Rental car parked across from the fin canyon |
Canyon as seen from the road |
Wide view of the canyon |
Looking down the route I just came up: below are Potash Road and the Colorado River |
Potash Road, Colorado River, Kane Creek Road, Behind the Rocks |
The route above looks easy, but what lies beyond the high point above the tree? |
View from the notch: a garden and more fins |
Fin behind the garden, close-up |
Fin Boy takes a break on the toe of a fin; Joe Tripod (not visible) just stands there |
Looking back at the notch (at left) from the garden |
Undulations |
Vegetated curves |
Vegetated curves from another angle (lip at bottom is a pour-off) |
Fin and flora |
Closing in from both sides |
Slope and layers |
Fin of self-portrait and precipice of self-portrait |
Holy fin---my answer to Bob Cooper's picture from Australia |
Layer cake |
Garden's entrance and exit |
This brushy corridor was the garden exit route (note the juniper "berries" at upper left) |
I came up this brushy corridor |
Where I'm going: rocky corridor |
Fin in a "V" |
What's over there? |
Split personality (shadow falls on two fins) |
Another view of the terrain that calls |
Ramp leads to additional delights |
Ramp vegetation: juniper and cacti |
Desire to see + fear of heights = prone position at precipice |
View from precipice: location of Fin Boy self-portrait |
Cave and garden |
My tracks, someone else's faint tracks, animal tracks |
Fins and cacti |
Fabulous, fascinating, framed fin |
Looking west at garden #2, taken while ascending to the top of a fin |
Dots show where I was earlier (white = route between fins; black = fear of heights) |
Fin pano in one image (180-degree view) |
Fin pano (1 of 6) |
Fin pano (2 of 6) |
Fin pano (3 of 6) |
Fin pano (4 of 6) |
Fin pano (5 of 6) |
Fin pano (6 of 6) |
From atop a huge fin I gaze at other fins ("Behind the Rocks") |
Closer view of Behind the Rocks from the west side of the Colorado River |
Route through cryptobiotic soil wasn't always on sandstone bedrock |
Peek-a-boo! |
End of a fin that looks like a skinny tropical fish |
Route ahead is in the deep shadow between fins |
I got worn out trying to create a title for this |
Frozen wave |
Desert bum in a one-person line-up to identify an ice cream extortionist |
Forward, into the shadow! |
Shadowy hiking route at the base of a wall |
Fractures |
Silhouette against a sandstone fin colored by desert varnish |
Two fins, a bush, and a plane |
Tiny hand/foot holds chisled in the sandstone wall enabled further progress |
Bench route to garden #3 |
Garden panorama |
Delightful garden with naked sandstone beyond |
Dark gap prevents further progress (see next photo) |
The dark Maw of Terror |
The Maw of Terror, looking the other way |
Path through the garden's cryptobiotic soil |
Cryptobiotic soil---some of it is 3 inches (7.5cm) tall |
Scraggly tree |
Access bench in shadow |
Looking ahead from a "pass" toward more fins and another garden |
Surprise---more fins! |
Odd shapes and yet another plane |
Getting oriented again |
Unnamed arch |
Pleasing hiking terrain |
Route I have just come through to reach garden #4 |
One straight line |
Giants |
Laid back |
Attempting to achieve Oneness via a new path |
Falling back to re-group |
Wall of fins with a messy sky |
Poison Spider Mesa Trail (purplish rock) |
Three bikers heading back to the trailhead parking lot |
Bikers on rock (the leader is at far left) |
Riding into the sun |
Fins, fins, and more fins (taken from near the Poison Spider Mesa Trail) |
This terrain calls to me, so I must explore it |
The way out of the fins is through this garden to the trail (trail is visible at center) |
Texture |
Looking north from atop a fin at the boring mesa |
Fin City! |
Meeting in the sky |
Mysterious silhouette |
Distant mesa |
Gnarled shadow |
Take only pictures...leave only footprints (or vehicle gouges) |
Route in garden #4 to the lower part of the trail |
No straight lines (original size looks best) |
Hiking out on sand and bedrock |
Looking back at my exit route through the garden |
Others have preceded me |
Don't touch the foreground (it's fragile); don't touch the background (you're fragile) |
Seven-inch shadow at 1700 |
Following a wash along the base of the fins |
Deep shade |
Skyline bush |
Wrinkles in the wash---get out the iron and start pressing! |
Humps |
White line |
Shadow |
More topography to explore |
Late afternoon self-portrait among the fins |
Poison Spider Mesa Trail---with no one else present |
Looking across the Colorado River from the Poison Spider Mesa Trail at Behind The Rocks |
Walking along Potash Road to where I started the hike |
End of hike at my starting point, after hiking for 8.5 hours and shooting 1600 (bracketed) exposures |