A New Adventure

A week from today I'll be heading out on a new photo adventure, this time to Utah, and I'm super excited!  

I had originally planned to go to Utah in May, but I cancelled due to the pandemic.  The pandemic of course is not over, but there are fewer unknowns now, and except for the flights and a few trips to the store for supplies, I will be virtually by myself for the entire time.  With respect to flights, I'm not too worried about these since everyone will be masked up, the seat next to me will be empty (Delta leaves middle seats vacant), and the air in planes are changed frequently through high efficiency (HEPA) filters.  So all in all, I feel reasonably comfortable about going.

Utah is of course home to the "Big 5" National Parks, including Bryce and Zion.  Plus there are many national forests, national monuments, national recreation areas, and vast plots of federal land managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).  All told, there are more than 35 million acres of federal land in Utah, which amazingly comprises more than 66% of the entire state.  In short, it's a landscape photographer's paradise!

Ironically, none of my "must visit" locations are in the National Parks, and only a handful of locations in my "if time permits" category are in the parks.  That's not to say that the parks are not worthy of a visit or that there are not many great photo opportunities there.  It's just that the scenes I am most interested in shooting happen to be located on BLM land and in particular, in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.  

Here are a few of the places I hope to visit, some of which have funny or unusual names:

• Moonscape Overlook
• Factory Butte
• Little Egypt
• Leprechaun Canyon
• Arsenic Arch
• Sunset Arch
  
• Peek-a-Boo Slot Canyon
  
• Dance Hall Rock
• Wahweap Hoodoos
• Kanarra Creek Canyon

I've rented a campervan for my 8-day trip.  You can see a picture of the van I'm renting below.  It's a bit more spacious than my Iceland campervan, but the amenities are still very spartan and do not include a shower or a toilet.  This was not a major problem in Iceland since I spent evenings in private campgrounds with the necessary facilities.  This trip will be a bit more challenging, however, as I will be staying on BLM land and in what are known as dispersed campsites (this is often referred to as "boondocking"), which have ZERO facilities.  But no worries: I have a plan to work through this, and I don't anticipate any major problems (and at least I'm hoping so).  Perhaps I'll share more on this later 😏.

Like in Iceland, I plan to write a daily blog of my adventures with some quickly-edited images.  However, cell service in Utah is quite spotty (unlike Iceland which has great service virtually everywhere).  This will be especially true in some of the places I plan to visit.  So, posting the blogs will have to wait until I have service or miraculously find free wifi, which means I might post two (or even three) blogs in a given day. Regardless, I hope that you enjoy reading these blogs.

Take care, and we will "see" you in Utah!