Very few people know of them or have seen them. And Kolob Arch just may be the biggest arch in the world.
Below is Crawford Arch, AKA Bridge Mountain Arch. Named for an early settler, William Crawford, who received credit for noticing it first. Millions of people drive near it but don’t notice it. It is high up on the Zion Canyon walls. I didn’t take the first photo below. I wasn’t around then.
Crawford Arch overlooking Human History Museum Photo by Chad Utterback If you want to get to this spot, you need to negotiate a difficult 8 mile round trip hike requiring technical climbing.
I took this photo from the safe canyon floor below.
Below is Kolob Arch, which requires a 14 mile round trip jaunt to get to this spot. At approximately 287 feet wide, it is the world’s second largest arch behind Arches National Park’s Landscape Arch at 290 feet. But Landscape Arch is getting old and could collapse at anytime which would give Kolob the title. It doesn’t look like Kolob Arch is collapsing anytime soon.
It’s a Navajo Indian term meaning “too many washes”. That it has. I wasn’t able to get too close to the canyon from Coal Mine Canyon, but I used my 400 mm telephoto lens and a 2x extender to get these two shots from about 3 miles away. I did try hiking along the rim of Coal Mine Canyon to get closer but encountered thick mud and side canyons. I’ve since learned that there is a dirt road that can get you pretty close to Ha Ho No Geh Canyon in Northern Arizona.
There is no paved parking lot. No signs. No shuttle buses. No entrance booth. No park rangers. No rails along the canyon rim. No guides. No hot dog stands. No mules to take you into the canyon. No Visitor Center. No visitors! Edward Abbey would approve of this place. In fact, it’s hard to find Coal Mine Canyon listed on any map. You’re suppose to look for the windmill near a farmhouse and water tank south of Tuba City. And that’s the way it should be.
Coal Mine Canyon could easily be its own National Park. It is in a remote part of Northern Arizona on the border of the Navajo and Hopi Indian Reservations. There are remnants of coal deposits in the canyon that the Hopis mined in the past. But hues of orange, magenta, gold, cyan and yellow dominate the canyon walls. Abstract shapes, patterns, and warped lines grab your attention.
My next post will be of the canyon next door to Coal Mine, Ha Ho No Geh Canyon. These images and more are available as downloadable files or signed prints at Dawn2Dawn Photography
The rock formation in the center is called The Ghost. Indian legend has it that a mist forming a ghost of a beautiful Indian woman would rise up from the canyon floor during a full moon. Her husband and child fell to their deaths along the canyon rim and she would visit the canyon every night searching for them until she eventually died. It just so happened that the day I was there, a full moon would be rising. But I had to get going as I don’t believe in ghosts.
There was one other visitor there, a photographer.
It mostly rained here the last 3 days and this desert environment can sure use it. When it rains in Zion Canyon, a cool thing happens. Like rainbows appearing out of nowhere, we are treated to instant waterfalls. A lot of visitors here ask me during the dry season, ” Where are the waterfalls that I’ve seen photos of?” Sorry Ma’am, but you have to be here when it rains. Like today! All the usual suspects were producing falls. The snow was in the higher elevations and those images will follow soon.
A brief storm passed through Zion country yesterday and left behind clean skies and dramatic colors at sunset. These images and more can be purchased as prints at Dawn2Dawn Photography
As predicted, the New Year brought 5 inches of fresh snow to Zion National Park. Good way to start the year although it’s suppose to get down to 15 degrees F tonight. I’m moving back to California!
Fog enveloped Zion Canyon the day after a Pacific storm blasted through Southern Utah last week. Fog and fall colors are a great foreground to the sheer and rugged Navajo Sandstone canyon walls at Zion National Park. These images and more are available as prints at Dawn2Dawn Photography Website.
Below are other fall color images as the peak was coming to an end. These images and more are available for purchase as metallic and paper prints, gallery wraps, standouts and giclee prints at Dawn2Dawn Photography.com
The Virgin River has done to Zion Canyon what no Hollywood special effects movie director could ever do. Create a remarkable canyon that is and looks natural. Throw in a pinch of fall colors and you have a masterpiece. During early November, Zion NP hosted the Plein Air Art Invitational(Facebook Page Link) where a number of renown landscape painters plied their trade(In The Footsteps Of Thomas Moran) and produced memorable paintings capturing the essence of Zion during the autumn season. One such is Steve Hill and you case see his work at Windswept Studios. The images below are fall colors I shot along the Virgin River a few weeks ago.
I was amazed by the brilliant falls colors at Zion last week, but I also noticed some hidden areas in Zion Canyon that I really never observed before. We all take photos of those wide open panoramas but if you take your telephoto lens and zoom in on specific targets, its amazing what you can capture. And a few pics are of familiar spots but from new vantage points in the park.
