I found out today that my early-autumn-angst was slightly overblown. The mountains are changing – but we rode through them today and found that the mountains’ sides were still chock full of green. And somehow, that made it easier for me to breathe. So, as I promised Marilyn that I wouldn’t just recycle past years’ shots of the same leaves changing – here is the record of our ride:
We couldn’t take Dustin this time, and I will explain that another time. So we took Sophie instead. Zion and Sophie. She kicked and screamed all the way (I was surprised that there weren’t any huge bulges in the sides of the trailer when we got up the mountain). Her version of “He’s touching me, Mom!” I often wonder what he’s said to her to get her wound up like that.
I was afraid that whole sides of mountains had already gone up in flame. This was not the case. But the color was still lovely.
Guy with Sophie. The man who owned her before we did called her “Princess.” She took him seriously. Certainly, she has the tail of a princess.
But I took my little red horse. My buddy.
Being silly.
It was hard to shoot today – all that sky – to find a balance between the dark mountains and the brilliant blue. So some of these are pretty dark, exposures driven by the bright sky. And some have clouds that are a bit blown out, exposures driven by the darker mountains. But I loved the way the color came out with the darker shots. I’m not sure what my eyes actually saw – I think the brain is good at factoring in all the light.
This is the first road we ride down, once we get up onto the meadow.
I love the layers of mountain – one after another – each different.
This is how the changing is going. Some full trees – but the maples, few of them have changed – many are like this, just starting.
Another bit of road. Color at the end. These surprises at each turn.
I made the mistake of taking the big camera. It bounced off my stomach, my shoulder, my back, the saddle. I lost the lens cap at least three times, which meant stopping and climbing down – or riding back along the trail to find it. This is a shot that fired all by itself as I was trying to get the camera out to shoot that color at the end of the road.
May I tell you that a horse makes a terrible tripod? Zion doesn’t approve of photography. I whipped that camera around, took off the cap, tried to put my eye to the viewfinder – only to find that it jammed up against the bill of my helmet. And the second I’d start the process, Zi’d realize I wasn’t paying attention and drift off the trail. Or if I was trying to get a specific shot, he’d take a little trot step the second I hit the shutter release.
Tips of ears.
Finally, I started holding up the camera, trusting the autofocus, hoping I was pointing at the right thing without making sure – shooting on the fly.
Sometimes I got the sky.
Like this.
But this time, I stopped and adjusted for the ground. Same shot, just different exposure.
So last year, we saw that someone was starting to build something in the canyon. It turned out to be this. This is someone’s HOUSE. Can you believe that? Smack in the middle of the canyon. I’d say – WHO NEEDS THIS MUCH HOUSE? But I have to remember that I’m a republican.
These were on the fly. We were passing down through these translucent greens and I just opened up the camera and hoped for the best. It was so beautiful.
From the back of a moving horse, this is how our little horse rig looks from the lip of the upper meadow. We are at the end of the ride – we just have to descend along the rocky road – riding all along a cliff –
The last bit of color before we hit the bottom.
What we see on our way home. Driving down the tiny, winding road through the little side canyon we love to ride. G said today, looking out over the vastness of even the tiny valleys, gateways to a deep wilderness – “It’s incredible that all of this is only twenty minutes away from home. That we can be out here in this beauty – and have it all to ourselves.” Which we did today.
G rides up here a couple of times a week on his bike. You see this bike rider? She’s taking her life in her hands, riding up this tiny mountain road where people like us, a Suburban hauling a four horse trailer, come roaring down the road, filling it nearly from side to side. I hate it when he rides up here.
Our small gauge railroad that goes through the mountains.
The river. These things we pass by every time we ride.
And Bridal Veil.
A stupid way to end it – but this is a portrait of our state these days – all the roads, always under construction. We noticed it today because it’s a delicate thing, hauling thousand pound members of the family down a mountain – hard enough when you can use the normal roads.
Kinda like life, huh?
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