There was a thin layer of textured clouds when I got up — not the best for grand landscape photography. I had my normal breakfast after J got up, and because the wind was light, we decided to explore a slot canyon this morning. We left around 8:50 in the Jeep.

We went to the Little Wild Horse Canyon Trailhead around 9:25, and the badlands-like surroundings didn't look right for a slot canyon. We headed off up the wash towards the canyon, and soon there was solid rock to the sides of the wash. Shortly after the conditions looked good for a slot canyon, we ran into an obstacle — an overhanging rock above our heads that was caught in a small waterfall that completely blocked our path. We backtracked a bit and climbed up to the side of the main watercourse and then dropped right back to the dry stream bed and continued upstream. I stopped to photograph some of the sandstone with interesting erosion patterns, and used my new Canon TS-E 24mm f3.5 L II for the first time (far left). J continued up the canyon while I was doing that and stopped to photograph some penstemon (red wildflowers). While she was photographing them, a hummingbird came to the group of flowers about two feet (60 cm) to her left. We continued up canyon and I stopped to photograph some of the small pockets worn into the side of the canyon (above right). The very thin rock layers with alternating colors helped make the image work. The canyon became a narrow slot, but it was a straight slot and the grayish rock at that point didn't make it interesting photographically. After a while, the canyon opened up again for a bit. I took my backpack off before continuing up canyon because it would be a hindrance if I had to turn around in the slot. The canyon became a narrow slot again, and this time there was many twists and turns, but nothing jumped out at me to photograph though. The canyon opened up again then closed down into another slot. Near the upper reaches of this slot, there was some interesting igneous rock mixed with the sandstone. After I exited this last slot, I turned around and headed back to meet up with J. It's possible to make a loop hike by continuing upstream to a 4WD road and then heading down Bell Canyon to the beginning of Little Wild Horse Canyon. I met up with J near when I had left my backpack, and after I drank some water and had a Clif Bar, we headed back to the trailhead together. We left around 12:40.

We had taken our computers with us so we could find some internet, so we drove around until my phone indicated that we had a decent Verizon Wireless signal. It was only the slow National Access signal, but at least we could check our email and I could upload some blog entries and other things. The wind picked up quite a bit while we were online. :(

We returned to the RV around 2:30. I downloaded the images from this morning and downselected them in Capture One (C1). The images I took with my new Canon TS-E 24mm f3.5 L II were tack sharp from corner to corner with no chromatic aberration like my old Mk I version. I'm going to love this lens! I processed RAW images in Capture One (C1) from earlier this year to adjust exposure and white balance and then create TIFF files after assigning final file names. I took a short nap while J prepared dinner.

We had dinner around 6:15 of a very tasty taco salad. Because the wind was blowing like crazy, we decided not to go photograph at Goblin Valley State Park this evening.

After dinner, I processed more RAW images in Capture One (C1) from earlier this year to adjust exposure and white balance and then create TIFF files after assigning final file names.