The Colorado Plateau

Fish Mouth RuinsUte Mountain RuinLand of PanoramasMule Canyon RuinsView From Dead Horse PointMonument Valley from Muley PointCathedral ValleyMonument Valley FogJeepers!Henry MountainsGoblin ValleyCoyote GulchThe WaveCottonwood Gulch NarrowsEscalante RiverPowell PointHouse Rock Valley RoadChaco Canyon RuinsDruid ArchThe White RimCanyonlandsChesler ParkPeek-a-boo Gulch

These photos are from a place I love, the American Southwest, or at least parts of it I have managed to get to. These are mostly vacation photographs. The Colorado Plateau holds so many world-class national parks and public lands that it attracts visitors from around the globe. I was one of them!

Just follow the Colorado River, more or less, from Grand Junction, Colorado to Grand Canyon, Arizona. Take a hundred side trips. Some of the most beautiful places I know are in southern Utah. I like to think of it as the A to Z tour, Arches to Zion. In between are the wonders of Canyonlands, Capitol Reef and Bryce, and outstanding state parks like Kodachrome Basin, Dead Horse Point and Goblin Valley.

Here’s where I saw my first rattlesnake and tarantula, and pulled the first cactus spines from my boots with pliers. Here’s where I rounded up cattle for the first time, walked through quicksand, mined a lode of silver, rescued the town from outlaws and saved the widow’s homestead from greedy bankers. Oops…that last stuff was from the movies. Gotta love the southwest.

“Deep in the outback, back of beyond, far into the hoodoo land of naked stone” – Edward Abbey