Grand Staircase Escalante N.M. & Capitol Reef N.P., Utah ~ April 3-7, 2008

Location... Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument and Capitol Reef National Park encompass vast tracks of diverse and beautiful country in Southern Utah. Both contain slickrock, slot canyons, sand dunes, striking sandstone monoliths and much more. Some of these features can be seen by road and established trails, but even more spectacular landscape is waiting for those willing to get off-road, and hike off-trail.

I planned this trip with 3 other talented photographers - Brent Doerzman, Chris Ebright, and Brent Murphy. We've all been friends for a number of years and each of us are now fathers of young children. Thus we dubbed this Spring trip Dads Gone Utah, or DGUT, or d'gut - as in... My, oh my, look at d'gut on that aging photographer.   Despite our increased age (and girth), we still managed to wake each morning before sunrise and put more than a few miles on the boots exploring a fair amount of rugged and beautiful country.

Our trip started with a drive from Denver, CO to a brief camp near Goblin Valley State Park, UT. After shooting sunrise we meandered through Capitol Reef National Park, over Boulder Mountain, past the town of Boulder, UT and into the backcountry of Grand Staircase Escalante National Park. This was our basecamp for several days. We did explored a number of locations in this area including a long hike to Zebra Slot. Then we drove the Burr Trail Road around North and back into Capitol Reef National Park where we crossed the Fremont River and drove the Cathedral Valley loop. On the last day, we shot the Temples of the Sun and Moon in Lower Cathedral Valley before packing up camp and heading home.

We lucked into great weather conditions - mostly warm days, in the 60s, and cold crisp nights, in the 30s. Generally, we had clear or partly cloudy, calm mornings, but the wind often picked up as the day wore on and became quite blustery for sunsets.

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