Petroglyphs and Panoramas

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I am in awe.

Flabbergasted, amazed, astounded . . .

You supply the description.

Everything about this place is immense. Gigantic, huge, unexplainable and very difficult to photograph. The reason is that everything here is on such a grand scale, I find it almost impossible to shoot.

I've taken some wide shots, and while they may be appealing, they can barely begin to do this place justice.

With that in mind, I've taken to shooting details.

And there are details here in the thousands.

And petroglyphs.

They are everywhere,
quite beautiful
and magical at the same time.
I started shooting them
for the petroglyphs themselves,
but when I looked at the pictures,
they almost appear to be modern art.

The rocks here
have such a variety of color,
it's unlike anything I've ever seen.
It makes for such beautiful variations.

Then there was this guy.
Talk about alien life forms!

After a while,
I realized that,
while the petroglyphs are beautiful,
the rock presents as an art form
all it's own.

I played around
with the color for this shot.

While the rocks were mesmerizing.
This particular set of petroglyphs
was really impressive.

A wider shot
so you can see more
of the surrounding rock.

More rock art.

Better in black and white?
Maybe not better,
but different.

Next we headed
to Panorama Point.

We don't know the name
of these rock formations,
but we call them puddle rocks.

We see them all over this area.

The walk led us to this view.

And this one.

It seems everywhere you look
trees are growing out of solid rock.

They grow up, down and sideways,

maintaining a firm hold
on the least amount of soil.

All this rock is surrounded
by the finest sand.
Nature takes a firm hold
in that as well.

These tiny white flowers
were some of my favorites.

Capitol Reef
boasts a huge geologic formation
called the Waterpocket Fold.
It's so named because
the unique structure of the rocks
allows liquid to be collected.

Here's a tiny fold,
holding water from the recent rains.

We saw this all over Capitol Reef
after the storms.

Here's Terry
at the top of the cliffs
at Panorama Point.

Here's the first of many pictures
of holes in the rocks.
Doesn't sound so great
but believe me,
they make the most amazing patterns.

This particular day,
we had beautiful skies,
almost as nice as New Mexico . . .

And then we headed
back across the valley
to come home.

A wonderful day
in an amazing place.