The Road Less Traveled
(each link is to an Instagram photo from @travel_junkie or @alenkadesign)
Yesterday’s drive was an odd one. For the longest time, from Steamboat Springs, CO towards Utah along US-40 we barely saw a soul. The scenery was pretty, but nothing to compare to the day before in the Rocky Mountains, of course. We stopped for an early lunch in Craig at a fantastic joint called The Op Bar & Grill, where the burgers were fat and gorgeous.
Once back on the open road, there wasn’t much to shoot, which was fine by me as I wasn’t feeling terribly well. Too much running around in the Rocky Mountains at altitude, I think. Eventually we crossed into Utah and rolled to a stop in Vernal, which is a town with a serious dinosaur fetish.
Somewhere beyond that, Utah started getting really pretty. The mountains in the distance and the red rocks in the foreground were very picturesque. I kept looking for a place to get the “perfect photo” from, but just couldn’t find it. It seemed all the best spots had loads of power lines or ugly buildings or some other eyesore in front of them, and as mentioned before I wasn’t feeling so hot, so I just wasn’t in the mood to go exploring. Which is a shame, because now I feel like I missed some great opportunities.
I did make a few iPhone shots from the moving car, and inadvertently got a lesson in the iPhone’s HDR technique. Ultimately though, we were pretty much bored out of our skulls.
Tragically, where Utah gets exceptionally pretty, we literally could NOT pull over to shoot at all. A huge stretch of US-40 is under construction, and there’s just no where to stop. Which was truly sad, because we saw some amazing scenery. *sigh*… just not my photo day.
We stopped in Sinclair to refill the windshield wiper water (lotsa bugs!), and were a little surprised at this photo display of hunting trophies on the wall there. I’m not anti-hunting, but somehow this seems a bit tasteless. I’m sure not everyone agrees, but there you go.
We finally arrived in Salt Lake City, where we stayed in another private apartment found on airbnb.com. What attracted us to this place was the promise of rooftop views of the city and the lake, and the views definitely didn’t disappoint. We also met up with fellow photographer Nicole S Young for dinner, (she just completed a new ebook on (micro)STOCK, available from Craft & Vision), and she captured a rare picture of Alenka and I in the same photo on this trip. Oh she also let me fondle her X100. Very very nice.
Salt Lake City at Twilight
Truth be told, we wanted to be up on the roof at sunset, but as you’ve figured out by now, this just wasn’t my best photo day. We were late and by the time we were on the roof, it was well past sundown. But, twilight is still a beautiful time to shoot.
Salt Lake City, UT at Twilight @ June 2011 | Canon EOS 5D Mk II & 14mm ƒ/2.8L Aspherical @ ISO 160, ƒ/4, 0.5s
Today we’ll do a little sightseeing in Salt Lake City, then head out past the Great Salt Lake and then to the Salt Flats. We’ll stop somewhere in northern Nevada for the night, then it’s just one more day to Oregon!