Green River Overlook

    Utah is by far my most favorite landscape in the United States. Utah’s “Mighty 5” National Parks make up 1323 sq. mi. The landmass of Rhode Island comes in @ 1034 sq. mi. Utah also has 8 National Monuments which is the support step down from a National Park. Utah’s landmass of US designated landscape wonders comes in @ 6023 sq. mi. while the landmass of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined is 5879 sq. mi. excluding waterways. Ad in 46 Utah State Parks it is clear to see Utah’s bizarre landscape is a photographer’s dream. Most times a photographic image can illustrate an otherworldly landscape, the enormity and diversity of the landscape can only be told in person !

     This month’s image is from the Green River Overlook in the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands National Park. The Island is one of four sections of Canyonlands NP and easily my most favorite area in the park and arguably in all of Utah. We rented an AirBnb in Moab with our youngest son and his family in June of 2024. One of our destinations was an evening Ranger program on celestial bodies @ the Green River Overlook. Driving across the expansive plateau of the Island in the Sky we were gifted a later afternoon thunderstorm cell off to the East, a simple cell phone thru the backdoor open window @ 60 mph is below.

Island in the Sky

     We arrived at the Green River Overlook and I soon found myself at the cliff’s edge. A small and old split-rail fence protects the ill-advised from a 1300 ft. sheer drop to the White Rim Trail below. Look carefully at the opening image and find the brighter parts that closely surround the deep canyons. That is the White Rim Trail, which is accessible with proper 4WD vehicles and runs mostly one way for just over 100 miles. The White Rim sits another 1000 ft. above the Green River below.

    The Ranger program was set to begin at the 8:45 sunset. The ranger opened with general info about the landscape and explained we would wait 40 minutes or so for the skies to darken before beginning the star-gazing part of the program. With such a large open expanse of land and the heat of the midday can give birth to small individual thunderstorm cells, similar to the rainbow storm that we saw a few hours before on the drive across the island to the Overlook. Unfortunately, not long into his program there were a few flashes of lightning and the ranger explained he must terminate the program due to safety concerns. Two below pix were some nice family memories of our time @ Green River Overlook.  My thoughts on the composition and tonalities of this image are below.

Star Gazing group @ GR Overlook

youngest son Scott & grandson Parker

   The sun was still 30 degrees above the horizon coming in from the southwestern side. The sky is always brighter than most any photographer wants. I chose to even out and diminish the contrast of the sky and actually lighten the sky to a small degree, this would further direct the viewer to the undulating landscape and deep canyons carved out by the Green River. The one third subtle sky and tonalities against the two thirds heighten contrast of the landmass is another way to subliminally direct the viewer to what I saw and felt given all the conditions present in June of 2024. Contrast the 2024 image against an image for Dead Horse Point St Pk made back in the 1990’s. Dead Horse is only 10 miles Southeast of the Green River Overlook. However, the sky offered a symmetry much more in line with making the sky the dominant park of the image. “It’s never what it looked like, always what I saw”.

Enjoy your 4th of July and America’s 250th birthday over this weekend !

Separate Visions 30 Years apart