Backpacking Trip--the Night

I didn't sleep very well in our tent. I was cold, then I was uncomfortable, and finally at 1 am I decided to go outside and take a look at the night skies. To my delight, they had mostly cleared up! So I grabbed my camera and Goby tripod (it's very small and flexible so great for traveling) and wandered around The Table. I knew I wanted to get the tree above; it's one of my favorites.

My husband says these photos are kind of strange, that's not what you seen when you look up at night. I totally agree, a 25- or 30-second exposure captures so much more light. The glow from Ely was really strong, and the Milky Way makes the sky look cloudy. I like how these photos are a bit surreal, but also grounded in reality. I also really like the juxtaposition of really old trees, which kind of boggle our mind, with the really old universe, which actually makes the trees seem young. I find looking at the night skies really helps me put any problems I'm having into perspective--they are so tiny compared to everything that's around me!

I saw numerous shooting stars while I was taking the long exposures, and even captured one in the photo below.

I've had a few people ask how I take these photos. I basically have done a lot of research online. I also got some tips at the Great Basin National Park Astronomy Festival astrophotography workshop.

I shoot with a Canon t3i (a not very advanced camera, quite frankly), a Tokina 11-16 mm lens (great for low light), a 25- or 30-second exposure, f2.8, ISO 3200, manual focus on infinity, mirror locked up, high ISO speed noise reduction on strong, long exposure noise reduction on, photo quality on RAW and jpg, and a 2-second timer to reduce the shake of pressing the camera. I also add a little light painting to the foreground to enhance the subject and so it's not just a silhouette.

For post processing, I adjust the RAW images to how I like, in particular adding more black to the photos. There's a lot more I could be doing, but I am definitely still learning! (If you have any tips, please leave a comment!)

I find that the southern part of the Milky Way (or at 1 am it becomes more of the western part) is the most photogenic, so I end up taking more photos in that direction. At first I was irritated with all the light pollution from Ely, but then I decided it added an interesting color element to the photo and helped show our human relationship with what we are looking at.

Of course I have to change it up a bit from time to time. Here's "Sword Chief" (so-named by Desert Girl) and the northern (eastern) Milky Way, which is definitely not as strong. I spent almost two hours wandering around that night, feeling so lucky to be in such a beautiful spot with the weather cooperating. It was a great surprise after going to bed with cloudy skies.

I'll have these photos and others for sale at the Art Bank in Ely on canvas, slate, and perhaps bamboo, as well as notecards. The Art Bank has an impressive array of art that is always changing, so it's fun to stop in often, and it's open Thursday-Sunday.

Hope you are enjoying the night skies where you are! The moon is growing in size every night, and on September 27 we can look forward to a lunar eclipse.

Backpacking up to The Table -- Day 1

 After our happy experience with our first family backpacking trip in July, my husband and I scheduled another one for September. We decided we would go to one of our favorite spots--The Table in the Mount Moriah Wilderness in the North Snake Range. It was just a two mile hike up to the Table via the Big Canyon trail. Of course, that didn't account for all the elevation change! There's no water available up there, so we had to plan our water carefully.

As we hiked the downhill section, the kids were cooperating.

But then we had the steep uphill part, and that wasn't nearly so much fun. Desert Girl shed her backpack, but still had enough energy to sing (big eye roll from mom on that).

Desert Boy wanted to stop all the time. I won't lie, it wasn't exactly fun cajoling them to keep going and listening to "When are we going to be there?"

Fortunately the scenery was spectacular with the changing colors.

And soon we were in view of old bristlecones. My step grew lighter, my heart happier, and I felt wonderful.

My husband didn't care where on the Table we camped, so I picked a spot where we would have a good view of the mountain.

The ground looks flat from a distance, but finding something not too rocky took a little time. Eventually we succeeded, and then it was exploration time.

But not for too long, because it was getting dark. We set up the camp and got some soup simmering.

As the evening progressed, I saw that the clouds would make for a wonderful sunset. I had wanted to take a bunch of Milky Way photos, but with the clouds they wouldn't turn out well. I decided to make the best of the situation and just enjoy sunset.

Oh my, it was magical. The glow of the light on the trees was gorgeous, and I was practically skipping around. I think my husband thought I was slightly nuts. Or maybe very nuts.

This was one of the primary reasons I wanted to sleep on the Table, to experience the wonderful times of day that I had never been on the Table.

We all really liked this young bristlecone being hugged by the old one.

Soon it was time for bed. As the light grew dimmer, an owl approached from the east, flew over us, circled around, and then stopped on a tree branch. It watched us while we watched it. It was a special wildlife sighting for us. Before long it took off and disappeared. Flies were attracted to our headlamps, and I saw a bat fly overhead. It was dark now, so we went in the tent and settled in to sleep.

Little did we know there would be a surprise in the middle of the night...

Meeting the Llamas

 So my nephew got some llamas and we just had to go over and take a look. After all, it's not every day that you get to see a llama (unless you own one, I guess).

We got a little distracted by the lamb that was wandering around. I have a feeling one of those will be in our not-too-distant future.

Then it was time to inspect the llamas. Desert Girl was the bravest.

The white one was just as curious about her as she was about it.

What a great expression!

Finally Desert Boy had a chance to look up close.

Um, maybe you don't want to get that close--llamas can spit! (Fortunately these didn't.)

This is a family of llamas, mom, dad, and two daughters. My nephew is hoping to use them as pack animals, as apparently the larger ones can carry a hundred pounds. When I looked up llamas on Wikipedia, I learned that they are a domesticated camelid from South America, raised for their meat and as pack animals. Since the 1980s they also have been used as predator control for sheep and have been very successful. They usually live 15-25 years and have an 11.5 month gestation period. It will be interesting to watch them develop.

A Visit to Big Warm Spring, Duckwater Shoshone Reservation

 The kids had an extra day off of school due to teacher training, so I decided we should go somewhere fun for the day. We decided on Big Warm Spring on the Duckwater Shoshone Reservation. The spring is shown in the new Great Basin National Park movie and looked gorgeous. We didn't exactly get an early start, but the plus side of that was we got to eat lunch at Twin Wok in Ely, which is a special treat. Then we headed west on Highway 6. At the old bar in Currant (don't blink or you'll miss it), we turned north to head up Railroad Valley.

This is what the road looked like:

It might look boring, but I was fascinated seeing the ranches and geology. In 20 miles the pavement ended and we went a quarter mile on a dirt road before veering to the left towards these trees and a fence. There we saw a sign identifying the location as the Duckwater Shoshone Reservation Big Warm Spring. I especially appreciated that they stated, "Water is Sacred." The Duckwater Shoshone allow the general public to visit the spring, as long as they abide by the rules.

A little closer to the spring are some interpretive signs, mainly about the native Railroad Valley springfish (Crenichthys nevadae), which has survived for thousands of years after Lake Railroad dried up. They are listed as threatened by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and a host of partners have worked to keep these little fish surviving.

Then it was time to get into Nevada's largest geothermal hot spring. Did you know that Nevada not only has the most mountain ranges of any state (over 300) but also the most hot springs (also over 300)? It's also the driest state in the country, so those hot springs are extra special. Big Warm Spring is about 91-93 degrees Fahrenheit, so warmer than the average swimming pool but cooler than a hot tub. In other words, perfect for just enjoying.

A stairway leads into the spring, and those handrails are helpful as you tread the algae-covered steps. That algae is important, it's one of the main food sources for the Railroad Valley springfish, but it's also slippery.

The water is extremely clear, but at the bottom the sediment is very fine. There's a sulfur smell to the water, a reminder that this spring exists because of heat deep within the earth and the plumbing that is taking this water by that heat.

Not so long ago, the spring faced some hard times, and in 2007 the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Duckwater Shoshone tribe signed a Safe Harbor Agreement to protect the fish and restore the spring. The joint effort led to digging out the pond, placing boulders around it, removing non-native catfish, reintroducing the native springfish, fencing around the springs, and some new diversion structures. (This Safe Harbor Agreement has lots of great information about the spring and area, so is well worth reading.)

We took a little walk to view more of the spring channel. I liked seeing the milkweed, host to monarch butterfly caterpillars.

We could see additional places where water was bubbling up from the bottom, adding to the flow.

A viewing platform was a little farther down.

I also went and checked out the USGS stream gauge. The spring channel is pretty consistently 14-15 cfs year round.

After I returned home I found out if we had continued downstream we would have reached a waterfall. I guess we'll have to go back!

We went back to the springhead and swam. One man came to look for a lost item and graciously took a photo of us. The water is up to about 10 feet deep in places, so I was glad Desert Girl had her life jacket on. Desert Boy has gotten good enough at swimming he was fine without one.

We even took some time for a little swim lesson practice, trying to get his front crawl ready for an upcoming triathlon.

I imagine most weekends are quite busy here, but we were visiting on a weekday when area schools were in session. It made for a very relaxing afternoon. This is truly a special place, and I hope to visit again.

A Quick Jaunt through Peekaboo and Spooky Canyons

 Before I left Escalante, I wanted to check out Peekaboo and Spooky Canyons. These are short, family-friendly non-technical slot canyons. I had wanted to visit them with my family in May, but the abundant rain prevented that. Fortunately, my last day in Grand Staircase-Escalante dawned with nary a storm cloud in the sky. I slept in, which is quite a feat as I was sleeping in the bed of the pickup truck. However, I've found if I wear a little eye cover, I get much better sleep as it blocks out the light of the moon and even the light of the sun!

I had a leisurely start as I drove down Hole-in-the-Rock Road to the Dry Fork Trailhead, 26 miles south of Highway 12. The information I had read said it was passable to passenger vehicles, but I found the Hole-in-the-Rock Road to be quite rough, with lots of washboards and some sandy spots. I did see one passenger car, but everything else was SUVs with a few pickups thrown in. The Dry Fork trailhead road was very rough, with a two-track to the trailhead. When I arrived, two other vehicles were there. I got together my gear (not forgetting knee pads this time, even though these were short canyons), and reread my guidebook. It said you could see the entrance to Peekaboo Canyon from the trailhead, behind the sheer cliff wall. Sure enough, I saw a slot. I took off on the well-marked trail, following the rock cairns.

For those who aren't used to hiking on rock and steering by rock cairns, just the hike down to the canyon start will be an adventure.

Before too long I arrived in the Dry Fork Wash and sauntered (it was kind of hot, so I wasn't exactly trotting) up to the start of Peekaboo Canyon. It was about 9:30 am, and no one else was around. I saw that the entrance required a little bit of climbing, although steps carved into the rock made it a little too easy.

Not far up the canyon I saw the promised double arch.

It was indeed gorgeous.

The canyon twisted and turned, sometimes with taller walls and sometimes with shorter walls. There were a couple little climbs that would be difficult for kids (or shall we say they would be good team-building experiences). And then I came out of the narrow section. Here's the view looking back down the canyon:

Peekaboo comes out into a shallow wash with a prominent cairn on the south side. You can apparently make a much longer loop if you bring rope and rappelling gear with you, but I was just into the short trip today. I started following the rock cairns and sandy trails, not really sure what I was aiming for.

In about 15 minutes I came to this huge sandy wash. This had to be Spooky Canyon. It looked like a big watershed, so not the best place to be in a thunderstorm, when lots of water would be funneled down the wash.

The canyon quickly narrowed, and I was hot and thirsty, so I found a very scenic shady spot and sat down for a break. It was so enjoyable just relaxing in the canyon all by myself. I had been expecting lots more people.

Spooky gets kind of narrow. As in you can't wear a pack and have to turn your body sideways narrow.

The walls are gorgeous, undulating sandstone.

After a climbdown through some boulders and more squirming through even tighter passage, I emerged and headed right (north) back into the Dry Fork Wash. The walls were higher, providing some pleasant shade. If I had had more time, I could have gone down canyon 30 minutes to explore Brimstone Canyon, but I felt home calling me, so I headed in the direction of the trailhead.

When I reached the entrance of Peekaboo, I saw people. A German family was trying to haul their tripod up the Peekaboo entrance with a rope, a couple was approaching, and another couple was heading down Dry Fork, probably trying to avoid the traffic jam.

Very close to Peekaboo I saw a canyon entrance and spent a few minutes enjoying the wider passageway. This is part of Dry Fork Wash, a very scenic part.

I hiked back up to the trailhead, making my journey in about 2 1/4 hours. The usual time recommended is 2.5-4.5, which seems accurate if you're with others and spending more time to enjoy the sights (or waiting for others to squeeze through the narrows and do the climbs). With the kids, I would say 4 hours would be about right. For a few more details about this hike, check out this website.

Peekaboo and Spooky are a really great intro to canyoneering, but getting there is a little more difficult than I expected. Nevertheless, for those who have never done canyoneering, this will be a hike to remember!