utah

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2022 Landscape Photography Calendar

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With the pandemic restricting travel, I focused my photography on the amazing landscapes in the northwest corner of this diverse country. See my favorites from the varied locations in the Pacific Northwest, from rugged mountains to temperate rain-forests, including all the three National Parks of Washington, and wilderness areas that line the Cascades. Experience diverse scenes from the rugged mountains to the wild coast of the Pacific Northwest, a true treasure of diverse landscapes.

And remember, this calendar is for a good cause - all proceeds will get donated to Sierra Club Foundation. We are gifted to have such amazing public lands, and having visited 52 National Parks and many more wilderness areas, I have come to realize the vital importance of our public lands system in protecting and preserving nature, culture, wildlife, and landscapes for the future. The Sierra Club Foundation helps secure protections for public lands and waters, promote healthy ecosystems and communities, and fight for clean air and water, and build a diverse, inclusive environmental movement that reflects and represents today’s American public, and prioritizes important connections between environmental health and social justice

You can purchase this colorful 2022 calendar here. Thank you in advance for your support

A National Parks Journey - Capitol Reef National Park

I did not think I could be surprised and delighted any more when I visited Capitol Reef National Park in Utah. After all, I had already been to the state's star redrock attractions: Arches, Canyonlands, Bryce and Zion, and had hiked extensively through them. And yet, Capitol Reef more than measured up to its expectations, and showered me with spectacular panoramas of red rock country, hikes through stunning slot canyons, vistas of red Navajo sandstone formations, and the star of the show, the nearly 100 mile long water-pocket fold, a wrinkle in the earths crust that stretched along the rugged terrain of the park.

While most of the park is easily accessible, the features of the the centerpiece, the water-pocket fold, are mostly in the back-country, and requires braving miles of traveling on dusty gravel roads that wind through the parks hinterlands. However, the rewards that await the tenacious bac-kcountry explorer are many, and even the single day I had spent exploring the washes and slot canyons in the fold left me wanting for more. Hopefully I will get to return back and explore more of this spectacular park once the crowds thronging the park this summer subsides.

Capitol Reef National Park
UT USA

A National Park Journey - Bryce Canyon National Park

Bryce, which I first visited with a group of friends during Easter many years ago, changed what it meant to see the effect of sand, wind and water. hiking through the other-wordly red-rock hoodoos of different shapes and sizes in the grand amphitheater of the park was a memorable experience. Since then, I have been to the park twice more, each to explore a different area of the park in detail. And even though it is not a particularly large park, it takes on a fresh coat of color with every change of season, and that makes it worth visiting more than once.

One of its hidden secrets, which make it worth staying by the Park entrance, is the phenomenal night sky, At 9000ft, the clear air on a no-moon night lends for spectacular astrophotography, as long as you can bear the cold.

Bryce Canyon National Park
UT USA

A National Park Journey - Zion National Park


Back in 2009, word had spread amongst the hiking community I was part of of the famous Zion Narrows trail, a 16mile hike that follows the channel of the North Fork of the Virgin river as it descends through the layers of red-colored sandstone. This challenging hike wasn't for the faint of heart, as it traverses across multiple waterfalls and cascades, and requires swimming across several deep channels of water. And this experience was precisely what I sought out for my first visit to this tiny gem of a National Park.

But my first hike in this park wasn't the Zion Narrows, but an equally adventurous trail called Angel's landing, memorable for the final half mile section that required scrambling up a narrow fin of sandstone up 800 feet with plenty of exposure to the actual landing. Having never done anything like this before, it felt like I was learning to use my arms and legs for the first time. But the bird's eye views from the top of the landing were worth the effort involved in getting there.

This is my take of the summit vista, a place where one could enjoy a moment of solace before the mobs of social-media driven crowds thronged this dangerous hike for the 'gram'.

Zion National Park
UT USA

A National Park Journey - Canyonlands National Park

The next door neighbor to Arches, Canyonlands, is a National Park with a completely different geology. While the park does have a couple of solitary arches, Canyonlands is more known for its jaw-dropping terrain, where birds-eye vistas are meant to be laced with superlatives to describe the vast landscape with towering cliffs rising from the depths of the Colorado river exposing the geological history in its strata.

Hence Canyonlands was an obvious next choice to visit after Arches. Moab, which in those days was a sleepy town geared towards the occasional recreation traveler, proved to be an ideal base to explore both these parks (though I would have preferred to camp under the stars of Canyonlands). And compared with Arches, I was more enthralled by the monumental scale of the landscape in Canyonlands, replete with enough hiking trails and wilderness regions to last a lifetime.

Here is one such view of the vast open and yet geologically rich landscape of Canyonlands during a midsummer day.

Canyonlands National Park
UT USA

A National Park Journey - Arches National Park

On my very first visit to the heart of red-rock country, my mind just couldn't fathom the formations I had been seeing: arches of all shapes and sizes hewed out of smooth red sandstone, set in a landscape full of sinuous curved canyons where towering pillars of rock precariously balanced on narrow fins. This was Arches National Park, a place so bizarre that even listening to ranger talks didn't help my brain comprehend the diversity of forms that arose from erosion by water and wind.

I would return to this park multiple times, and even though it covered only a small area, I never felt like I got to experience the entirety of this unique park. I knew that one of the places I wanted to return to was Delicate Arch, pictured above, hewn out of a narrow slab of rock over thousands of years of erosion. Between getting the right weather and avoiding the crowds, it is not easy to shoot this formation while surrounded by the best of the La Salle mountains. This image is my take on this one-of-a-kind arch, and not pictured is a queue of about 50 people waiting to get their portrait taken by the arch.

Arches National Park
UT USA

Pano over the Canyon

Pano over the Canyon.jpg

The dry desertscape of Utah seem a far cry from the vibrant rainforests of the Pacific Northwest, but present a landscape with a refreshing palette of colors. Vast swathes of the Colorado and Green River basin near Moab expose sandstone buried from the Jurassic period and rich in iron oxides, exhibiting this characteristic red color. And in the amber hues and slanted rays of sunrise and sunset, one can really experience the incredible and diverse features of this landscape, from towering mesas silhouetted in sunlight to tiered gorges that evolve from tiny gullies to a vast rocky canyon.

I tried to capture the essence of this landscape at a sunset vista from an overlook in Canyonland's Island in the Sky district. From this viewpoint, once can spy the fingers carved into the undulating sandstone by the seasonal tributaries of the Green River, and its confluence with the mighty Colorado further south. The west-facing walls catch the last light of the day, with deep shadows highlighting the stark differences in terrain. This part of Canyonlands is replete with plenty of these viewpoints, offering a glimpse into the diverse landscape and into the storeyed geological history of the North American continent.

Canyonlands National Park
UT USA

The Marching Elephants

I awaited in eerie darkness in the high desert on the border between Arizona and Utah. All around, I could sense the monolithic rock formations that dot this desert, but I could never really see them. The faint dawn light slowly crept across the sky westward, and added structure to the sensation.

As the darkness eased, I could see the nearest butte, looking like a marching elephant trundling westward. More time passed, and I could make out the details of the buttes further away. Nameless rock formations towered above the folds of desert landscape, and acquired a pink glow from the morning light. The land grew richer in detail until the first light of day struck the tips of these buttes.

This visit to the tribal park of the Navajo Nation was perhaps one my most memorable ones. I will never forget the vast Jon Waynesque landscapes I got to experience. And right now, the population of the Navajo nation are facing two major challenges: both the impact of lower tourism, and the high number of cases amongst the populate. It will be a while before normalcy returns to this sacred land

Monument Valley Tribal Park

UT USA

The Long Open Road



The housebound nature of life over the last few months has created a yearning for the long open road, traversing along mountains and through valleys, over deserts and across rivers. In moments like these, I look back to memories of past travels, including this vista of the rugged red sandstone hills of Capitol Reef National Park. By juxtaposing a lone campervan speeding away from where I was, helped add a sense of scale to the vastness of the landscape all around.

Capitol Reef National Park
UT USA

The Waterpocket Fold

There are not a lot of places on this planet where one can see the earth's surface folded up like a crumpled piece of paper. The Waterpocket fold that dominates the heart of Capitol Reef National Park in southern Utah is one of those other-worldly places where smooth red sandstone lies next to and above strata stretching back hundreds of millions of years.

And while I had only 36 hours to explore the nooks and crannies of this beautiful National Park, the sheer diversity of landscapes revealed by the Fremont river eroding away at the Waterpocket fold was mind-boggling. I hope I return some day to explore more of this unique corner of Utah.

Capitol Reef National Park
UT USA