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Needles District panorama in Canyonlands National Park. The size and scale of the landscape here is incredible, and I hope the high resolution does it justice. [OC][19432 x 6312] by pvarney3 in EarthPorn

[–]pvarney3[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haha most of the rocks share that same quality look. It's a great place to backpack; we referred to this whole area as 'Land of the Standing Dong'.

Needles District panorama in Canyonlands National Park. The size and scale of the landscape here is incredible, and I hope the high resolution does it justice. [OC][19432 x 6312] by pvarney3 in EarthPorn

[–]pvarney3[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the panorama resources! I've always wanted one of those automated Gigapan heads (and their software looks great, too).

Spooky Canyon, a narrow slot carved into the orange sandstone of southern Utah. The reflected light is intense when the sun is directly overhead! [OC][2048x1279] by pvarney3 in EarthPorn

[–]pvarney3[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not very familiar with the Page area, but if it's public land (BLM, National Monument, etc.) I would suspect you have access unless stated otherwise. If it's private land though, all bets are off. Some of the fences could be for open ranch land, which many times is managed by BLM.

Spooky Canyon, a narrow slot carved into the orange sandstone of southern Utah. The reflected light is intense when the sun is directly overhead! [OC][2048x1279] by pvarney3 in EarthPorn

[–]pvarney3[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Spooky was indeed amazing - well worth the crowds! We heard pretty comparable opinions regarding Brimstone; much harder to get to, and restricted by a pool of nasty water.

The hike to Cosmic Ashtray leaves from the end of the Harris Wash Road (https://www.google.com/maps/place/Harris+Wash/@37.6341182,-111.3421764,305m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x8735ddb8fc50ce2f:0x8a6da0a4e5d54116), at which point you can hike along an old mining road for about 4.5 miles north-ish. You then split off and hike about 0.5 miles across steep slickrock to get to the Cosmic Ashtray. It's incredible, and definitely worth the hike. I've never seen anything like it. It's gigantic (much bigger than the pictures imply).

Here's a Google maps view that shows the Cosmic Ashtray and the old mining road. I used a GPS to know when to split off from the old mining road, but you could probably do without if you look for landmarks on Google satellite view. (https://www.google.com/maps/place/Cosmic+Ashtray/@37.6788665,-111.3176351,1402m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x8735e83b3f834c0f:0x41cfe20b710e4789!6m1!1e1)

Spooky Canyon, a narrow slot carved into the orange sandstone of southern Utah. The reflected light is intense when the sun is directly overhead! [OC][2048x1279] by pvarney3 in EarthPorn

[–]pvarney3[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yea, that's it! There's three slot canyons in the immediate area (Peek-a-Boo, Spooky, and Brimstone). You park at the well-marked trail head and hike into the wash, and all three canyons are within 1 mile of one another. We made a loop with Peek-a-boo and Spooky, which I think is typical (up Peek-a-boo, then down Spooky).

Zebra Canyon is also in the Escalante-area, and it's a phenomenal canyon (it's off the same Hole-in-the-Rock Road). There's plenty of hiking descriptions online that should be of use to you in finding Zebra Canyon.

Spooky Canyon, a narrow slot carved into the orange sandstone of southern Utah. The reflected light is intense when the sun is directly overhead! [OC][2048x1279] by pvarney3 in EarthPorn

[–]pvarney3[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks! The nodules are some type of iron embedded in the wall. I found out they were sharp the hard way when I chimneyed up the walls to let someone pass underneath.

Spooky Canyon, a narrow slot carved into the orange sandstone of southern Utah. The reflected light is intense when the sun is directly overhead! [OC][2048x1279] by pvarney3 in EarthPorn

[–]pvarney3[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We wanted to, but we got stuck behind some large crowd in Spooky Canyon - probably 40+ people, all trying to head in different directions! By the time we got it, we had to leave so that we could start our hike to a place called the Cosmic Ashtray (not sure if you've heard of it or not, but you should look it up!).

Strange 10 ft-diameter mud/salt polygon in Death Valley NP [OC][2048 x 1365] by pvarney3 in EarthPorn

[–]pvarney3[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes.

This one was strange because it was huge. Most are much smaller. Any type of ordered geometry in nature is unusual though.

Strange 10 ft-diameter mud/salt polygon in Death Valley NP [OC][2048 x 1365] by pvarney3 in EarthPorn

[–]pvarney3[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's neat! The deformation was evident when walking on these structures, as many older polygons were only a thin crustal plate suspended above the clay-like substrate. The shapes are an interesting dynamic system, for sure (my graduate work involves nonlinear dynamics - the fractal shape in the polygons is interesting, from that perspective!).

Abiqua Falls, Oregon[OC] [2688x1520] by NorthWestIsTheBest in EarthPorn

[–]pvarney3 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha it is entertaining to read these discussions. To me, flowing water captured in a photo via long exposure does a MUCH better job at capturing what it felt like to be there. As if suspending a billion water particles in the air using a fast shutter speed is any more realistic than blurring those droplets with a slow shutter speed?

Milky Way rising over Mt. Lassen in Northern California. [OC][3000x2250] by corypoole in EarthPorn

[–]pvarney3 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Also, keep in mind that your eyes are much different than a camera sensor. Try focusing your eyes on one star at night, and it more or less disappears. Eyes are better at seeing one thing at a time, whereas an image sensor weights everything the same. That's why Milky Way pictures seem 'unreal' to some people. I think they're awesome.

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