Wednesday, April 17, 2013

My Birthday Trip Part 5

 
The advantage of visiting desert country in the spring is the cooler temperatures and the odd splash of colour. These small bouquets of Indian Paint Brush were scattered among the rocks. Where they get nutrition and water is a bit of a mystery.

 
We are still in Zion Park. Literally, every time you turn around there is another strange and wonderful rock formation.

 
The variety of colour in the different strata are fascinating.

 
Vistas like this one are common. Many times there was no pull out on the narrow road and wonderful photo opportunities had to be passed up.

 
This is truly a photographers dream landscape.

 
The Park Lodge at Zion, only accessible by shuttle bus. The best part of the park is being preserved by limiting vehicular traffic. The buses are propane driven and run every seven minutes. One can enter or exit the bus at any time, at any of many regular stops. They run from 7 am to 9:30 pm. It is all free after you pay your $25 park fee (per vehicle) which is good for seven days.

 
Andrew is snapping away. I had to rapid fire many photos just to keep up with his numbers. We both shot over 1500 photos and I also took 15 videos.

 
We hiked many wonderful trails but some really stand out in my memory. This is the top of an escarpment and you can see the trickle of water in the foreground. One did not dare go closer to the edge as there was a 300 ft. drop just beyond the stone ledge.

 
This is a shot of that trickle of water from below.

 
And this is the ledge it falls over. You can see the trail that runs under the cliff face and the bit of hand rail in the bottom right of the photo. One got a little wet hiking through here, but what an experience to walk under this great overhang and look up to see the water cascading toward you, out of the sky.
 
More tomorrow.

No comments: