After a rough first half, Ben and I sat down and planned the rest of the trip. The next campsite we chose was the Little Egypt Geological Site. We had passed by there earlier, and we decided to go there because it was more isolated, filled with interesting rock formations, and conveniently located for making day trips to places like Goblin Valley and Cathedral Valley. We planned to finish the trip by visiting Fry Canyon and Lake Powell, but some nasty weather moved in, and we ended up heading home early. These are my favorite pictures from that stretch.

After we arrived and got set up at Little Egypt, I decided I wanted to shoot a star trails image that evening. This was my third time doing star trails, and I feel that I’ve gotten a little better at it every time. Some of the improvement comes from practicing more shots at 14mm, but also from figuring out what to look for composition-wise in these images. I’m especially proud of how I exposed the foreground here so the details of the rock formations can be seen.

After such a clear night I didn’t expect there to be any clouds for sunrise the next day. I was wrong though, some time after I finished shooting star trails clouds moved in. Ben and I got up, made some coffee, and got our cameras out. I love the way the sun was lighting up the cliffs and rock formations with the horizontal curves of the white striations in the rocks. The clouds didn’t last long though, by the time we finished eating breakfast they were gone.

After such a great sunrise, our plan for the day was to go to Goblin Valley and take one of the scenic back roads that lead all the way to Cathedral Valley. Once we got a good way in the soil turned to a greyish-brown color with a dry and cracked texture. Looking off in the distance, that soil eventually gave way to dune-like hills and jagged reefs even further off. Despite its rough appearance, the soil was soft, and something about walking around out there reminded me of White Sands in New Mexico.

After having more time to look around our campsite at Little Egypt I found a place where someone had made a spiral on the ground using some smaller rocks. On our last morning there I decided to use it as the foreground in a photo. Once again the sun lit up the rocks and made them glow while everything else, including the spiral, was still in shadow.

After leaving Little Egypt we headed towards Fry Canyon and Lake Powell. It was going to take more than one day to get there, and this photo is from where we made camp along the way. What I like about this picture is the sweeping lines leading up to the large striated spires in the distance. This is one of the last shots I got on this trip before the bad weather moved in.

So much went wrong during this trip, but I still saw so much. I would love to make another trip back to Utah. If you’d like to see even more from this trip then you can ride along with us in the video below. Until next time, bye for now.