Beat the Bus

Reflections in the Colorado River Downstream from Moab UT

It’s a trade-off.  I lean toward solitude and choose it whenever I can, but some of the crowded spots hold treasures that justify going there even though they're more people-y.

Crescent Moon at Sunrise, Dead Horse Point State Park, UT

One benefit of rousting myself well before sunrise is that most tourists are still sleeping. That’s a winning strategy for busy parks like Arches National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park in Eastern Utah.

Last week I met up with a friend in Moab.  She’d already been there for five days doing a photo workshop with Colleen Miniuk.  I thought it would be fun (except for the 7 ½ hour drive) to spend a few days together after the workshop.  It certainly was.

Preternaturally unpopulated Delicate Arch at Predawn, Arches National Park, UT

One morning we photographed Delicate arch from a distant viewpoint.  I don’t generally remove things from my images, but in this case it seemed appropriate to digitally remove the hordes of people around the base of the arch.

Dawn at Broken Arch, Arches National Park, UT

Several times, after hustling up a trail in the dark and enjoying the quiet, we’d see a tour bus pulling into the parking lot on our way out.  Literally, the bus.  Other times it was a train of cars going where we’d come from – a sort of figurative bus.  We decided that our best strategy for National Park outings is to beat the bus.

Winter Trees in a Quiet Canyon on BLM Land, UT

There were other places.  Quiet canyons that I remember from my last trip there, eight years ago, and places that Amy had learned about during her workshop that we revisited.

Moab is a cool town, whose population has been stable over the last decade though it has sprouted a slew of new hotels and timeshares.  Crowds have increased, but the people are largely not locals.  Easter jeep week brings 20,000 people to this town of 5,000.  Still, it boasts many of the characteristics of the perfect outdoor-focused town.  My favorites: A first-rate bakery (Sweet Cravings), perfect independent bookstore (Back of Beyond), Great food and beer, local art shops, and lots of Subarus, Toyota four-wheel drives, and Jeeps.

Backlighted Cactus along a Trail

In a sense we beat the bus when we spent time in town, too.  I’ve always visited later in the spring, and mid-March was a much better time to find downtown parking and even to have reasonable luck with left tuns onto and off of the highway. In May, not so much.

Bowtie Arch, Along a Popular Trail

As always, there were many more natural places we wanted to see than time to visit them, so we hope to be back.

But not by bus.

There’s more on the Website, in the Spring 2026 Gallery.

Closer to Home

Harquahala Mountains, AZ at Sunrise

Here I am again, writing about a pivot in my plans which turned out for the best.  I’d expected to do the unpack-pack thing after a drive home from visiting family in California.  I wanted to have another crack at flowers in the Mojave Desert.  Belatedly it dawned on me that the temperatures where I wanted to be would top out around 95. That’s not ideal in the black van without air conditioning. Plus, crowds.

So, I decided to enjoy some spring beauty close to home.  I did the scouting (looking for compositions before the good light hit) on my Vespa, for a bonus thrill.

Yarnell Hill AZ

The brittlebush on the Yarnell Hill section of State Highway 89, literally five minutes from my front door, were having their once-in-a-decade bloom.  The terrain is rugged there, which made this a perfect project to tackle with the drone.  I shot at sunrise and sunset on the hill, being mindful to keep it legal and avoid flying over moving vehicles.  That means carefully timing highway crossings, which is fun.

 

Yarnell Hill AZ

Recently I had a conversation with a friend who isn’t a big fan of drone images.  He insists that they’re impersonal because there’s no foreground – that the aircraft flies too high.  I countered that there’s no reason that (with care) drone images can’t be taken from just a few feet above ground level.  Here’s an example of a drone image with foreground.  I rest my case.

Owl's Clover near Congress AZ

Another little trip was to highway 71 outside Congress.  I appreciated the Owl’s Clover.

Total Lunar Eclipse March 3, 2026

I did get up at 4:00AM to see the lunar eclipse.  There’s nothing at all original about this image, but it does bring back the feeling of standing in a cold wind, focusing on the moon.  I was reminded that I’m merely a tiny being, pasted by gravity to this planet while it temporarily cast a shadow on it’s moon. 

Harquahala Mountains, AZ at Sunrise

Finally, I had a quick overnighter to the Harquahala Mountains, which is a favorite spot with reliable solitude.  Unfortunately, the annual flowers (mostly poppies, lupines, and scorpionweed) had finished blooming, and there had not been many of them.  There were a few brittlebush still blooming.  I managed to have a great time with sunrise shots there regardless, and I had a lovely mental reset from the solitude.

All this while spending the nights at home.  There’s more on the website.