The Narrows Gorge Zion National Park #1

I took this picture when I hiked The Narrows Gorge in Zion National Park. This was an awesome experience and the scenery was of course incredibly beautiful. The Narrows is known as a "slot gorge" because of it narrow width. This shot was taken at a point where the gorge is actually quite wide. At parts we had to hike through water that was up to our necks even though it was late summer. You have to be concerned about thunderstorms as they can cause the water level to rise fast. Keeping the camera out of the water was my main concern. The place where we rented out hiking gear had these cool hip bags for your camera that kept it dry.

If you ever do this or a similar hike, make sure you rent or buy the special boots that have grip on the slippery rock, and make sure you use a polel to help keep yourself upright, but expect to end up in the drink at least once nonetheless. Our entire party all fell into the water by the end of it. Take it as part of the experience, and the water's warm anyhow, at that time of the year at least.

Camera: Canon EOS 20D
Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture: f/13
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Rabbit at Arches National Park UT

This rabbit wasn't quite as cooperative as the lizard in my previous post and wouldn't stand still for very long at all however I did manage to snap this shot as he chowed down on something he found in the red earth. Something that strikes me about him is how blue the patches of gray are on his flanks.Hopefully someone can identify his species for me some time.


Canon EOS 20D
Canon 70-300mm lens at 300mm
1/25 secs at f/18.0
ISO 200

Lizard at Arches National Park UT

I managed to photograph this beautiful lizard at Arches National Park in Utah. Of course, with wildlife, it's often hard to get cooperation from your subject but in this case the lizard actually allowed me to get quite close with my camera without running off.

Identified as gambelia wislizenii, the long-nosed leopard lizard, by Patrick at Flickr. Thanks, Patrick!


Canon EOS 20D
Canon 18-55mm lens at 55mm
1/320 secs at f/9.0
ISO 100

Bryce Canyon Rock Warrior

While walking back up from the bottom of the Queen's Garden Trail back to Sunrise Point I noticed that in this rock formation I could make out the face of a Mayan or Aztec warrior chief. If you click on this image and look just below the center of the bigger image hopefully you'll be able to make him out. He has a big nose and a high headdress. It was a pretty amazing sight. I wonder if other people have ever picked this out. I think a lot relied on the shadows that were being cast at the time by the sun. Perhaps it doesn't look like a warrior if the shadows aren't just right.

Bryce Canyon National Park website