Crack Canyon, San Rafael Swell Utah

This is the first of a 4 part post on a trip I took with 12 young men (Ages 14-18) and 5 adults from our church to the San Rafael Swell in south Central Utah as a High Adventure activity.

This area also includes Goblin Valley State Park, which is one of the funkiest natural formations I have ever seen. This first post consists of the photo's taken once the three of us in the advance party set up camp, texted off the GPS co-ordinates, and decided it was time to play. None of us had ever been in Crack Canyon, and were glad we went, it was a good example of the type.

The upper Canyon with the path/streambed. (Please click on the Photos to enlarge them)

These dead Junipers are everywhere in the area and are full of character.

There were several seeps in the bottom of the canyon, and they all stank, this water was pretty sulfurous but made for nice framing of the butte.

One of my favorite visual aspects of water carved areas, is the sweep or curve of a bend. These often lead your eye to the distance and (to me) increase the vastness of the area. Sometimes in the city you forget exactly how BIG open country can be.

I also LOVE this type of weathering, Swiss cheese rock is just so cool to look at!

This undercut makes me nervous and yet awed all together. How much water had to flow past here to cut that away? How long did it take? Will it collapse as I walk underneath it? You can't think that last one much if you want to be comfortable in a slot canyon.

I loved the play of light in this alcove.

This is "Desert Varnish" what you see streaking vertical walls of sandstone in the desert, my understanding is that it is a combination of iron oxide being pulled from the rock (That is why it is red ya know) and lichens/bacteria. You will see it in many of my photo's if you look closely.

This is probably my FAVORITE shot from the day, those two at the bottom are Mike and George, the two characters I went down with.

As the day progressed the cloud cover got interesting, and I got even MORE interested! These next few shots are as pared down as I can make them, I get all gushy just looking at them, and want to post them ALL, but I will spare you looking at multiple shots that have only slight framing differences. They are all taken on the way back out the upper part of the canyon. We were hiking late in the day and it was quite difficult to photograph in the shadows of a north/south canyon with the sun lowering in the western sky.

This 4 shot panorama is testament to the adage of "Never forget to look behind you when shooting a sunset!" The delicate light on the clouds warms my heart!

Here is what I was looking at before I turned around.

A fittingly beautiful end to a gorgeous day, out in the desert.