Animal Planet

With the lungs a tad bit rocky, I thought I'd harken back to our roadtrip in Utah when they were on their best behavior.

TOG and I weren't just into scenery while hiking the canyons. We spent a lot of time capturing wild life on our road trip this summer. The photo above was taken by TOG near Zion. It was inspired by some art we saw in Kenab, Utah when we were having dinner the night before. I love, love, love this shot.

My buffalo shots were a little less fabulous.

But still fun to take! And then there were the antelope...

The cutie pie Utah prarie dogs...

The deer...

TOG's Favorites... the Desert Sheep...

...in all it's glory...

...and the boy sheep with his band of ladies...

TOG named him Eustace...

There was more lovliness back at the ranch...

This guy thought I had something for him...

Evenings in Utah were just so pretty...

More to come... Stay tuned!

AG out

Utah Rocks

Before we went to Zion, TOG and I spent a day in Bryce Canyon. This was actually the park I was the most excited about seeing! Bryce is famous for its beautiful red hues and its HooDoo formations. The canyon was actually better than I hoped! .

Although we didn't have time to visit Arches National Park, Bryce had more than one natural arch for us to enjoy!

Ironically, Bryce is actually quite small for a national park. It packs a wallop though, in having such depth and beauty in such an accessible space. It's also unique in that you enter at the top of the park with elevation at 8,000-9,000 feet, with the option of hiking down into the canyon.

There's a wonderful rim trail around the canyon, offering a range of scenic views. I could probably have have spent days there and shot picture after picture. The colors and shadows were really stunning and continued to give throughout the day as the sun moved across the sky.

The shapes and shadows seemed endless and fascinating...

And there were unexpected treasures around every corner...

It's difficult to pick just a few shots to showcase the hours we spent enjoying the park.

If you have a chance to visit southern Utah, Bryce Canyon National Park is worth a day trip.

Smaller in scale than Zion or the Grand Canyon, but every bit as rich in color and depth!

Stay tuned, there's more to come...

AG out

Road Trip 2012

There we were...working hard... working some more... and working even more. Then one day, TOG and I lifted our heads from our work, looked at each other and said "we haven't been on a road trip in a while." And so began a plethora of research, mileage planning, route investigation, reservations, re-routing, cancellation of reservations... all topped off with a dab of last minute acquisition of oxygen and a tad bit of packing.

And then the adventure began...

I won't be telling it in order, because I haven't edited the pictures in order... and there's a lot of pictures.

Today's shots are from Zion. We stayed near Zion National Park in Utah, using it as a base to visit other parks and states. As we left Zion, we had to drive through it one last time to head toward Nevada.

The rock formations in upper Zion are just amazing. This is checkerboard mesa.

Not only are the criss-cross lines amazing, but the colors are fantastic. One of the things that most charmed us in Utah were the colors!

You expect the desert to be muted and earth toned, but the trees, rocks and sky combine to be oh so vivid. After a few days in the desert, TOG and I were also looking a little vivid, even with 50 SPF!

We saw this huge "wave" of rock the day before and we stopped to try to capture it, not just the beauty, but the magnitude. Here's TOG trying to convey the size!

But I think this shot tells a better story. Can you make out the two people behind him?

We became really accomplished at placing one of the cameras on top of the car and setting the timer! This is still in Utah. It was about 95 degrees out. I remember how pleasant and warm the sun felt, how easy it was to breathe and how far we had to travel that day!

More to come!

AG out!