Checkerboard Mesa, pictographs, slickrock that stretched forever, and bighorn sheep made this a very good day.
The day didn't start out all that well. I got up at 6:15 to shoot moonset over the peaks, but as soon as I got out to the Explorer I knew it was a day too early. The moon was just above the peaks, but the sun hadn't reached the peaks yet. That meant the contrast would be too great to keep the moon exposed properly while including the peaks. I turned around and went right back to bed.
Our plan for the day was to photograph the slickrock areas above the tunnel. We have shot up in these areas other years, but we planned to try a couple new canyons. Our first stop, however, was the Visitor Center so I could turn in my paperwork for the Adopt a Bighorn program. I named the adopted bighorn Clash because we're nearing the season when the big rams battle for supremacy. It seems like a great program, and I felt good about supporting it. We enjoy the National Parks so much, so I'm trying to find ways to provide support for them.
We started our slickrock adventure by driving to the east edge of the park to photograph Checkerboard Mesa. It is one of the best examples of crossbedding that you'll see anywhere. Every change in the prevailing winds is recorded in the banding on the side of the mesa. The challenge is that Checkerboard Mesa is never lit well during this time of year. The sun basically goes around behind the formation, so you only get part of one side lit at a time
After Checkerboard Mesa, we drove down to the new canyon we planned to explore. We had marked all the turnouts earlier in the week, so we could see what canyons could be easily hiked from the road. The canyon we chose, quickly turned into a slot canyon with standing water in the potholes carved into the sandstone. The only way to continue was to climb a ridge and hike up the canyon from there. We decided to try another canyon since Carol is still recovering from the difficulties she's been having with her knees and hips.
We drove down to a canyon that had a large parking area next to the road.
We figured that was a good sign. We had only hiked a little ways into the canyon when a giant pine tree looked very familiar.
I started looking along the canyon wall for pictographs we discovered on a previous trip to Zion. We found a side trail
that lead to the pictographs. The pictographs aren't marked on any maps and there are no signs unless you find them behind
a bunch of trees and along the canyon wall. It was good to still recognize the area from a trip over ten years ago.
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We had to climb out of the slot canyon and up a ridge to continue up the canyon. We had hiked up this ridge on a previous trip, so we knew where to look for the trail up to avoid the main pour off from above. We climbed up the slickrock to the high point of the canyon. We shot reflections in the potholes and the sandstone ledges that led up to an arch at the end of the canyon. The canyon returned to a very tight slot canyon farther up the canyon, but it was time for us to turn around and head back down the canyon.
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I was shooting a few final reflection shots, when I heard a noise on the ridge above
us.
I looked up to see the bright white butts of three bighorn sheep. They were feeding on the edge of the ridge
and continually checked us out. There was only one problem. Neither of us had a long lens. We expected to be shooting
all wide angle shots and had left the long lenses behind to cut the weight in our packs. That turned out to be a major mistake.
Each bighorn walked up to the top of the ridge, was silhouetted against the blue sky behind it, looked down at us,
and then dropped down on the other side. With a 400, we could have had once-in-a-lifetime shots. Instead, we have mostly big dots on the side of the ridge.
After the excitement of the bighorn sheep, we hiked back down the ridge and into the main slot canyon. It was only a half mile back to the Explorer. We checked out the Watchman as we crossed the bridge. It had the best lighting of the week, so we made a quick stop. We only had about five minutes of good light, but that was enough to get off a few good shots.
Then it was back to camp and our lamb chop dinner.
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