Undiscovered Desert Marvels

I am just returning from the South West USA for the eighth time…I am barely home and I wish I was going back to explore even further! During this latest trip, I focused mainly on exploring undiscovered desert marvels. Don’t get me wrong…it’s not like I found some locations that were never seen before. I wanted to explore a specific area that was not only new to me but also very high on my landscape photographer’s wishlist; Vermillion Cliffs National Monument.

The beauty about the South West USA is that it has it all. When you go to the north of Utah, you will find beautiful rich forests on some epic mountains. Drive back to Utah’s capital and you will find salt flats which offer endless possibilities for aerial photography. Then drive a few hours south to Moab and find an area filled with some amazing orange sand stone rock formations and thousands of arches. And the further south you go, the orange will turn into deep reds. I have been used to seeing all of the above since these were the places I explored during my previous trips. But one area remained unexplored: Vermillion Cliffs National Monument. This area requires a bit more planning and effort. Let’s just say that a Chevrolet Cruze won’t get you very far in this maze of deep sand trails and gravel roads…

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THE PLANNING…

The first part of my two and a half weeks journey in Utah was with two local friends previously met on Instagram. I often talk about how crappy Instagram can be these days. The engagement has dropped considerably thanks to ever changing algorithms which tends to favor video creators… But one thing I truly love about social media in general is that it gives me an opportunity to virtually meet people from all over the world. Thanks to Instagram, I have friends in Norway, Iceland, Australia, Ireland…and also Utah!

Arwin Levinson and I had been chatting for years. I always enjoyed her vision of South West USA which is her playground and she enjoyed my work from the Canadian Rockies. I hope she does! I am sure she does. We had talked about meeting for a long time and since I had planned to go to Utah from February 12 to 22, she offered to meet before the 12th and shoot together. We finally settled on meeting from February 06 to 12. The main goal was to explore areas that were not only new to me but also to her. This adventure was destined to be fun. Arwin also asked a friend of hers to join us; Tracy Zhou. I have never met a little Asian woman like her! Oh my God! She is 65 years old and has as much drive as I do!  It was really fun to share some time with both of them. We laughed, we hiked, and every few minutes we were in awe of the scenery from the South West USA.

Most of these areas are remotely located. Arwin has a serious rig with a nice pop-up camper. I knew her truck was going to bring us to all these places. But I needed lodging for myself. There are no hotels where we were going…And Yes…I do sleep every once in a while! I am not a robot! I decided to bring my tent and my camping gear. I had also purchased a truly wonderful JetBoil Flash 1.0. This little thing can boil water in under two minutes! Since we were going to camp in the middle of nowhere, I knew that cooking fancy meals was out of the equation. What other options did I have? It’s nice to eat something warm after a cool winter day in the desert. I opted to buy a few dehydrated meals from my outdoors store. Very convenient option when you don’t have any services. Now…how do these dehydrated meals taste? Well, let’s just say we eat them for the calories. Some were very meh while others did taste okay. If you buy dehydrated meals, make sure to note which ones you enjoyed…I definitely know which ones I won’t buy again!

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YOU NEED A PERMIT TO BE HERE!

Also part of the preparation…most of the remote locations in Vermillion Cliffs National Monument require backcountry permits. This is not only to make sure people stay safe, they want to limit these areas to as few visitors as possible for their preservation. Some rock formations are very sensitive to being walked on. The desert crust called crypto biotic crust is extremely fragile and must not be walked on. Cryptobiotic soil, or biological soil crust, is a living, fragile crust of cyanobacteria, algae, fungi, lichens, and mosses that cover arid landscapes. Found in top millimeters of soil, this "hidden life" binds soil particles to prevent erosion, fixes nitrogen, and absorbs water. It appears as dark, lumpy, or spongy mats that can take decades to recover from damage. It is basically the start of everything related to life in the desert. A couple centimeters can take dozens of years if not hundred of years to grow. A single footprint can destroy decades of growth, with full recovery sometimes taking 250 years. This is why staying on the trail is very important. And limiting access to fewer people will obviously limit potential damage to said crust.

Lets go back to the permits now, omitting to applying for the right permits could and definitely should be taken into serious manner. If the Rangers check on you and you don’t have a permit, you will be fined. The amount of the fine can vary greatly depending on the area. I was told that omitting to get a permit for the very popular location The Wave could cost you up to 100 000$. I don’t know if that’s true…but I am definitely not going to be the one to find out.

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HOW IN THE WORLD?

And then the locations we visited… As I was getting closer to the rock formations, I simply couldn’t stop myself from wondering: How in the world? How did these even form? I had never seen anything like this before. Rock formations that literally look like ice cream swirls? A friend of mine said they looked like dinosaur poops…which could in fact be considered as a viable option since these are dating from the dinosaur era from 160 to 180 million years ago. Let’s be honest, there is no dinosaur poop here. I am definitely not a geologist and I can’t confirm with certitude what happened here but from my limited knowledge, I know that most of these rock formations are the result of sand dunes being highly compressed and compacted and later pushed off the ground by moving tectonic plates. Erosion, wind and water are also a key factor to polishing, forming and sculpting these. The colour of the stone will often lead to what basically is most present in the ground. The deep red rocks are often iron oxide and the more yellow ones are manganese.

Photographically speaking, they seriously look like something from another planet. They are fun and different to photograph. The foreground was filled with truly amazing lines. These lines are greatly helping to guide our eyes into the scene. And then, having multiple teepee shaped rock formations tell a great story. They create an amazing repetition which makes the composition so efficient. It’s easy to read the composition since our eyes are simply jumping from one another.

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DEEP INTO VERMILLION CLIFFS

We then went deep in the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument. From the places I had on my list for a long time, South Coyote Butte. And I was so excited to see it. Do not mistake this one with North Coyote Butte which is where The Wave is. South Coyote Butte has a lot of evenly cool rock formations and isn’t as visited as its bigger brother. We did both a sunrise and a sunset there…plus, we explored another place which I think is right outside of the permit area. This area required driving down a deep sand road. Trust me, when they say deep sand, you can believe them! I wasn’t even sure we would make it back up to be honest. Once at the trailhead, we found our way to some other teepees far in the distance. Then again, we were extremely cautious to not damage any sensitive desert crust with every step.

After a couple of kilometres of deep sand hiking, we finally made it to one of the most amazing views I have seen in Arizona. The scene was completely filled with very strong leading lines and rocks with colors ranging from light yellows all the way to deep reds. I spent a huge amount of time there just to explore. Not going to lie, I was once again in complete shock of the sheer beauty of the landscape in front of my eyes!

The next day was fully spent in the permit area of South Coyote Butte. Nothing beats waking up refreshed after a good sleep in the desert, getting ready to go for a short walk until you reach even more amazing rock formations. And trust me, this area had more pretty amazing rock formations. Both sunrise and sunset were lovely, we photographed in different areas and almost had the whole place to ourselves. I now understand why Arwin and Tracy both told me that they rarely go to the main National Parks anymore. The main parks are busy, they are filled with tourists. These off the beaten path areas are much quieter. Sometimes, I could just look around me and it felt like I was the only person in this very isolated part of the world.

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WHITE AND RED ROCKS?

White and Red rocks everywhere? Oh My God, what a cool place to photograph! White Pocket is a National Recreation Area inside of Vermillion Cliff National Monument and does not require a permit…the only thing is that you have to find your way there. Once you know how to get there, it is fairly easy. But I highly recommend using proper navigation tools to avoid getting lost in the desert. And most importantly, a proper high ground clearance vehicle is required to make it there. A Toyota Rav4 won’t make it there. From deep sand to seriously sharp rocks to deep washes… Preparation and the right equipment is required.

Since we arrived after sunset at the previous location, I setup my tent in a quiet location away from the main parking and I was ready to go to bed. I normally don’t like to get somewhere unexplored for sunrise but Arwin and Tracy had both previously been there so I could rely on them for guidance. The night of sleep was so good, the temperature was just above the freezing point so I was super comfortable in my sleeping bag. Then the time came to get up and walk a short distance to reach our sunrise photoshoot location. It was dark but as soon as I got there, I could already see compositions everywhere. Strong leading lines were dominating the foregrounds. Cool lines to the left, cool lines to the right…and just by looking above our shoulder, we could see in the east that sunrise was definitely going to be a good one. The pre glow was warm and rich in color. After waiting a couple of minutes, the whole scene starting coming back to life!

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…IN CONCLUSION

In conclusion, even though this was my eighth time in the South West USA, it felt different. It truly felt like it was my first time ever there. I saw so many different locations, I saw so many awesome rock formations which were all different from the previous ones. And most importantly, we barely saw other tourists… As mentioned earlier, spending time with Arwin and Tracy was so enjoyable. The overall chemistry between the three of us was awesome, our camping setups were perfect…it’s gonna take a while before I can top this one!

The main reason for going to the desert was to disconnect from this crazy world we are living in right now and this trip did just that! I couldn’t even remember which day it was…it truly felt rejuvenating! And I only talked about the first 4 days in this article. This article completes the Vermillion Cliffs part. We later went to Toroweap which is an extremely isolated area of the Grand Canyon National Park. I actually could talk about this one in the next article? Wait, you’d like to have a peek at what it looks like? Fine…the picture below should get you excited!

See you there!