Ah... the big adventure day begins. My brother and I leave the Salt Lake Valley to head south to the blessed peace of southern Utah. Adventures first stop? The Escalante/Grand Staircase National Recreation area. After a quick stop in Escalante, UT to pick up our backcountry permit to camp for the next night or two we head south on the Hole In The Rock Road to our first stop: The Dry Forks of the Coyote Gulch, to spend some time in some skinny, skinny, slot canyons!
The roads are well marked and we easily find our trailhead, and follow the cairns down into the gulch. Following along the contour of this side hill takes up to the right and down.
The cactus were in bloom, but pink in this area, in Capitol Reef they were Red last year in May.
Once you reach the bottom, you can turn immediately left into a nice slot canyon that is part of the main gulch, it is wide and fairly easily accessible. The light seemed to peek around the corners with a golden glow that was simply fantastic to behold.
Narrowing but never getting too narrow, it was a perfectly pleasant environment to wander through and enjoy the splendor.
A little further along we shoal up a bit bit it never becomes rough or intimidating.
Once you have explored as far as you want to, a quick trip back down just past the entrance to the gulch (on your right) brings you to the entrance (on your left) to Peek-A-Boo Gulch. Using the Moki Steps carved in the face on the left, you can fairly easily gain access to the main channel, the sandstone is highly figured and formed into holes and divots. This is not a place to be when it rains.
Not very far up the gulch, there is a series of arches, that in rainy times the water flows under. The contrasts of the bright direct sunlight and dark shadow challenge any camera and photographer. Using HDR to combine shots allows for the full glory to be shown. Here I have demonstrated three different approaches to this processing. Each with it's own pro's and con's. I cannot say which one is my favorite, I like them all.
Exposure Fusion
Details Enhancer
Tone Compressor.
The hardiness of the desert flora to flourish in this hostile of an enviroment continually amazes me.
Just up from the arches you have to duck through this low arch to get in and out. Here I am exiting.
A short walk down from Peek-A-Boo, is Spooky Gulch, so named because of how dark and spooky it was. I had to push my ISO's higher than I am usually comfortable using, but I really really can't hand hold lower than 1/3 to 1/2 sec and reasonably expect decent sharpness... sigh.....
It starts out reasonably wide, but.....
It gets nearly unreasonably wide quite quickly! I was required to take my backpack off and turn sideways for long stretches. I am not a claustrophobe at all, but I did get a little tired of holding my backpack out, I carry a lot of water and it is heavy!!!
There are straighter stretches where you can squish in your shoulders a little and walk facing straight ahead...
And places where you cannot. The glow of the light ahead was always a nice thing to see coming up. It has a very red tinge, that requires care to not over saturate.
Most of the time you cannot see the sun or sky at all.
My Brother is not a fat man, and made it through OK, but those that are horizontally challenged are not really candidates for this type of insanity.
Other places are more curvy and convoluted, but always always beautiful!
This fin was a little acrobatic to negotiate, the outside curve is just big enough to get you bottom into as you try to not get neutered.
If you look closely at the walls you can see sand on the little ridges, it was blowing quite hard up on the topside, and find sand was raining down on us at times. fortunately my camera is sealed so it did fine, my zoom was a bit sticky for a day or two but soon worked out the kinks.
All in all this was a BLAST! And a place I want to come back to, apparently another spot further down called Brimstone Gulch is just as narrow and even longer. Now that sounds like fun to me!
Next stop camp, and getting ready for Coyote Gulch tomorrow!
This shot needed a LOT of correction, it was shot through glass, and the color cast was pathetically green. I think it got it right though.
An 8 shot panorama of the lobby of the old Hotel Utah/Now Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Really should have done a double row and got more of it in.
Love the chandelier. Love.
While nothing spectacular, I was glad to have the opportunity to get the shot. No camera no photo.... ya know?
Here are some Orange Sticks from our adventure at the Sweet's Candy Factory.
I took this, Sunset on the way home from my folks. Nothing incredible but a nice scene!
There is something deeply enjoyable for me, to look up at a balloon from below. Don't know what it is, but I just get this peacefully excited feeling when I look up at them. Probably due to imagining myself up there. I have never been up in a Hot Air Balloon, but would love to one day! (Bucket List!!! Along with floating from Flaming Gorge to Lake Powell in a raft.)
One High... One Low...
There was not a lot of wind, these guys decided to just set 'er down where they could. In the middle of football practice....
The Coca Cola balloon is supposed to be the largest in the world, and it is HUGE!!!!! They did not fly it just inflated it! sigh.......
They did invite me into the basket while they blew more hot air in. Kinda hot there, but a fun perspective!
Ah.... I LOVE balloons!
B-25 from the balcony. It was a larger plane than I thought it was!
B-17 Flying Fortress, with a P-51 Mustang under the wing. This duo had a large part in the victory of the allied forces in WW-II
Love the split tail of the B-25.
Sikorsky Helicopter, BIG one too. Amazing that these things can fly they are so big!
F-86 Sabre (I think) with a replica of the signpost from M*A*S*H, all part of the Korean War legacy. I found myself constantly surprised at the diminutive size of the early fighter jets.
Moving outdoors, we exited to some interesting clouds, which initially made me think I was going to NOT get any good shots due to the flat lighting. I think I did OK.
B-29 Superfortress
B-52 Stratofortress
All in all an enjoyable outing!
We then headed west out towards Saltair, catching the sun just at it was dipping behind the mountain.
It was a glorious sunset and a fun memory with my kids. Think I may do it again sometime!
Next a '68 Cord (I think) not really sure if the tubes have a real purpose but they look cool!
Self portrait in Chrome.
Someone had restored an old Ford Truck, beautifully as well, due to the crowded nature of the place, shots of the whole car were often crowded and not particularly aesthetic so..... you get lots of detail shots from me. Which actually worked well with the focal length and aperture combo.
I then came to the car I LOVED the MOST! A 1957 Chevrolet BelAir, THE classic car of the 50's next to the '59 Cadillac Coupe de Ville Convertible, you know! The one with the FINS! 
It is the details that set these cars apart, and boy are those details nice.
Bullet bumpers... oh yeah!
Aiming for the sky!
Sadly moving on I found a '55 or '56 Ford Fairlane Crown Victoria in black, a nice restoration and worth a few pictures too.
Last but not least there were a few Cobra's to play with, unfortunately they were so close together that good shots were harder to come by. Here are a couple that I liked.
This one is a bit over the top, but seemed to be well received when posted on-line. I may do a little bit more editing and print it.
The cactus were in bloom, but pink in this area, in Capitol Reef they were Red last year in May.
Once you reach the bottom, you can turn immediately left into a nice slot canyon that is part of the main gulch, it is wide and fairly easily accessible. The light seemed to peek around the corners with a golden glow that was simply fantastic to behold.
Narrowing but never getting too narrow, it was a perfectly pleasant environment to wander through and enjoy the splendor.
A little further along we shoal up a bit bit it never becomes rough or intimidating.
Once you have explored as far as you want to, a quick trip back down just past the entrance to the gulch (on your right) brings you to the entrance (on your left) to Peek-A-Boo Gulch. Using the Moki Steps carved in the face on the left, you can fairly easily gain access to the main channel, the sandstone is highly figured and formed into holes and divots. This is not a place to be when it rains.
Not very far up the gulch, there is a series of arches, that in rainy times the water flows under. The contrasts of the bright direct sunlight and dark shadow challenge any camera and photographer. Using HDR to combine shots allows for the full glory to be shown. Here I have demonstrated three different approaches to this processing. Each with it's own pro's and con's. I cannot say which one is my favorite, I like them all.
Details Enhancer
Tone Compressor.
The hardiness of the desert flora to flourish in this hostile of an enviroment continually amazes me.
Just up from the arches you have to duck through this low arch to get in and out. Here I am exiting.
A short walk down from Peek-A-Boo, is Spooky Gulch, so named because of how dark and spooky it was. I had to push my ISO's higher than I am usually comfortable using, but I really really can't hand hold lower than 1/3 to 1/2 sec and reasonably expect decent sharpness... sigh.....
It gets nearly unreasonably wide quite quickly! I was required to take my backpack off and turn sideways for long stretches. I am not a claustrophobe at all, but I did get a little tired of holding my backpack out, I carry a lot of water and it is heavy!!!
There are straighter stretches where you can squish in your shoulders a little and walk facing straight ahead...
And places where you cannot. The glow of the light ahead was always a nice thing to see coming up. It has a very red tinge, that requires care to not over saturate.
Most of the time you cannot see the sun or sky at all. 
My Brother is not a fat man, and made it through OK, but those that are horizontally challenged are not really candidates for this type of insanity.
Other places are more curvy and convoluted, but always always beautiful!
This fin was a little acrobatic to negotiate, the outside curve is just big enough to get you bottom into as you try to not get neutered.
If you look closely at the walls you can see sand on the little ridges, it was blowing quite hard up on the topside, and find sand was raining down on us at times. fortunately my camera is sealed so it did fine, my zoom was a bit sticky for a day or two but soon worked out the kinks.
All in all this was a BLAST! And a place I want to come back to, apparently another spot further down called Brimstone Gulch is just as narrow and even longer. Now that sounds like fun to me!
