Capitol Dome at Capitol Reef National Park

 

This is where part of the name for Capitol Reef National Park comes from as you see this distinct dome looking feature as you come in to the park from the north. It takes about 7 hours to get here from Denver so it is quite a ride but we were happy that we got to see the park. Very remote and not as crowded as many of the national parks. Bill and I are getting pretty good at the national park sign picture thing. You take a picture with one person in his spot and then quickly switch while trying not to move the camera much. Photoshop helps align the shots and you get a two shot composition as if someone else is taking the photo. 

Park Avenue: Arches

Another tough shot to show as this is a 5 or 6 shot composite of the wonderful Park Avenue hike in Arches. This is one of the first hikes you see driving in from Moab and what a beauty. The real Park Avenue in New York has nothing on this view. It is an easy hike as well with a modest hike up and down at the start of the hike and very modest for the rest of the hike. There is actually a second parking lot at the distant end of this hike, but it is only a mile or so downhill from this point. However, someone has to move the car down to that end, so we just hiked there and back. Just as beautiful either way. 

Green River Overlook in Canyonlands

 

Hard to get panos to show well without clicking in to it but this is the Green River Overlook in Canyonlands. Amazing view. You are taking a picture from a high plateau towards a lower plateau and then into the canyon. 

Mesa Arch

 

The beautiful Mesa Arch from Canyonlands National Park. There are actually all kinds of other tourists around and I bided my time and altered my angle off to the side and was able to get a shot without other people around. Got a straight through shot as well, but I like this off-angle shot. 

So beautiful, doesn't look real

 

This shot is taken as a tight crop from one of my wider shots in Canyonlands National Park, but I cropped in and took out some of the fog that shows up in the more wide angle view. If you are shooting at 45 megapixels, you can get pictures within pictures, without having to carry another heavy lens, like a telephoto lens. The result is a shot that doesn't look real, but it is. This is a breath-taking, amazingly beautiful area, which we were able to see after a mile long hike to the top of a ridge in the center of the park. Takes your breath away. 

Here is the original shot, which is amazing as well:

Canyonlands National Park

 

Another great western national park is Canyonlands, outside of Moab, Utah. You basically are on a high, flat mesa plateau looking at various views of these huge canyons carved out by the Green and Colorado Rivers. You know you aren't in Kansas anymore with this view. The roads were cut in a hundred years ago when the area was attempted to be mined for various minerals. This section of the park is called, Island in the Sky, which is quite appropriate as you can drive around or hike to various view points of the various canyons in the area. The whole place is just an amazing landscape. Go right up to the edge, like I am here, to scare yourself and those you are traveling with, but always stay off the edge, as demonstrated by my buddy, Bill. 

Arches National Park

 

Arches National Park has these kind of views everywhere you look. Those are the La Sal Mountains in the background. This is a park that I would love to visit again.