January’s Jewels
Found these on the branch of a streamside bush on the way up to Lake Blanche in Big Cottonwood Canyon.
There’s something kind of wonderful about winter crystals….
Hmm…I thought this last one was clearer than it appears to be now…even so, I think it’s a pretty crystal flower…..
Sundial Peak in Winter
You might remember Sundial Peak from various posts over the summer…and into the fall…possibly from the one dedicated specifically to Lake Blanche, one of the Sister Lakes located at the end of the drainage, Mill B South, up in Big Cottonwood Canyon…tucked away in the Wasatch Mountains…just south and east of Salt Lake City, Utah, USA…. Â It took twice as long to get there with the deep, deep snow…even with snow-shoes…but, oh, what a reward at the end…..
Homestead in sepia
It might be the color, but this rendering strikes me more as an abandoned dwelling…maybe it’s because the mountains and trees that were visible in the other versions are missing and there is a feeling of derelict solitude here…I’m not sure…. Â This is the fourth of five images in the Homestead series…to see the other photographs, you can scroll to the bottom of the page and click on Homestead Series under the Categories icon.
Ice Climbing in Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah
My older son and I noticed these ice climbers last Sunday as we were heading up the Little Cottonwood Canyon trail from the Mormon Temple Quarry near the mouth of the canyon.  While I have never participated in the sport, I have found myself up near their location on the side of the mountain when I was collecting images for the posts Life on a Rock, Scale or perspective… and Little Cottonwood Canyon Vistas.
If you are having difficulty finding the three climbers, they are just to the right and below of the center of the above photograph…three climbers, two at the top, and one in blue toward the bottom of the icy cascade that is near the horizontal middle of the image.
You might remember the post from December, 2011, when I shared my first encounter/discovery of ice climbers in the Little Cottonwood Canyon. Â The location from I Found a Frozen Waterfall is probably another mile up into the canyon and on the same side of the mountain, or canyon wall.
The first four images were from the beginning of our hike, shortly after 9:00 a.m. …and before the sun had made its way over the canyon walls…and the last two photos were taken at the end of the hike, close to four hours later. Â While it was still an overcast day, the light had changed the appearance of the snow and canyon from the blue hues to the more gray and subdued colors that are not uncommon for our winter mountains.
My son, with his more-than-slightly younger ears, could hear the climbers’ picks smacking into the icy walls, just a “tick…tick……tick” from across the hundreds of yards that separated us, the sound traveling easily in the quiet mountain air, from however many feet above us.
Night-time thoughts
These night-time thoughts won’t go away, they cause a stirring that compels me toward the street and the circuit of my surround…where I confront the Dark that rides in my soul, feelings and disjointed words resounding in my heart and mind that I can’t read or understand in their varied selves, so I walk the rounds and feel the cold of the sleeping sun as I pass beneath amber street lights along the way, walking, walking…sorting images and the memory echoes of graying thoughts and serrated words heard in their time, passed and passing….
Homestead with cloudy panorama
This is the third of five images in the Homestead series…different images of the same abandoned buildings on a property located a few miles north of the Salt Lake City airport.  If you look through the trees on the left side of the photograph, and immediately above the second fence post from the left, you can see the air-traffic control tower…and the mountains in the background are the extreme northern end of the Oquirrh Mountains, the range that forms the western boundary of the Salt Lake Valley.  To provide a bit more of a location reference, the Great Salt Lake is a few miles to the back and right of the image….  To see the other photographs in the Homestead series, you can scroll to the bottom of the page and click on Homestead Series under the Categories icon.
Dromedary Peak in January
I think it rather looks like a pencil drawing…but this is the image, essentially right out of the camera…I have only cropped and framed it…not messed with the color in the least. Â If you’d like a summer comparison, you can click these words to be taken back to an earlier post that shared images from July, 2012.
Patience in Millcreek Canyon
My older son and I were hiking in Millcreek Canyon the other day, marveling in the winter wonderland and giving our new snow-shoes a test-drive.
After taking the above photo, a man on cross-country skis came up the trail behind us and entered into the area that I had used to frame the photo….
I had noticed the little opening in the canopy of trees up the trail and was hoping to capture an image that had eluded me a couple of months earlier when hiking on a beautifully golden, Fall trail in another canyon.
Ever since I had seen Andy Hooker’s photograph of a woman passing an open garden gate, I had been looking for an opportunity to capture a similar image….
…and here it is, below…my rendition of the woman silhouetted against the opening of the garden gate…the man on cross-country skis passing through the snowy canopy of trees along Millcreek Canyon’s stream….
Thank you, Andy….
We were here….
Click on this link to see where they were on a grander scale…. Â They aren’t in the linked photo, but you can easily find where they were…near the juncture of the center-third and right-third of the image.
