Head in the Clouds

A view from the top rim of Cedar Breaks, at 10,500ft. elevation.
Can't see it of course, but the wind was howling and spitting rain, trying to change over to snow, which it did later in the day, so I was only able to grab a few quick shots of it this year.  I always make a point to stop by this spot when heading down to the east side of the mountain to my favorite foliage area. I ran into a blizzard here on October 1 several years ago, so considering I arrived mid-October this year, it was not too bad I guess. You can see that the bottom of the cloud layer was at almost exactly the same level as the rim, obscuring the sky, but leaving the view of the multi-colored formations unhindered. Be sure to click on the image for the full size view of this one. 

Watercolor Aspens

After driving quite a ways down some rough dirt roads in search of a large stand of bristlecone pines in the Ashdown Gorge area below Cedar Breaks that I had read about, we did actually find the spot, but couldn't go up there because it was raining with thunder and lightening, and didn't seem such a good idea to venture out on an exposed slope with a camera and tripod. We waited a while... but the black cloud kept sitting right there, so decided to turn back and save that location for another time.  I did manage to get in a few setups between showers on the way back up the road, however.  This scene really reminded me of a watercolor painting. 

A Pastoral Scene in the Land of Contrasts

When most people think of Utah, they picture the canyons, hoodoos and many colorful red rock formations typical of the southern half of the state, but at the higher elevations north of Zion and east of Cedar City, the environment is much different. Two roads descend slowly from Cedar Breaks at over 10,000ft. through wide, open meadows like this one, evergreen forest and huge aspen groves growing right up out of black stone lava flows. In fall, the colors and atmosphere are truly gorgeous, but you can still drive around all day, pull over and stop anywhere you want and rarely run into other people, certainly never enough that it feels crowded. (You might however hit a traffic jam of sheep moving to lower ground for the winter as I did here the next day!) Every september I start watching foliage reports on the web and try to time a trip to catch the peak colors. I always get some fantastic images from this area and I love the seclusion and the beauty of it, not to mention all the other fantastic and varied landscapes within a couple hours drive. Kind of makes you want to leave the city and never look back.

I shot this late in the afternoon; the next day it was snowing hard at this elevation and I had to stay down lower and try to work in the rain.

Looks Like Winter, but..

..it's not. And, it's not Bryce Canyon either, for those who might think so. This is Cedar Breaks, similar to Bryce with it's characteristic red rock hoodoos and high country forest, but quite a bit smaller, although still huge and impressive by most standards. This is a single, large amphitheater carved out of the side of a mountain, about (I'm guessing here without checking the map) 60-70 miles west of Bryce and a bit north of Zion. It may look like a winter scene, but I actually shot this on October 1 of last year, during my annual "foliage hunt". The east side of the mountain is covered with aspen groves and lava fields that run 30 miles or so from here on the rim at 10,500 ft., down towards the Red Canyon and Bryce areas at somewhat lower elevation. You can see a bit of foliage if you look towards the top center of the frame. The day before this, I drove along the rim in near white-out blizzard conditions, and would not have gone considerably out of my way to get back here on my way home, except that I knew it had to be really beautiful after the fresh snow. Without the snow, this would probably be a pretty boring "viewpoint" shot, but I like the way the white creates a nice design against the darker shapes of the rocks and forest. The one open slope there in the middle was catching a bit of sunlight on an otherwise cloudy day.
I haven't been doing this, but for this post you can click the image for a LARGE view and enjoy the detail and textures in all their glory.