My Excellent Utah Adventure – Part 3

Safety First. Or Second.

One of the things that is forefront in my mind on this trip is safety. Actually I should say that my safety is forefront on the minds of quite a few people at home who were really worried when i told them that I was planning this solo trip. In truth there is an element of danger as many of the hikes that I have been on so far have sections where there is a sheer drop off and if you stepped in the wrong place you’re going to fall about 500-1500ft.

Falling to my death isn’t actually the thing that I think about the most. Don’t get me wrong, it’s definitely up in the top two but the thing that I actually am thinking about most is fatigue. While I’ve done enough day hikes around Vancouver doing strenuous hikes day after day for 9 days isn’t something that I’ve done before and how I’m able to keep this up without injury is top of my concern. In a week and a half I’ll be able to report if it works out.

The Crowds

Today is my last full day in the Zion National park area and tomorrow I move on to my 2nd destination which is Bryce Canyon National Park. In all I will be visiting four national parks in Utah and I think that the other three will be quite different from Zion for one reason alone: the crowds. Although technically past the peak summer season now, Zion park is pretty crowded and on every hike that I’ve been on so far there are hundreds of people with you. From the research that I’ve done, Zion definitely has the most visitors so I’m hoping that the crowds will be a little lighter in the parks to come.

Jaded

I was driving from Zion to Bryce Canyon National Park today and on that highway there are some stunning views that normally I would pull over and take some photos. Today, on a few of the really nice spots I kept driving as I was thinking “there must be something better down the road”. There wasn’t. It’s only taken 3 days but I’ve become jaded by the abundance of spectacularly beautiful landscapes that just seem to go on forever. Especially in Zion park, if you miss taking a shot of this well lit canyon wall you just have to wait for the next one to come along and you’ll usually get an equally good opportunity.

Quality, Not Quantity

Judging by my picture count so far, this 10 day trip will see me bringing home the fewest number of photos in a long time. I know that this sounds ironic given that the whole trip is about photography. Realistically I expect to take less than 500 photos – probably the lowest number of photos that I’ve taken since I stopped using a film camera. What’s causing the low number of photos? The reason is that it’s the first time that I’ve taken a tripod on a trip and I’ve been using it quite a lot. Of course having to setup a tripod for each shot makes you slow down and focus on getting the shot correct and doesn’t support ripping though dozens of shots at each stop.

Tomorrow is about the half-way point for my trip to Utah. By tomorrow night I’ll be in a new place and actually will be my only time on this trip that I’ll actually be outside of Utah. The other significant factor is that I expect that in the next 48 hours that I’ll be taking the best photos of this entire trip. By the time I post my next update I should be able to say if those predictions came true or not.

Baden