploring them too, but certainly not 50 at once). I’m headed down the “Hole in the Rock” road in the Grand Staircase Escalante and want to check out Peek A Boo Canyon and Spooky Canyon, plus Devil’s Garden.

The weather has been quite strange the last two days and it was even snowing near Bryce Canyon (and a bit of snow in the air when I was at Rattlesnake Canyon). Last night was quite cold – in the 20s, so I stayed in a cozy cabin instead of camping like I had planned. But tonight it will be back to camping at the same place (no cabins available) – Escalante Outfitters – same place I stayed back in 2005 when I passed through this area.

So new desert adventure begins! Tomorrow I’ll head to the Burr Trail (like I did in 2005) and then onward to Capitol Reef National Park.

Now onto the desert......

End of the music journey and onto to the desert adventure......Saw the last Elephant Revival show in Phoenix last night and hung out with them one last time in Tempe this afternoon for lunch. I brought my new viola and the mandolin with me and what fun it was that they started playing music. Also was good to hear that Bridget and Sage approved of my viola choice for making my octave violin. My flea market mandolin was also proclaimed to not be that awful and worth fixing up a bit.

It was great to see the Elephants and see them perform in 3 cities. Listening to their music always makes me just feel happy. :) Finally they are coming to BC this summer - at least for one festival on the Vancouver Island in mid-July and hopefully a few more gigs.

New viola

So northward I've traveled up to Flagstaff and have gone from 30 C to 11 C in temperature. I last visited Flagstaff in 2005 and really like this small town. I considered moving here back then, but eventually decided on Boulder, CO.

I'll leave tomorrow to head up to Page, AZ, home of Antelope Canyon, where I hope to take some more lovely slot canyon photos. Weird weather patterns of high winds, snow and cold have altered my plans to visit Bryce Canyon, so I'll head to Escalante and Capitol Reef NP but probably need to wait until Thursday when the weather clears. I've always loved the landscape of southern Utah, so I'm excited to see it once again.

One thing I've noticed on this trip is that I feel much better when I'm not driving in a city. I am much more drawn to the wild landscape than to cities. I just feel more at peace in the natural world. Somehow it just feels better.

One good thing about a road trip on your own, at least for me, is that I can blast any music I want and sing at the top of my lungs. Love to have the beautiful landscapes whizzing by while I listen to awesome music. :) Very nice feeling.

The music part of my journey

So now I have fully entered the music part of my journey. After several days of visiting friends in various parts of the Bay Area, I went to the first Elephant Revival concert of this trip in San Francisco. It was so good to see them all again and the friends that I had invited to the concert really enjoyed their music too. To hear their music live again and seeing them perform just made me so happy, as it always does. :) My favorite band of all time!

After the show on Wednesday, I drove to LA to see them yet again on Thursday! I arrived in North Hollywood to stay with a friend and we both headed down to their show at The Mint. It was a much smaller place to see them in then I usual - very intimate and such a close view. Even better, they had a friend there that played the cello with them on the second half of their one long set - Rushad Eggleston. I had wanted to see him perform for a while but hadn't had the chance and what a treat to see him perform with the Elephants! Sadly, I wish I would have brought my camera with me to take photos and HD video of the performance. But I hadn't known of the small size of the venue - it just would have been so easy to shoot! One highlight was Bridget's song Single Beds are Made for One, and that was amazing with the cello and violin harmonizing. I should have at least filmed it on my iphone, but I was mesmerized and just watched and didn't think about that until it was already over. On their second to last song, The Garden, I also performed a belly dance with them. This wasn't the usual type of gypsy style song I dance to when I've danced with them in the past. It was a little awkward to me when I did it, trying to maintain a "belly dance style." But, when I saw a video my friend did, it actually looked ok, so I guess it did work after all. :) And the most important part - it was fun!

So here I am, getting ready to leave once more and head to Phoenix for one last Elephant Revival show tomorrow night, before I head my own direction, into the desert to go shoot photos of slot canyons, goblins and what not in the Arizona and Utah desert.

On the way to Phoenix, I'm stopping in Pasadena to go to Gliga Violins to shop for a 14" viola that I can turn into an octave violin.

More redwoods then onto the Bay Area

Yesterday I visited the Humboldt State Park on the way down to the Bay Area. Luckily no more rain, or only a sprinkling here and there. Mostly photographed redwoods along the way on the Avenue of the Giants, a lovely meandering road next to 101 where there are redwoods growing right next to the road. Took an interesting photo from inside a hollowed-out redwood, looking out into the forest.

Slowly the landscape changed and became more hilly with less redwoods and turned to the scrub oak with vineyards here and there. Ah, my second favorite tree - the oak - and California has many fine specimens.

I arrived at my friend, Paul's place in San Anselmo and it was in a lovely location with hills, oak trees and greenery. I haven't been up in that area much before, but the nearby town of Fairfax is quite a cute, little town. We went for a short hike nearby around a lake and there was a wonderful mix of beautiful trees, some redwoods, oak, manzanita and many others. California certainly has some nice trees! Afterward we ate lunch with Paul's family in Fairfax and we walked by this cafe where there seemed to be several people playing musical instruments. Well, I walked in and found that just about everyone in the packed cafe had a ukelele. So I asked one woman if it was a ukelele convention and she told me they meet there every Saturday and play music together. They all has songbooks and played and sang together - the whole cafe. Never saw a thing like this before. It was pretty cool! They said I was welcome to join them with my mandolin, but unfortunately I didn't have it with me.

So now I am back in San Francisco at a friends on top of Twin Peaks with a gorgeous view of the city. Funny, but after all those years of living in San Francisco (13 years), I can say that I wouldn't want to live here again. Yes, I have good memories here, but it just doesn't feel the same. If I were to ever move back to this area (which isn't all that likely), I think I'd much prefer to live in Fairfax or somewhere in Marin. I'm just not feeling the city vibe very well. I want to be amongst trees. Hmmm, I wonder if I bought redwood seeds if I could plant redwood trees in BC. I wonder if they'd thrive there. Of course, I'd need somewhere to live where I could plant them. Don't know where I'll be living in June yet.

So off to Santa Cruz tomorrow then to San Jose and Berkeley - so bouncing around all over the place, eh? (practicing my Canadianisms).

So more redwood pics...

Rainy day in the redwoods

It turned out that this day wasn't so bad after all. The high winds did not hit the forests, so I was able to hike and take a few pics. While it was raining, that was a bit difficult as I need to hold an umbrella over the camera on the tripod while I shoot AND I need both hands to adjust the tripod so the umbrella is balancing on my head, neck or back in some ridiculous way and half the time falls off! I need to protect the camera from the rain and also if the lens is tilted up (which it often is shooting in redwood forests), then rain droplets will get on the lens and essentially ruin the photo, so I have to be diligent to keep checking the lens for droplets. Amazingly, the rain stopped in the afternoon so I was able to shoot without the umbrella, although since the trees were still dripping, it was still "hazardous" to the lens.

I must say that it's rather appealing to hike in the redwood forest in the rain - just not ideal for photography. In a way, I wish I had left the tripod in the car and just hiked instead, but then I would feel I missed something in that I did not get any photos. I need the tripod to shoot in the darkness of the forest. It was nice though - the clean smell and crisp air, with the majestic redwoods and wild plants everywhere - lush and green. There weren't too many people either - just here and there. So here are a few shots.

It's supposed to rain again tomorrow, but I'm going to try and shoot and hike some more further south in the Humboldt State Park, which I haven't visited before. The park I went to today was Prairie Creek State Park and I highly recommend it for redwood viewing and hiking.

Due to the weather, I decided not to camp at Prairie Creek and am holed up in a motel in Arcata. A bit odd here - someone was just playing a trumpet (pretty well actually) and the carpet in the room seems to be wet. Not just in one spot, but the whole thing, like they just cleaned it. I thought of asking them to change my room, but decided to not bother and just wear shoes (already got two pairs of socks wet before figuring out it was the floor). Thought my socks were wet from hiking at first, but then the new pair got wet too. LOL I have brought a huge amount of stuff in here already and didn't feel like moving it to a new room. I'm out of here in the morning anyway. Wanted to do yoga too, but I guess I can dry out the mat afterward. Not as much fun to do yoga in a motel 6 compared to a redwood forest. But at this point, it would be really muddy and wet!

Rainy Day change

So the weather is raining on my plans for tomorrow. I had planned a glorious days of hiking and taking pics and videos of the glorious redwood forests. I hadn't checked the weather, as it has been so nice recently. Additionally, I made the mistake of not taking pics today, as I arrived late afternoon and the light was flat, so I thought I'd wait for morning. Well, in the morning it will be POURING with high winds. Not exactly ideal for photography. So I thought maybe I should just run around in the rain and scream instead. ;) I had it in my head that I could recreate my experience of July 2009 with the fog, sunbeams and the melancholy bird screeching in the dripping wet forest. Well, the forest will be heavily dripping, but I think the bird will be in hiding and I'll be the only melancholy thing screeching my call. I also should know, after living in San Francisco for 13 years that there would NOT be fog in April. How soon I forget. I like the foggy look for the redwood forest pics and even better with sunbeams through the fog. Well, maybe I'll try to take a wild windstorm pic without ruining my camera. I'll hike at least and then dry off at a hotel in Arcata. So change of plans.... On the bright side, I did get to do yoga and play my mandolin in the redwood forest earlier today. :)

A new adventure

So here I am starting a new adventure almost 3 years later and in the opposite direction. Heading first to the misty forests of the redwoods in Northern California. Trying to make it to Eugene, OR tonight and will make it to the redwoods tomorrow afternoon. This journey is misty forests, old cities where I previously lived, deserts I have visited before, old friends and lots of music (courtesy of Elephant Revival in several cities). :) I feel I'm at a crossroads, so hopefully this will direct me to the right path to take. Travel onward!