False Kiva in Canyonlands Revisited - An Adventure to See the Milky Way



I hadn't been out to do photography hardly at all this spring and was in need of an adventure.  So, after giving it some careful thought, I decided to go False Kiva in Canyonlands National Park to take photographs of the Milky Way.  This seemed like it could be a grand adventure.  I checked the moon chart and picked the night of Friday, May 10th as the best time to go.  There would be a Dark Moon, a time when the moon was not visible.  I probably read this somewhere, but this did seem like the best time to view the Milky Way, when there was no impeding light from the moon.  I had also read that Canyonlands is one of the best places to view the Milky Way Galaxy as there are few man made lights to be seen.

 

I told my wife that I was planning on going to Canyonlands National Park on Friday after work to take some photographs of the Milky Way (I did ask if she was o.k. with that).  I let her know that I would be back early on Saturday and that she and my daughter would hardly even know that I was gone.  I was planning on staying up all night and did not need to pack much.  I checked the weather all week and did notice that it could rain and and would be around 50 degrees at night and packed accordingly. 

 

I am only a couple of hours away from the entrance to the Island in Sky District of Canyonlands. I was hoping to arrive in time to take photos on Aztec Butte before the sun went down.  When I got out of work on Friday, I rushed home, woofed some dinner and hit the road.  When I arrived at Aztec Butte, clouds obscured the sun and unfortunately nixed that photo opportunity.  So, I took a few photos at the Green River Overlook and then parked down by the trail head to the False Kiva ruin.  It had been a few years since I visited the ruin (see my blog entry: Quiet and Alone at False Kiva in Canyonlands National Park), so I walked the road and scouted out the exact location of the trail head.  Then I grabbed my book and settled down in my vehicle and waited for the stars to come out and hopefully for any clouds to go away. 

 

Around 11:00 p.m. I decided that it had gotten dark enough that I should pack up my gear and get ready to go.  After dinking around for a while I finally left the car around 11:30 p.m.  I had my camera gear, a headlamp and two flashlights, water and couple of bagels.  I also brought a coat and an outer shell.  I will have to admit, being alone on this endeavor left me with just a little bit of trepidation, but this is what adventure is all about. 

 

The first thing that I noticed as I headed down the trail, was how dark it was.  If my light wasn't shining directly at the trail or an object, I couldn't see it.  With no moon, it was very - very dark!  I took my time as I hiked making sure that I was following the right trail and not some animal track.  I had to look really close at any tracks in the sand to help me stay on the correct path.  As I got farther along I noticed landmarks that I remembered from my previous visit.  I eventually dropped down the ramp and then realized I was on the path below the alcove that covers the False Kiva ruin.  This was interesting in the pitch black darkness that enveloped me.  I knew that I was above the cliffs of the canyon, but could see nothing that could tell me how far below that was.  It could have been five feet or one hundred feet, I decided not to investigate to find out. 

 

Finally, the trail started to climb steeply toward the alcove.  Having been there before, I knew to be careful climbing the lose dirt and scree.  As I drew close to the wall of the upper cliff, I followed the foot prints in the dark to the left along the base of the upper cliff.  Climbing over rock scree, I ascended over a rise and .............. nothing.  There was nothing there, the rocks turned into bigger boulders and as I shined my flashlight along the base of the cliff wall, I could see that there certainly was no flat spot with a ruin.  I turned around and shined my flashlight in the opposite direction along the base of the wall and it didn't look any better, in fact maybe worse from that perspective.  The biggest problem that I had was if my light wasn't shining directly on something, like a pile of boulders, I couldn't see it or anything else, it was just too dark.  It was impossible to tell where I was in relation to anything.

 

I sat down on a boulder at the base of the upper cliff and started to ponder my situation.  Was I in the wrong location, did I miss something on my way in?  It would have been fairly easy to do and ultimately, was I lost in the pitch black darkness, in the Canyonlands wilderness with cliffs on all sides.  After some careful thought, I decided that I had indeed followed the correct trail to the point of starting up the steep slope.  I decided that the footprints that I had followed up and to the left were probably from some adventurous folks that had lost there way - in the day light.  Now think about that while sitting there in the ultimate darkness. 

 

I found myself faced with a new dilemma, finding my way back down to the trail that I had exited earlier in the dark and of course, not fall off a cliff.  Needless to say I really took my time, eventually and safely finding the trail at the point where I had exited.  I found that had I gone maybe five yards farther on the trail, I would have found another spot to exit and head up going to the right.  It was not far from my original trail but kept trending right to where earlier I thought I would not want go.  Following footprints and a few rock cairns, I picked my way through the boulders at the bottom of the upper cliff and at last, and with some relief, I was peering at the False Kiva ruin (only cause my flashlight was pointed directly at it). 

 

It was 12:30 a.m., I unpacked my gear, setup my tripod and settled down on a rock turned out my lights and hoped that the Milky Way would appear.  The stars were out in force and it looked like the clouds had disappeared for the most part.   What a place to be alone, with the ruins, the stars and my thoughts running wild.  What was it like for the native american to sit there at night and veiw the stars and the Milky Way, not much different from my perspective.

 

I found that I had to turn a light on just to move around with out tripping on a rock or falling off a cliff.  Around 1:30 a.m. I started to see the first glimpse of the Milky Way appearing in the southeast sky.  I took many shots of the Milky Way and unfortunately they showed the limits of my camera equipment.  I could have used a much faster lens for this shoot. 

 

 

 

 Even so, I still took some interesting photos of the Milky Way.

 

 

 

The quality of my photos got better with the morning light.  Check out the link to my photo website for some of the best images: False Kiva Ruin Images

 

 

 

 After it got brighter in the morning, I took some pictures of the view looking down in front of the ruin.

 

You can just pick out the trail that I took in the middle of the night in the image below.

 

I left the False Kiva ruin around 7:30 a.m. having spent a fabulous night with the ruin and the Milky Way.  I went into Moab to get gas and coffee and took a short nap before heading home.  I arrived home around 11:30 a.m. and the girls hardly new that I had been gone all night. 

 

What an Adventure!

 

www.pictures-west.com

 

 

 

Mexican Hat Rock in Utah - An Interesting Sight

Every time that I have driven by Mexican Hat Rock in Utah, I always have the question of how does it remain balanced there so precariously.  Well, last Thanksgiving while driving by with my wife and daughter on our way to Monumnent Valley, we noticed an adventurous climber hanging off the side of the Mexican Hat Rock.  Now I wondered, isn't the climber in the least bit concerned that his weight hanging off the end of the rock going to cause it to tip over?  I guess not, as you can see in the follwoing images he made it safely on to the top!

 

 

 

It was an interesting sight to see.  I had always wondered if people had scaled the Mexican Hat Rock and now I had the opportunity to witness it.

 

 

 

Unfortunately we did not have the time to stay around long enough to get to talk with the climbers.

 

www.pictures-west.com



Photographing Car Lights at Night is Fun!

 

 

Click Here to See More of my Images of Car Lights at Night

Here is something fun that I have been doing of late on my trips to the Moab, Utah area, and that is taking pictures of cars going by at night.  These are time laps photos that make for a wonderful light show and I find them interesting and enjoyable to shoot.  The photo above was taken in Canyonlands National park at dusk.  It is a 30 second exposure with a motor home and a car going away from me and a motorcycle coming towards me.  I used a tripod of course, I had the Camera ISO set at 100, the Lens Aperture set at 22 and the focus around the mid point.  With the Aperture set at 22, I was able to get the Star Burst affect at two points where the lights from the motorcycle were pointed more directly at the lens.

I have found that for me personally, photographing car lights at night takes a bit of pre-planning and then some trial and error to get the image that I am seeking.  It was certainly enjoyable trying to get the photo above.

 

 

Photographing Delicate Arch in Arches National Park

Picturesque Images of Delicate Arch at pictures-west.com

If you have ever been to Delicate Arch located in Arches National Park, Utah, you were probably not alone.  I have hiked up to see and photograph the arch many times.  I have been there for the sunrise, sunset and in the middle of the day and have witnessed the Arch during all four seasons.  Only once have I been there when no one else was around.  The Arch is a very famous and popular attraction and one of Utah's Icons, it even adorns Utah license plates.  Being such a popular attraction, it is very difficult to take photos of the Arch without people getting in the shot.  On one evening at the Arch, we counted more than 200 visitors.

Pretty much everyone that goes there wants to get a photo taken of them standing inside the Arch.  This tends to make it somewhat difficult for the purest landscape photographer to take a photo of the Arch.  Though you can get some interesting shots of the Arch with people in the image. 

Delicate Arch has amazed me with how many different views that you can capture in an image.  Most photographs that I have seen of Delicate Arch are of the evening light and sunset and of what I refer to as the popular view.  What I think of as my best image of Delicate Arch was taken in the evening and is of the popular view. 

I believe that the time of year has a lot to do with the quality of the image of the Arch.  The summer is hot and my photos tend to have less contrast and appear to be washed.   My favorite time of the year to take pictures in Arches and Canyonlands is during the winter months, especially if there is snow in the photo.  The snow contrasts well with the red rock.  If you take pictures of Delicate Arch on a clear winter evening you can frame the sunlit - snow covered - La Sal Mountains in the background and through the Arch.  Around the time of the Winter Solstice you can capture the sun setting inside of the Arch (see my previous blog post - A Little Known Delicate Arch Photo Opportunity).  Early on a winter morning you can capture a beautiful sunrise over the La Sal Mountains.

After the sunrise you can capture beautiful photos of the morning light on the Arch.

Mind you it was 13 degrees outside when I captured the last two images.  But, it was the one time that I had the Arch all to myself for three hours, an amazing experience. 

Delicate Arch is always a fabulous location to visit and photograph any time of the day or year.  It can sometimes take patience to capture an image of the Arch without another visitor in the photo.  I have been there when photographers have requested a minute or two of the Arch standing alone all by itself and it actually worked, they got their minute for photos. 

I don't remember how many times that I have visited the Arch or how many photos I have taken of the Icon.  What I do know is that I am not done visiting the Arch or capturing the Arch and possibly visitors in an Image. 

Photographing the Milky Way in Arches National Park

OK, so my equipment is not the very best and it took several attempts just to get stars to appear in my images, but boy is it fun trying to get photos of the Milky Way in the middle of the night in Arches National Park.  I used a Canon T2i to capture my photographs of the Milky Way.

It was on May 28th at around 3:00 a.m. that I finally got an image of the Milky Way to appear in my camera.  I was staying in Moab and set my alarm for 1:30 a.m., got up and drove to the Maverik gas station to get some coffee and headed up into Arches National Park.  I had tried several times previously this year to shoot images of the night sky without any luck (maybe a few dots appeared in my images).  This time I promised myself that I was going to get the shot.

I stopped after entring the park to check the night sky.  It was pitch black and you could easily see the Milky Way with the naked eye.  I decided that I would try to photorgraph the Milky Way with Balanced Rock in the foreground and headed for that location.  When I arrived at the parking area, there was one car parked there, but not a person to be found.

I had talked with several photographers while shooting the sunrise at Deadhoarse Point several weeks prior.  They provided some advice on shooting the Milky Way and I also searched the netherlands of the internet for clues.  I finally settled on what I needed to do to get some photos of the night sky.  So, I grabbed my headlamp, camera and tripod and hiked over to a location that lined up the Milky Way on the right side of Balanced Rock.  I got my equipment setup and set the camera and lense to the following settings: 1) Shutter Speed at 25 seconds, 2) f-stop at 3.5 (lense open all the way), 3) ISO at 6500 and 4) set the focus on manual just shy of the infinity setting.  I also setup the 2-second timer on the camera and had the mirro locked in the up position.  The difficult part was framing the shot, with it soo dark out, it was very hard to see anything well enough to frame the shot.

I was where my imagination runs wild, in Arches National Park around 3:00 a.m. all by myself, it was quiet and peacefull and a sky full of stars.  I clicked off the first shot which took forever to provide a preview in the camera.  I did it!  I could see the Milky Way in my image, I was actually kind of surprised as I did not expect positive results.  I did a quick little jig and then proceeded to take a multitude of shots in the general area.

Click on the link to see more images of the Milky Way in Arches:  Arches National Park at Night at pictures-west.com

I did not see another person until the light of dawn started to appear, then there was an influx of photographers entering the park to catch the sunrise.  I myself took some shots of the sunrise and headed back to Moab to get some rest. 

I really enjoyed that night, in fact I enjoyed it soo much that I got up at 11:00 p.m. the next Saturday and drove to Arches to take more images of the night sky in the park.

Click on the link to see beautiful images of Arches Natioanal Park: Arches National Park Photos at pictures-west.com

Canyonlands - Island in the Sky District

I enjoyed a beautiful sunrise at the Green River Overlook in Canyonlands National Park on Sunday, January 29th.  It's a great time of year to take photos in the Moab area as the cold air makes the colors really vivid.  Another advantage is that fewer people are visiting this time of year because it is so cold.  I had the Overlook all to myself for almost two hours.  It was a beautiful and thoughtful experience.

One of the photos I took was featured as the "Travel Photo of the Day" by Today.msnbc.  You can see the article by clicking on the following link: -travel-photo-of-the-day-utahs-island-in-the-

Newspaper Rock near Canyonlands National Park

Newspaper Rock located near Canyonlands National Park is a sandstone formation that has one of the largest known collections of Native American Petroglyphs. It is believed that the oldest drawings are up to 2,000 years old. Over the years when Native Americans passed through the area, they would add to the collection.  There are many different images that have been engraved into the rock, there are buffalo, deer, horses, and human images to name a few.  Newspaper Rock is truly a wonderful and historic site. 

Click here to see high quality images:  Newspaper Rock at pictures-west.com

Quiet and Alone at False Kiva in Canyonlands National Park

I took a cold, but fabulous trip to the Island in the Sky District in Canyonlands National Park in the first days of March. My intent was to visit the False Kiva ruin and hopefully get a few photos.  I had seen some awesome photos of  Flase Kiva on the internet and they really sparked my interest in seeing the site.

Contrary to what one might think, the site is not an Anasazi ruin, it is actually a Pueblo Indian ruin.  The rangers at the visitor center told me that it was dated around 1350 A.D.  The site is designated a Class 2 site, which means that it is not noted on any maps or literature, but if you inquire with the rangers, they will tell you how to find the site.

I arrived at the Island in the Sky Visitor Center on the afternoon of March 1st.   I was supprised to see that there was still a lot of snow on the ground.  I immediately went inside and asked one of the rangers for directions to the False Kiva.  The ranger was happy to provide the information, but told me that there would be possible deep snow and muddy conditions on the steeper ground leading up to the Kiva.  He told me that the hike was a three mile round trip and could be difficult.  I led him to believe that I was well prepared and would not be deterred by the challenging conditions.  I thanked the ranger for the information and headed out to setup my tent at the Willow Flat campground. 

After getting my camp set, I headed on down the road to find the not so noticable trail head.  After parking at the location noted by the ranger, I wandered back and forth along the road until I finally setteled on a set of foot prints leading off toward the edge of the canyon.  The prints cut a path in the snow that in most places had melted into the dirt.  After hiking for about fifteen to twenty minutes on the mesa, the path started to drop leading down to the edge of the canyon wall.  I was certain that I had chose the correct path when I met the edge of the cliff and saw that the path led out under an alcove.

I had to do some scrambling on steep scree below the alcove but it was dry, not muddy as I had been told and it was fun to navigate.  Finally arriving at the alcove I got my first glimpse of the ruin.  It is like the pictures depict, a small rock wall forming a circle.  It is the location that is totally heart stopping.  The alcove was quiet, out of the wind and the view looking out over canyonlands was astounding.  How the ancient ones found this place is amaizing in itself, but the reasons for making a site there were totally understandable.

The alcove was warm and out of the wind and the only sounds were the noises made by this modern man.  I stayed at False Kiva taking picutres untill the sun dipped well below the canyon rim.  It was a special kind of experience, alone in a rugged wilderness enjoying the same view that the ancients experienced, a view unchanged by time.

 

Check out my new blog entry about visiting False Kiva in the middle of the night to view the Milky Way: False Kiva Revisited - An Adventure to see the Milky Way

You can see more photos of False Kiva on this link:  False Kiva Ruin Images