Virgin River Gorge

I decided to go to an area that I hadnt been to for quite a while. To the southwest of St George, Utah there is a deep river gorge that the Virgin river flows through. Interstate 15 runs through this gorge and was one of the most expensive stretches of highway ever built due to the rugged terrain.
 The developed camp grounds at Cedar Pocket in the gorge is rarely crowded and has some beautiful scenery overlooking the Virgin River.
 There are dirt roads all through this area of the Mojave Desert and the Joshua trees and cactus are typical of the Mojave desert. The scenery is beautiful but if traveling these dirt roads you need to make sure that your carrying plenty of water and are self reliant as the roads are not heavily traveled.
 There is wilflife in this desert if you know where to look and this is one of my favorite areas for getting pictures of Desert Bighorn Sheep. They are not easy to get to and the mountains in this gorge are as sharp as coral so I would recommend gloves and long pants as well as good hiking boots. The best time to visit is the spring and the fall as the temperatures are much more forgiving.
 I hiked around for four or five hours but did not see the Bighorn Sheep but the wildflowers were in bloom and I did get some great pictures of the scenery from the top of the gorge.

North Gate Peaks

Today I went up to the Kolob platue in Zions canyon. This area is nice to hike in because there isnt as much foot traffic and there are some excellent view points from some of the trails on the top part of Zion Canyon.
 I followed a trail called the Wildcat trail. This trail leads to a great view of the North Gate Peaks. The spring runoff is running very high so the stream are moving much faster than normal.
 There were signs of the local elk herd all around and I was hoping to spot them so thay I could get some shots of them. The last of the snow had melted up here over the last few weeks so the ground is wet and muddy in some places.
The hike was nice and there were not more than a few othere people out. I made it to the overlook in about an hour and a half and I spent an hour taking pictures. As I was hiking out the mule deer began coming out to graze as the sun was going down. Some storm clouds began to move in and there was a drizzle of rain.
 As I was driving away from the parking area for the wildcat trail I saw the herd of elk that I had been looking for. They were standing in a clearing and there were about thirty of them. The sun had gone down a while before so it was too dark for me to get any pictures of them but it was nice to get to see them.

Zion Canyon

I decided to take the afternoon and drive up to Zion to take a short hike today. I decided to take a trail that I had never hiked before that follows the stream that runs along the bottom of the canyon below the tunnel. It really isnt much of a trail. I think that most of the traffic along it is the mule deer that live here. There is a large bridge constructed of sandstone that is amazing. As I was hiking and stopping to take pictures I surprised several times to have deer come out of the trees and come right up to me. Its something that still amazes me that the deer here have become so acustom to people that they will walk within reach of you. That makes for some great photo ops! There is still a lot of spring runoff coming down through the canyon due to our severe winter in the upper mountains. I followed the trail up about a mile but could not go any farther due to the stream running so high. I was able to get some great shots.
 Theres nothing like a good hike in this beautiful country to blow off some steam and clear your mind.

Grafton ghost town

I went out to one of my favorite spots today. It is a small ghost town called Grafton. There are several homes still standing and a sandstone schoolhouse that has been redone by a local preservation group. There is a small cemetary and it is very interesting to read the headstones of the people who are burried there. Some were killed by indians, some by floods.  It is a beautiful setting with its green pastures with the sandstone cliffs of Zion Canyon as a backdrop. I never get tired of photographing this place as I always find something new or different conditions to photograph the things that I have allready photographed in the past. As time goes on you will probably see many posts about this place because of my love of it.
 If you have ever seen the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid then you have seen Grafton. The bicycle seen was filmed here and still looks much like it did in the movie with the exception that the home they were in for the movie is no longer standing.