Rock & Swiss Sandwich

A gorge is just like a slot canyon but a lot bigger. This can make for beautiful lighting. Especially, when the sun is shining on the opposite wall while the wall you are shooting is in shadow.  Rocks that are normally brown turn into glowing oranges and reds. The gorge we shot on the Burr Trail Road in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was nothing short of amazing. We had read about the Swiss cheese effect on the rock faces. We even looked at pictures. But nothing prepared us for what we saw and experienced.

We expected to drive through the gorge, stop for a couple of photos of Swiss cheesed rocks, then head on to the rest of the Burr Trail. When we arrived, we were awed.  And we stayed for two hours, clicking away. We had to drag ourselves out of the gorge, kicking and screaming. Kas did the kicking, and I did the screaming.

While walking from one area to another, I commented, “I could have an orgasm looking at these rocks.” Knowing me as well as she does, she said, “you can’t write that in the blog.” I wasn’t going to but now I have to! I really do love a challenge.

Just before we got to the Swiss cheese, we were captivated by this wall, bathed in sun.

A look straight on – the coloring was amazing. The trees give you a sense of scale.

When shooting up close, the Swiss Cheese effect can look like figures. This one looks like a ghoul to me.

Just as we were about to leave, I noticed a yellow tree across the way. As a photographer, I am a sucker for yellow trees. This was just an entre’ into delights on the other side of the gorge. There weren’t any Swiss cheese rocks. Instead, there were zebra-striped patterns and exquisitely lit trees.

This is the opposite wall – it had some amazing photographic opportunities too.

This tree (Ponderosa Pine, I believe) trunk was lighting up so beautifully, I had to shoot it. And I got lucky with Kas shooting on the other side.

Here is the yellow tree that attracted me to the other side of the gorge.

Our stop here, although much longer than we thought, was an unplanned highlight of our trip. We can’t wait until we find another gorge to shoot. I think we are becoming cave dwellers, marveling at the diagrams on the walls.

24 hours later…

Guess what? We found another gorge on the next day. We were doing a quick three hour visit to Capital Reef National Park when we stumbled upon another gorge. Again, we were mesmerized.

More Swiss Cheese, this time from Capital Reef. Rocks & Swiss is quite a combo.

The Swiss Cheese can take on all sorts of shapes. This time it looks like an apartment house.

Closeup of the Capital Reef Swiss. Yummy!

Remember, it’s all about the light, gorgeous in a gorge!