In the Desert
John Dilworth
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On the road from Green River to Blue John Canyons, there's a cattle guard with this sign asking people to leave the wild cows alone. Upon further inspection, the rustic, type style was created using a digital handwriting font with cut vinyl letters adhered to a painted board.
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Coyote Gulch is a classic hiking or backpacking trip near Escalante, Utah. The approach and exit to the gulch take you across some of the most wild parts of the Utah desert. I liked this photo showing the immensity of scale with the hikers moving across the landscape.
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Gold Bar Arch sits just outside of Arches National Park. It has a unique form that makes it appear more like a hole in a wall, rather than an arch created by erosion like many of the other arches in the area. I enjoy capturing people in landscape photos as it gives a sense of scale to the feature.
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Pine creek canyon is a beautiful slot canyon in Zion National park.
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Death Hollow in Escalante has been one of my favorite desert backpacking trips. We started in Boulder and descended into Death Hollow, and continued down Mamie creek to the Escalante River, following it out to the bridge. We saw one other person on the upper section, which is a rarity as these canyons have become more and more popular over the years. There were quite a few campers where Maime creek meets the Escalante river. We even caught a few fish in the upper section, but there was a recent flood and many fish may have been pushed downstream.
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Orderville Canyon is a less frequented tributary of the Zion Narrows. On this trip we started by descending Birch Hollow, and continuing to the Zion Narrows through Orderville Canyon. It's a beautiful canyon with tall narrow cliffs. I handed the camera off to my friend Hui who snapped this shot.
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Not the typical photo you see from Goblin Valley, but I think this was the most dramatic and showcases my son, Paxton as he hikes back from a visit to the Goblin's Lair. A storm was brewing as we hiked back, and later found our tent full of sand and blown about a quarter mile away from where we had pitched it.
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A canoe trip in 2018 down Labyrinth Canyon on the Green River was one of my favorite trips of all time. We canoed 3 days from the town of Green River, Utah to Mineral Bottom in Canyon Lands National Park. The river was like chocolate milk. It was as hot as an oven, but we could escape to the water. Camping on sandbars enjoying great food and company. Slowly making our way down the river chatting with each other, napping, doing whatever we wanted. Can't wait for the next one.
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Labyrinth Canyon in Utah is one of the most amazing river trips you can take. There's something fantastic about floating down a river through the desert that makes you a child again. Your stresses and cares float away with the river and there's nothing to do but see where the river takes you. We found this neat spot to get away from the heat and this photo of Dan Wangsgaurd from the GoPro turned out about as perfect as you can get to capture the moment.
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Birch Hollow is a beautiful slot canyon just outside of Zion National Park. This final rappel is the classic photo from that canyon.
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Calf Creek falls in Escalante is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to. A desert river filled with trout, surrounded by white desert sandstone and aspen trees. Being there in the fall makes it feel like something out of a dream.
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Just a few hours earlier, we were basking in the sun and enjoying an escape from the social madness of the COVID-19 epidemic. We even saw hikers outside, alone, wearing masks to avoid getting the disease from out of the air. As we arrived at Calf Creek falls, the weather turned, it started to cool off, the wind began to blow, and a chill set in. The warm summer feeling quickly turned to autumn.
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Capitol Reef National Park is one of the most beautiful places in Utah. It's definitely under-rated compared to the other parks. There's something about the light there that I can't quite comprehend. Every color of sandstone, green trees where the small streams feed the vegetation. We came upon this small herd of mountain sheep on a hike to view some petroglyphs. These sheep were the only other beings we saw that day.
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Just outside of Arches National Park you'll find a number of equally impressive arches. Corona Arch is a short hike from Potash road and boasts an incredibly aesthetic arch.
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Zion National Park never ceases to amaze. Each time I visit I feel like it's the first time. This photo is taken from the exit of Echo Canyon, a beautiful slot canyon above Weeping Rock. The light, the color, the structure of stone all around make you feel like you're in a mysterious world.
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Fern's Nipple is the highest point in Capitol Reef National Park. You can see it from most points of the park, and from the top, you can see everything. It's an incredible hike to get to the peak, scrambling up sandstone hills till there's no where else to go. Here is Jed Wood looking over the vast and rugged geography of Capitol Reef National park.
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Outside of Hanskville, Utah on the road to Lake Powell, there's an area called North Wash. This area is filled with slot canyons, deep, narrow and so much fun to explore. Moving through a slot canyon feels like the natural thing to do, exploring each twist and turn as you make your way from the top to the exit.
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When you're in the bowels of a slot canyon, it's cool and dark, even on the hottest days of summer. When you exit, the heat and the light of the radiant orange sandstone comes at you in full force. Photo from the exit of Leperchaun Slot Canyon in North Wash, Utah.
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Stand-up paddle boarding became one of the go-to activities that Kathi and I do together. Water is rare in the Utah desert, but where you can find it and where it's been collected are often some of the most beautiful places you can be. This photo at Red Fleet, and desert reservoir near Vernal, Utah.
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The Subway is a famous hike in Zion National Park and this is one of the most common photos taken of it. It is an absolutely stunning place to be. the descent of the Subway is like entering another world. The way the water has carved the stone feels both natural and manufactured. Typically you'll see a photo of this location without people. I like this photo showing people passing through.
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Chaco Canyon National Park in New Mexico is an incredible place. The area contains the largest native american ruins in the United States that were left abandoned. Not much is known of the history of the Ancestral Pueblo people or why they left these incredible areas. The ruin in this photo is of New Alto. We hiked up to the ruin for a visit as a storm was being to appear.
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Fantasy Canyon is a unique geological formation found 40 miles south of Vernal, Utah. Strange formations made from weathered standstone rise from clay beds.
It's a neat place to visit and feels like you're visiting an alien planet. In this photo, my dad, Kenneth Dilworth walks along a ridge behind the fantastic hoodos.
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Exploring slot canyons became my favorite outdoor adventure. It combines the rope work of some skills from rock climbing with desert hiking. One of my favorite things about it was spending time with good friends and enjoying the adventure together. Here's Hui Zheng in Keyhole canyon of Zion National Park.