Big Bend

Posted on March 10, 2018 by Matt Hunt

A couple weeks ago I took a crazy trip to Big Bend! Why was it crazy, you ask? Because Big Bend is a 9 hour drive, and I did it on a normal weekend.

I left work at 5 pm on Friday evening, and after fighting the DFW traffic & rain (which makes traffic about 8 gazillion times worse) I arrived in Terlingua at around 2:15 am. I “slept” in my car at a free campsite, waking before the sunrise.

I went out from there to take some photos and video, and then went mountain biking on the Dome Loop in Big Bend Ranch State Park.

I met some great people in the parking lot of the visitor’s center, Danny & Darlene, and went biking with Danny, then hung out with them afterward in their Sprinter camper van. They have been traveling the country while living in the van for the past 11 months! I’m jealous!

That night I stayed at a legit campsite, which was amazing, and the moonlight lit up everything!

After a much better (but chilly) night of sleep, I rose super early to make a 45 minute drive to Big Bend National Park to shoot the Milky Way.

Sunday morning was the Lajitas Airport trails, and then the 9 hour drive back home!

Don’t let a lack of money or lack of time keep you from traveling. This trip cost roughly $100 (gas + $10 for the campsite) and didn’t require any PTO time. Yes, I spent 18 hours of my weekend driving, and far less than that sleeping, but you only get one life, so CARPE DIEM! The memories are worth far more than the time and the money spent.

Hoodoo Magic

Posted on September 22, 2016 by Matt Hunt

It was still dark outside as I approached Bryce Canyon National Park. I had left Hurricane, UT incredibly early in the morning so that I could get to the park before sunrise. I was carefully watching the clouds, as it appeared the sun was going to be blocked, and indeed it was at sunrise!

Although it was the middle of summer, Bryce is at a higher elevation, above 8,000 feet, and it was a brisk 52° that morning! I had not really packed for cooler weather, although I did have a light jacket with me. In spite of that, I was wearing shorts and flip flops, so it was a bit chilly!

The clouds did block the sun initially, but as I found out later on, I don’t think the sunlight would have hit many of the hoodoos early on. Even after it peaked the clouds, I had to wait several more minutes before it really started to light up the whole amphitheater.

Bryce is a magical place, and seems like another planet! How do these crazy rock formations even happen?! The hoodoos are formed by a couple of environmental factors. One is a process known as frost wedging. This area has over 200 freezing/thawing cycles each year. Snow melts, resulting in water seeping into the cracks, and then re-freezing overnight. As we all know (or should know if we paid attention in science class), water expands when it freezes. This slowly erodes the sedimentary rock, forming holes, and later these individual spires.

Rain also plays a role in the hoodoo formation. Its slightly acidic nature slowly dissolves the limestone. Different mineral deposits in the layers of the rock result in the different colors, appearing as stripes, as well as the shapes, as some layers are formed of harder rock than others. New hoodoos continue to form as old ones crumble to the ground, so it’s likely this area will look like this for many, many years to come.

The above photo (probably my favorite, and hanging on my wall!) was taken from Inspiration Point. This is the area in the park with the most dense concentration of hoodoos, and is probably one of the most photographed. Another popular spot is around one particular hoodoo that has been named Thor’s Hammer. That was my next stop.

The sunlight bouncing off the orange walls was creating this incredible glow in this area! This is a must if you visit Bryce. You have to get out of bed early, because the morning light is the best this place looks all day!

It was here that I blew a golden opportunity that shows you why I’m still single! I had a very attractive young lady approach me and ask me to take her picture. Based on her accent, she was not American, and based on the lack of anyone else with her, she was traveling alone. Of course I’m not a one-night-stand guy, and this likely would not have led to any long-term relationship, but hey you never know. Regardless, I had wished I would have kept her in my presence at least a few minutes longer and struck up a conversation, but instead I just went back to shooting pictures of my own. Idiot.

As the sun got higher, the pictures were not as great, so I decided to grab some lunch. When I got back to the park I decided to drive further in and check out some of the other overlooks.

Man… that drive was awesome. It was beautiful out there, with temps in the mid-70’s and no humidity to speak of! I put the windows down and opened up the sunroof and enjoyed the fresh air as I cruised through the pine forest. It may be a bit odd, but this was one of those moments that truly stuck out to me. The feeling at that time of not a care in the world, no worries about work, or bills, or anything. Just enjoying the present. I need more moments like that in my life!

This is definitely when I’m at my happiest. They do not lie when they tell you that travel changes you. It sure has changed me. There’s no place I’d rather be than any place I’ve never been before!

I did have to battle with some rain showers passing over the park, as you can see a little in the top left corner of the photo above. Out of the frame there’s a big dark cloud there! In fact there was even some tiny pieces of hail falling! I imagine that’s mostly due to the elevation, not the strength of the updraft for this little storm.

One of the stops I had to make was another often photographed feature of the park called Natural Bridge. This is a huge arch, and I didn’t realize that there’s a parking lot and overlook right there at it! I initially thought it would be a bit of a hike based on the park map. I bet this would be a great place to be in the morning as well, with some of the light bouncing off the cliff and back onto the arch.

After that I got some ice cream (I’m on vacation, I do what I want), checked into my room in the nearby town of Panguitch, and came back to the park after dinner. I didn’t know if there would be much of an opportunity for any good photos at sunset since the cliffs face east, and the sun is pretty much completely blocked from this area in the evening.

Of course I had to do my signature selfie first…

I had some indecision on where to set up for the sunset, as I was watching some high clouds rolling in, and thought they just might light up after the sun went down. No such luck, but this shot turned out pretty good!

I stayed at the park after dark, and went back to Thor’s Hammer for some milky way shots! This is the time that is pretty boring, between sunset and the milky way becoming visible. It was about an hour and a half with literally nothing to do. I just stood there by my camera. Ha! I don’t know the stars very well, but I’ve come to recognize a triangle of bright stars that show me where the milky way will be. Of course you have to account for the rotation of the Earth, but it gives me a pretty good idea of how to set up well before it’s dark out.

I decided to try something I’ve never done successfully… take a panorama of the entire milky way. It is quite a challenge, because the Earth’s rotation means those stars are not stagnant, you’re shooting long exposures, and it took 9 vertical shots to complete the entire pano. What helps tremendously is the degree markings on my tripod. I know that if I turn it 15° (or was it 10°?) I’ll have enough overlap between pictures for it to stitch together in Lightroom. And finally, I got it to work!

I actually tried to do longer exposures for the foreground and make a composite, but for some reason it would never line up. Something may have been off with the lens correction, though I tried making the pano before and after applying a lens correction, and it still didn’t line up. Oh well, this shot works. If you’re in a dark room, you can see the details and see Thor’s Hammer in the middle of the photo.

That wasn’t the only milky way shot I had planned, however! The park entrance faces south, so the sign has the milky way behind it! I’m not sure if this is possible at any other National Park. I know this is the only park I’ve seen photos of it done.

That shot proved to be difficult simply because of all of the traffic going by as people exited the park! The headlights were way too bright, and ruined the photo repeatedly. I finally got a shot where the car was still well off in the distance, and it lit up some of the trees nicely along the road. I used two exposures here so that I could use a low ISO on the sign, and not have any noise at all! That was very simple to blend using layers in Photoshop and setting that layer to “lighten”.

Even though Bryce Canyon is a relatively small park, there is still a lot of it that I didn’t have time to explore! I didn’t do any hiking at all, so that is one thing I’d like to do if I ever return. What am I saying… WHEN I return! I’d also like to come back in the winter and get some shots of the hoodoos draped in a bed of fresh snow!

I hope you enjoyed these pictures, and I hope you’re now considering a visit to Bryce Canyon! You definitely won’t regret it!

Delicate Arch: A Utah Landmark

Posted on September 10, 2016 by Matt Hunt

On my trip through the National Parks of southern Utah, there was one shot in particular that I was after. I wanted to get a shot of the milky way through Delicate Arch. Delicate Arch is symbolic of Utah; in fact it appears on their license plate. Formed of Entrada Sandstone, the arch opening stands 64 feet tall and 45 feet wide. It is the largest free-standing arch in Arches National Park.

Delicate Arch is not one that cannot be driven right up to and seen with a short walk. It requires a fairly strenuous hike of 3 miles round trip, with a 480 foot elevation gain. In the summer heat, this is made even more strenuous, and there isn’t a whole lot of shade along the trail! Since I wanted to be there for sunset as well, I completed this hike at probably the worst possible time of day, the late-afternoon, when it was well in excess of 100 degrees! The sign at the beginning of the trail recommends bringing 2 liters of water with you for this hike. I had finished off 1 liter by the time I reached the top.

Once I was at the top, however, I was able to sit in the shade and cool down, and it wasn’t bad at all. That’s the advantage of the dry heat! In spite of the heat and the relatively demanding hike, it was pretty crowded up there, but I fully expected that.

Even with the crowds, you can get a good angle on the arch from several different spots, so it’s not really an issue. The biggest issue is that everyone and their mother wants to get a picture of themselves standing underneath the arch! There was actually a line, and one at a time they’d walk out, take a few pictures, then the next person or group would come in.

Once the sun began to get lower in the sky, however, there was one brave photographer who yelled across the way for those people to clear the arch and give everyone 10 seconds for a clear shot!

This is another one of the top shots I was after on this trip, and one that had been two years in the making, ever since I was originally set to spend 4 weeks in Grand Junction, CO, just 2 hours away. The only thing that would make it better is if the La Sal Mountains had snow on the peaks! I guess I’ll just have to go back in the early spring to get that shot!

Later on as the shadows were creeping up on the arch, and the light at the top of the arch was even more brilliant, I took it upon myself to yell across the way and ask for another 10 seconds to shoot!

You see the difference in the color there as the sun gets lower, and the light turns to a more brilliant orange. I just wish the arch was sitting a little higher, or there wasn’t anything blocking the sun at the bottom of it at this point. Nonetheless, that was quite a beautiful moment, and in this scenario, a completely cloud-free sky was another thing I had been hoping for.

The lack of clouds was absolute requirement after the sun set if I were to get the #1 shot I came for with the milky way! After the sun went down, the crowd slowly started to die down, and for a moment I thought it would just be myself and one other photographer there to shoot the milky way, but by the time darkness had set in, half a dozen or more photographers showed up.

To get this shot, I had planned on doing two separate exposures. One for the milky way itself, with a high ISO to take in more light. I then wanted to do a separate exposure for the arch at a lower ISO for less noise, lit by my flashlight. I made sure the other photographers were okay with me light painting for a couple minutes, because I was still doing a long exposure for this. If you light paint on a high ISO, you really only need a flash.

Back on the computer, I combined the two images in Photoshop. Since I’m not that skilled with the various methods of cutting parts of layers out, I did this all by hand when zoomed way in. In addition, my camera creates this odd noise on long exposures with these little purple, red, blue and yellow lines. I went through all the dark spots on the foreground with the spot removal tool and took literally thousands of these little specs out by hand! This one image has about 4 hours of labor in it, but the end result was well worth it!

Want a print of this image? Visit my Etsy store to order! I got an 18 x 24 inch canvas of this printed for my wall at home, and it looks great! Just contact me if you want to order any other images that are not in my current inventory on Etsy!

Zion The Beautiful

Posted on July 19, 2016 by Matt Hunt

I woke up well before sunrise in my tent in Page, AZ. Since I was up so early, I thought I’d give it a shot to get some Milky Way photos prior to making the 2-hour drive to Zion National Park. I returned to the Horseshoe Bend area, and just set up quickly in front of some bushes. Since dawn was soon upon me, the sky ended up having a beautiful blue tone to it. It was a decent shot, but unfortunately I didn’t take the time to get the foreground bushes in complete focus. Oh well.

After just a few shots, the sky was getting too bright, so it was time to head on up to Zion! This entire drive is beautiful, and I made a few stops along the way to take pictures on the side of the road. I arrived at Zion a little after 8am, and got my bag together in preparation to make the Angels Landing hike!

During the warmer months (I was there in April), public vehicles are not allowed to drive through the canyon, so you must park at the Visitors Center and ride the shuttle. They come by often, so there’s not a lot of waiting around. I got on the shuttle and was on my way.

It was actually a pretty chilly morning, but as I started my hike, I quickly began shedding layers. Even with the fairly gradual slope at the beginning, I had a big bag with my camera, a couple lenses, tripod, water bottles, and some snacks on my back, so it wasn’t long until I was in a t-shirt and shorts.

The hike is pretty strenuous, especially when you reach Walter’s Wiggles, a series of 20 switchbacks with a steep incline. When you get to the last 1/2 mile or so, it goes from a hike, to basically a climb. There are several ledges in this section that do not have a ton of room, and are situated on the edge of a 1,200 ft drop to the canyon floor below! In fact, six people have fallen to their deaths on this hike since 2004, according to the sign at the base of the trail. There are chains bolted to the rock in these locations for hikers to hold onto, just in case. Don’t let this scare you away from this hike, however, as there is still plenty of room to get by without being too close to the edge. You should not be completing this hike in running shoes, though. Get some real hiking shoes/boots. You’ll be thankful for the extra traction. On the way back down, the girl in front of me was slipping and sliding all over the place, while I never had an issue.

Anyway, the climbing part isn’t that strenuous, because you’ll be taking frequent breaks to wait on others to come down, or on others in front you to get up. Once you reach the top, you’re treated to the most incredible viewpoint ever!

I spent a great deal of time just sitting at the top of Angels Landing, taking in the view. I was grateful in that moment, just to be there. Life doesn’t always give you what you want. I always wanted to be married with kids by age 34. However, if that were the case, I probably wouldn’t have been there, in that moment. So there are advantages to any situation. I still hope to have a wife and kids someday, but in the meantime, I’ll continue to cherish the opportunity to go on adventures like this!

Going down was much easier than coming up! That’s an understatement! Once I got back down to the valley, I looked back up at where I had been. I had to take a picture of that! It was crazy to see just how far I had climbed!

At that point, I was starving, so it was time for my first real meal of the day! In hindsight, I should have stopped for a big breakfast prior to that hike, but it’s whatever! I went into Springdale, and with the help of Yelp, found a place called Whiptail Grill. I chowed down on some chips & salsa and carne asada tacos, and washed that down with a Corona! It was perfect! I can highly recommend this place, and in fact I plan on going back when I’m in Zion again next week!

After getting my campsite set up, organizing my car a bit, and taking a shower, it was just about time for sunset. While on the shuttle bus, the driver mentioned that the Watchman at sunset, photographed from one of the bridges, was a popular spot for photographers. Alright, I’m game.

There I got to talking with a nice photographer from California. We shared some of our favorite images with each other. He had an amazing photo from a lake out in California! It was fun chatting while I let my camera snap away on interval shooting.

I wasn’t done yet. After sunset I went up to the Canyon Overlook, as I knew the moon would be out, and thought it may light up the canyon. Yes, it was a little eerie hiking out there in the dark! I hadn’t actually been there yet, so I was completing that short 0.5 mile hike for the first time! I was also the only one up there, which I found a little hard to believe! Why were all the other photographers going to bed? They were missing some great shots!

Nope, I STILL wasn’t done! I stopped on the side of the road (the one you see there where the light trails are) and continued to shoot in the dark. After a few minutes, a truck pulled up and the guy asked if I was getting any good shots. I told him I was getting some great shots! He asked if I’d mind if he tried, too. Of course not! Well he only had an iPhone, so he wasn’t able to do what I could with my Nikon, but nonetheless, here was another cool person I chatted with. His name was Cody, he was originally from North Carolina. He had spent the winter working at a ski resort near Salt Lake City, I believe he said. He had just arrived at the park, and didn’t even have any reservations! He did have a camper that he had built on the back of his truck, so he really just needed a place to park, but still. I love that, though. I love that sense of adventure, and spontaneity! We talked for quite some time, and he even tried to convince me to go on a night hike with him. I passed in lieu of sleep, and then he said something that has stuck with me, “you won’t be telling your grand kids stories about sleeping.” Touche, Cody.

I still went back to get a little bit of sleep, but it wasn’t long before I was up again.

I knew that the moon would set well before sunrise, making the Milky Way visible. Once again, I was up before any signs of daylight, packed up my campsite, and went out to shoot some more!

I went to the parking lot of the museum to get a shot of the Milky Way above the Watchman. Unfortunately, there were a few thin clouds in the sky, but I just kept shooting and shooting hoping they would clear enough for a good shot. It was cool, and WINDY that morning! Once again, pretty eerie being out there by myself. I had a headlamp around my head, and my flashlight in my pocket. I kept my head on a swivel, looking around for other vehicles, or anything else out of the ordinary. Then I heard a rustle in the bushes. I quickly turned my headlamp on and looked that way, but didn’t see anything. There are mountain lions in this park, you know. So then I got my flashlight out of my pocket and shined it in the direction of the noise. Ah, there was something heading this way! I couldn’t tell what it was at first, then it got closer and became clearer. A raccoon! They can be mean, and have rabies! The hairs were standing up on my neck, and I was preparing to do my best Pat McAfee impression and unleash the boomstick on this dude! Luckily, he thought better of it, and turned around and ran the other way. Whew!

So yeah, here was the shot I got out of all that!

After that I got in my car to warm up and avoid anymore wildlife run-ins while waiting for the sun to come up. Another popular shot here is first light hitting the Patriarch’s, which were right behind me, so no need to go anywhere!

This time there were a couple other photographers out, completely unaware of the Milky Way shot they had just missed!

The sun was blocked by many clouds that morning, and there was just a narrow window of opportunity with at least some visible light on top of the cliffs, but nonetheless, I made it work out okay!

After that I went back to the Canyon Overlook for a daytime shot.

Then I traveled back through the eastern part of the park, which is also beautiful, on my way out to Monument Valley!

Zion just might be my favorite place I’ve ever been! I know this is a place I can come back to and spend a week, and never run out of trails to hike, or pictures to take. If you’ve never been, I would definitely recommend putting it on your list! I’ll be back next week to hike the Narrows, and probably Observation Point!