Utah Day 3 - Is there anyone left in the world?

After waking up to the silence of the southern Utah desert, I wondered what happened to the rest of the world. It seemed as though I was the only person left. I walked over to the edge of the rim to see the expanse of the desert just before sunrise. And although I was a bit nervous about mountain lions, I was having a great time.

I ate a quick breakfast before heading to Big Water Utah and then on to Page Arizona. The primitave road going down the edge of Grand Staircase NM was a bit scary but again, I was having the time of my life. It was just wonderful being the only person for many miles to experience these sights.

I ended up pulling over at this spot and made a grape jam sandwich. I pulled out a bottle of water and washed my hair then brushed my teeth.

Once I arrived into Page I stopped at the Glen Canyon Dam to take some photos. Then it was off to horseshoe bend. Whoa.. talk about getting dizzy. This spectacular place yieled visual rewards more than was expected. Of course the 1/2 mile hike on a sandy trail was an inconvenience in the hot Arizona sun. Then came the edge. Those with vertigo, I would not recommend this place to visit. One slip and thats all folks!

I met another photographer from Scotland who was also visiting. He took this photo of me taking a photo of Horseshoe bend.

When we finished, it was off to Antelope Canyon. I chose to go through the upper canyon wondering if I could get a photo of the light beams. This canyon is operated by the Navajo Nation. You pay the fee and hop on a pickup truck for a 10 mile drive through a sand filled basin until you reach the canyon enterance. You are required to have a Navajo guide with you at all times while in the canyon.

This place was wonderful although jam packed. After a while I wondered if there were going to be any fights between photographers. Because the canyon is dark, it requires long exposure times. The problem was on one side several photographers were setup for long exposures and on the other side unkowingly walking to these photographers people would walk right into the cameras view ruining the exposure. But for the most part, everyone behaved themselves.

Well enough of that, I stopped at Mcdonalds and had some real food :) Then it was off to Zion and Vegas. Unfortunately the north rim of the Grand Canyon was still closed for the season but the road passing by yielded a couple of views of the mighty California Condor.

Zion National Park was an amazing landscape filled with unique rock formations. Even better were the sunsets.

I never did make it to the Desert National Wildlife Refuge north of Vegas and instead stopped overnight at the Valley of Fire state park. The one thing I did not anticipate was sleeping in warmer temperatures. But also, I had to leave the windows closed due to critters such as black widows, scorpions and other icky insects. As a matter of fact, there was a juvenile rattle snake near my camp spot. And at the toilets, there were many bats flying near the lights eating up the flying bugs. You could hear their ultrasonic squeaks as they flew for an intercept.