For the final day of our trip, we drove through the San Rafael Swell. We had already hike 14 miles with 4 little kids in the previous 3 days, so it was nice to drive to most of our destinations this day. We started off from our hotel in Green River and drove up 1-70 through the southern reef of the swell. We then took the dirt road up north through the swell. First stop was the San Rafael River bridge. We played in the water and the kids enjoyed seeing a fairly large spider that could run across the top of the river water. I’ve never seen anything like that. Then we went to the Buckhorn Wash Pictograph panel. I’ve visited this panel on many occasions, and it was still impressive.

I was even more interested in the soft canyon light, raking across the panel. Maybe I’ve seen too many rock art panels in my day.

Next stop was an unmarked dinosaur footprint for those who know where to look. My mom wasn’t convinced, since it was by itself, even though the Cleveland-Lloyd dinosaur quarry is only a few miles away. The Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry “contains the densest concentration of Jurassic-aged dinosaur bones ever found.” (Thanks website). We didn’t have time to stop on this trip, but next time we will. My kids love dinosaurs.

The next stop was supposed to be the highlight of the trip, but ended up being the most disappointing. I first visited the government caves in 1998 with Kristin and some friends on an Institute trip. We were going to the College of Eastern Utah at the time. The main cave was originally well over 1000 feet long. It is officially called the MK test tunnels or Morrison-Knudsen test tunnels, named after the contractors that were hired to build the tunnels. Apparently the government used this site to study how underground caves respond to bombing on the surface. The cave was built around the time that the NORAD command center was planned and built. The cave had at least 2 large skylights courtesy of the explosives set off on the surface. There isn’t much written about the project, but there is this article I found that describes the “making safe” project that ruined the area. Anyway, this cave used to be awesome. We were looking forward to spending some time inside, cooling down on a hot day. There is a huge chamber just 20 or 30 feet from this entrance. You could explore the whole cave without a flashlight, because of the holes in the ceiling. I felt like a relative died when I saw that the cave had been closed off. It was the same kind of disheartening feeling experienced when Nutty Putty Cave was shut down. I do understand that the man made hole was a liability for the BLM and since it was man made, there shouldn’t be a problem destroying it, but still, kind of disappointing. When will our society realize that risk is what makes some things fun and exciting, and that we can’t take it all away in the name of safety. As far as I know, no one was ever killed or injured when site seeing at the cave. What ever happened to the “Enter at your own risk” signs? Now we just shut it down and destroy it so that no one can possibly file a lawsuit. Anyway, it’s been a rough year with my 2 favorite caves being shut down.

If you never got to see the killer caves before they were shut down, then don’t worry. There is still an attraction worth visiting the area for. In the photo above you may be able to spot some phallic artwork among the graffiti (Right next to the Pac-Man style head). This area now boasts the largest collection of phallic artwork in the world, some that are easily 20 feet long. Without even trying, I could see more than 7 of the masterpieces from one vantage point as we walked down the earth ramp to the cave entrance. Man, some Emery County kids really destroyed the place with a few cans of spray paint, and they sure hate some girl named “Sunny.” I’ve always loved the San Rafael Swell for its wildness and openess. This was starkly contrasted by the highly regulated Escalante-Staircase national monument that we had just visited. I hate the rules and regulations of the National Parks and Monuments, but I also hate the recklessness of the visitors of the wild and free places. Too many people destroy a place by just visiting it, just as fast as a few people destroy a desolate place that few care about. It seems like the best way to protect a place is just to make it as remote and difficult to enter as possible. At least drunk, high school kids won’t visit very often. Anyway, I’ll quit ranting now before I get started on Nutty Putty Caves.

The last stop of the day was the Wedge Overlook.

This has been called the Little Grand Canyon. It’s an impressive site and a good stop if you are on the driving tour. We would have enjoyed it more but the rain clouds were moving in right as we noticed the front tire on our van was flat. As I put the spare on I realized that it was flat too. I’m glad my parents were there or we would have ruined our spare driving in to town. My dad and I threw the tire in his pathfinder and raced to Castle Dale. We made it to the only tire shop in town, about 5 minutes before they closed on a Friday night. The guys at NAPA just about sent us away, but reluctantly decided to take a look at it. There was just a small hole that could take a plug, so they decided to fix it for us. I am so glad they did, because that saved us a long trip to Price to figure out plan B. Thanks Castle Dale NAPA Auto Parts! 5 bucks later we were on our way back to the overlook to see if any of the kids had gone over the edge yet. We got back in record time thanks to the craziest driving I have ever seen my dad do, and everyone was still safe and sound. That is until we started loading up and Keaton took a spill and split his head open. Don’t forget, Berkley got stitches on the first day of our trip. By this point we were too tired for another hospital visit, so we bandaged him up and gave him the superglue treatment when we got home. Would I do it again? Heck yes. I love spending time with these rugrats as much as I love Southern Utah.

On our 3rd day Grandma and Grandpa Davis joined us for a hike to Upper Calf Creek falls. I hadn’t ever been there, and I’m not sure why. The trail is shorter than the lower falls, but much steeper. The falls are about the same height, and there is a giant pool at the bottom, but there isn’t as much room to spread out. Luckily there are way fewer visitors as well. Another nice feature is that it is only a short side trip to the top of the falls, and is easily done in one trip. On top there are some more pools for swimming and even some cliff jumping. I think this would be a great place to camp and do some exploring.

My hiking buddies, Jaxon and Parker, wait for the rest of the adults to catch up. We had already hiked over 10 miles in the 2 previous days, and my kids just kept going. Even Berkley the 2 year old hiked a lot of this trail. You can see in this photo how steep the drop is in to the upper falls. The trailhead is on the ridge at the top of this photo. This is only 1/3 of the way down. The kicker is that it is downhill on the way there and uphill back to the car. Surprisingly, Keaton (our 4 year old), made it back first. He is so determined and competitive, he wasn’t about to let his older brothers beat him back.

This is about the point where the trail forks and you either go to the top of the falls or the bottom. It’s only another 1/4 of a mile or so either way. I loved the layer of iron deposit or whatever that was that kind of erodes out on top of all the sandstone formations.

The Upper Calf Creek falls are just as spectacular as the lower falls. I’m sure if there was as nice of a beach to play at as the lower falls, these would be just as overrun with people.

Even without the beach, the swimming hole is nice and deep, just not so kid friendly.

There is another awesome swimming hole at the top of the falls, especially if you like some tame cliff jumping. There is a 15-20 foot drop at the top of the pool that you can jump in to 20 feet of water. I did hit bottom once, but it was only a tap, and I was pretty far off to the side where it is much shallower. A group of scouts joined us here and it was fun daring them to jump. There is still no beach here, but there is a shallow end that is only about 3 feet deep. When we visited the water was clear and fairly warm.

Even though the trail is mostly steep slickrock, I think it was almost easier to hike than the sandy trail to the lower falls. The iron deposits make awesome patterns in the rock.

Here’s looking in to the canyon, and Parker giving his mom a heart attack for standing too close to the edge.

This is the view from the ridge near the trailhead. The falls are way down in the canyon where those clouds are casting their shadows. You can just see Kristin and her pregnant belly coming up the trail. Hey, if my 7 month pregnant wife, and 2, 4, 6, and 7 year old boys can hike this one, then it can’t be that bad. The worst part is the rough quarter mile long road off the main highway to the trailhead. Bring a high clearance vehicle or plan on walking a little further than you planned.

From here, we took off through some of the most unpopulated parts of Southern Utah, through Capitol Reef, past Factory Butte and the Henry Mountains, and on to Green River to spend the night in a hotel. The next day we spent in the San Rafael Swell, before heading home.

So for day 2 we made out for Calf Creek Falls. With 4 kids in tow, this is an all day hike. It is about 6 miles round trip, and there are large sections that are very sandy, making difficult to hike. Luckily it’s flat and you can find some shade along the way. We left at about 8:30 am, brought lunches, and didn’t plan on getting back until about 5:00 pm. We probably spent 4 hours at the falls, which was the highlight of the trip. There’s great swimming, an awesome beach, shade, cool mist, and the view. There was also about 100 other people there throughout the 4 hours that we stayed, so we had to share.

Again, this hike is very hot in the summer. We went through quite a bit of water, luckily most of the kids carried their own. Berkley got to ride most of the way in the kid carrier backpack, but he still insisted on hiking over 2 miles of the trail. Pretty good for a 2 year old. In the photo on the left he was pouting and refusing to decide to hike or ride in the backpack. He actually did most of his hiking on the way back, and he wouldn’t let me carry his water bottle either. He’s a funny little kid.

The hike was beautiful this time of year. Everything was green, even in the hot canyon. The cactus was blooming in purple and yellow flowers. This is probably the greenest and most colorful I’ve ever seen this canyon.

Once you finally reach the falls, it’s all about playing in the water. If you read the post about day 1, you know that Berkley got stitches right next to his eye about 36 hours before. His face sure looked dirty, but luckily his stitches healed up nicely with no infection. It probably helped that he didn’t want to swim much. The other kids were all over it though.

A visit to Calf Creek falls would have warranted a trip to Southern Utah for that alone, but luckily we managed to get a few more days in with the kids, and I got to see the upper falls for the first time.

So this year we decided to hurry and get a trip at the beginning of summer, before things get too crazy with the pregnancy (Kristin was 7 months along already in June). We decided to go to one of my favorite places that we used to visit often as a kid, Calf Creek falls. It’s a pretty awesome place, no matter how old you are. The falls are spectacular, and well worth the 3+ mile hike to get in there. That’s probably why the place is so crowded. Escalante is kind of out in the middle of nowhere, so I was surprised that the campground was already full when we pulled in a 2:00 pm on a Monday. Luckily someone was just leaving and we were able to sneak in. We set up camp and got situated, and within an hour we were ready to go on a hike. Unfortunately, just as we were getting ready to leave, Berkley took a spill on the campground steps and ended up needing stitches. We are pros at recognizing when a kid needs stitches, it seems like. Luckily the cut (which was right next to his eye) didn’t connect with the eyelid. We would have had to drive to Panguitch if that was the case so that they could sedate him. It was still a battle to hold him still enough to get the 5 or 6 stitches in.

Anyway, we decided to stick around and try to have fun and avoid nasty eye infections. I’m glad we did. So even though that was our real first day, we didn’t get much done except for go to the clinic in Escalante.

So Tuesday morning we decided to go to the Escalante Natural Bridge, instead of Calf Creek, since we wanted to keep Berkley out of the water for a day. I’m glad we did, because we saw a giant group of Young Women heading up to the falls as we left. To get to the bridge, you just start hiking up the Escalante river, starting at the trailhead near the Calf Creek campground. It was only 2 miles, but it is sandy and really hot in June. Luckily, you cross the river a few times along the way, so we just stopped and played in the river to cool down.

When we were there the river was warm and nice for wading. Our kids could have just played in the river the whole time.

As you come up to the natural bridge, it doesn’t look like much. It is kind of hidden in the cliffs. It was nice though that we had the place basically to ourselves. We passed a few people and only saw one couple at the bridge. Anyway, you really have to climb up under the bridge to appreciate how beautiful it is.

This is the view from behind the bridge. While we were there, the couple that we met told us about a place outside of Escalante that sounded cool, so we hiked out and headed there next. 9 miles south of Escalante on Center street is a little place that you wouldn’t expect to find. The scenery up to the trailhead is pretty desolate, but in the little wash is a carved out tunnel that is pretty sweet. It was a good place to hang out on a hot afternoon.

There is a large undercut cliff and it is as as smooth as can be. Here are the rugrats hanging out in the tunnel. It was easily 20 degrees cooler in there. The tunnel makes an arc and is only about 100 feet long, but it’s still a fun side trip, especially since it’s only about .25 miles to get there.

Inside was this important statement: SUWA SUX. Man, whoever wrote that really showed the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance a thing or two. They are probably still feeling the effects of that libelous statement. I mean, I bet there is easily 500 people that visit this place a year, and I’m sure it got each one of them thinking. A message important enough to carve in stone must be true. And just think, now the 100 people that read this blog in a year will see it too, so think about that.

Anyway, just before you get to the tunnel is this sweet little natural bridge.

Day 1 of the trip was awesome, but the best part was waiting for us on Day 2.

One of my favorite things about conference is meeting new people. I’m naturally shy, so it’s great to have something like a camera to break the ice and be able to interface with people. People just open up and I love that. Maybe it’s just because some people think I have something to do with getting their photo in the Ensign. Who knows. I actually like it when people ask me to take their picture, as long as they are willing to work a little. I’ll usually take 10-20 photos of them and if we aren’t in a good spot, I’ll make them walk a little. Contrary to popular belief, just because I take your picture, it doesn’t mean that your photo will be in the Ensign. But there are some things you can do to improve your chances!

If you really want to be in the Ensign or Liahona, it’s not hard. If you are the right kind of subject you will most likely have your photo taken. If no one takes your photo, you can always ask. I know I don’t mind at least. Here’s a few tips:

• Be in the right place at the right time. The photographers hang out where there is good light and good background scenery. The photographers keep shooting during conference, and there are usually few people outside on Temple Square during a session. If you have tickets for the morning session, stick around for the afternoon session and listen to it outside. There will be even fewer people outside when it’s cold or bad weather.

• Represent a faithful Latter-day Saint. Remember your photo will be accompanying the words of the prophets, so if you are dressed immodestly or you have a big scraggly beard or haircut, your chances are slim. You’ll do best if you are wearing a suit, white shirt and tie, or a nice skirt or dress. Forget the flip flops.

• Be diverse in age, or ethnicity. Remember that the church wants to represent it’s worldwide membership in these photos of people that show up to a meeting in Utah. They want old and young, white and black, and everything in between.

• Be a family, or at least a group of clean cut youth. Don’t leave mom and dad home. Many of the messages are about families, and surprisingly few families are willing to drag everyone downtown in their church clothes for a meeting that they could watch on TV. If you get your family down there, hang out for a while instead of rushing to your car. One of the photographers will probably find you.

Here’s some people that asked me to take their picture this time. I loved the family. They told me that they forgot their camera and wanted a picture of them at conference. I loved how they all gathered around their autistic son/brother and tried to get him interested in having his picture taken. I think this is the only photo that he peeked out from his blanket. Mom was excited to tell me that he was quiet and relaxed during the session, a miracle since he is usually restless. In the other photo, the guy was really funny. He was outside between sessions on Saturday with a few friends and they asked me to take their photo. I ended up asking him to step out for a photo, because he hadn’t shaved in a few days, and I thought he looked a little scraggly. Well sure enough, he tracked me down after a session the next day, on Sunday. I don’t know how he even found me because I’m usually all over the place. Anyway he was there, with his mom, and he had shaven and had a suit on. Anyway, I thought that was pretty hilarious.

So there you go. Next conference, get your family together, bring your scriptures and come hang out on temple square for a session. At least you know the talks will be good, even if you don’t get your photo in the Ensign.

So the Conference report Ensign is out, and if you have seen it, you have noticed that all of the photos are in color instead of the traditional black and white. I wondered how it would come out, but I have to admit I like the change. I especially liked shooting with color in mind. It was always disappointing when an awesome color photo became a mediocre black and white photo while editing the shoot. Now I can be disappointed when I can’t simply desaturate a mediocre color photo to a black and white image. Anyway, I love the blue sky over the conference center at twilight (seen on pg. 113).

Descending and ascending stairs. There are no shortage of stairs around the conference center (pages 13 and 39).

Don’t worry, you don’t have to take the stairs if you don’t want to (pages 107 and 84).

(pages 81 and 90)

I started photographing these cute girls (unpublished) and decided to get the whole family in there just in case (page 22).

The Christus statue in the North Visitor Center, using the tilt-shift lens to set the focus on the nail prints and the face (page 76).

Inside the conference center (page 3).

* Edit: So I was looking through the printed Ensign and I noticed that this photo of the First Presidency was actually used on page 9. I originally put this as one of my favorite unpublished photos.

All in all, it was a good conference. I’m still making my way through the talks, trying to catch what I missed. I have a few other favorite photos that didn’t get published that I’ll try to throw up in the next few days.

So we spent Christmas in the Historic Land of Four Seasons (a.k.a. Beaver, UT) with my wife’s family. She has a big family and Grandma wanted to get a new family photo of the whole gang. This group doesn’t all get together in one place very often so we only had two days to choose from, and those two days happened to be absolutely freezing cold. Normally getting a group of 35 adults to look at a camera at the same time can be a challenge, even in warm weather. It is also a known fact that kids hate looking at cameras. I had 19 kids in this shot, and I had to be in it too. I used my radio slaves (cyber commanders from white lightning) to trigger the camera and strobes while I was in the shot. It worked pretty well, but I really could have used someone like my buddy Dirk to try and get the kids (and adults) to look towards the camera. Anyway, we stayed out just long enough to get about 15 shots off and then high-tailed it back to the house before frostbite set in. That didn’t give me much to work with, but after swapping 25 of the 35 heads from other shots, we get what you have here. Parker never warmed up to the camera unfortunately, so he’s the only one you can’t see very well. Anyway, it goes without saying, don’t try this at home.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Above: The Salt Lake Temple and fountains early Sunday morning.

Left: I loved everything about this kid. I was shooting this with the 600 mm lens after the Sunday morning session, so I was probably 100 feet away from these guys as I was shooting. I loved the smirk he made as he realized that I was taking photos of him. The loose tie, the suit, wind blown hair, and dad’s hand on his shoulder. Awesome.

I liked the little moment the father and son are having in this shot of the crowds entering the conference center for the Priesthood session. Maybe someday that will be me and one of my boys, except, maybe my boy can be schlepping some of my heavy camera gear.

I’ve been taking photos for the church at the last 11 general conferences. I usually don’t see a lot of things that I haven’t tried shooting before, but this conference I was pleased to find for the first time these compass tiles on the main street plaza. I really like how this shot came out. I locked down the camera on a tripod and shot with a 16-35 mm lens. I easily have over 100 frames of people walking by here to get the blur and grouping of people just right. I’m really glad this one got published. Hopefully there are a lot more hidden gems out there waiting for me.

P.S. the talks were really good too, so don’t just get distracted by the awesome photos!

So, for Halloween this year at work, I was Mugatu, from the movie Zoolander. In fact, a good portion of our department dressed up as characters from the movie. Our events team was nice enough to throw up a runway and our boss, Shelli, was awesome enough to let us get crazy on the runway for the whole company. It was an awesome day at work, every bit as good as throwing back some orange mocha frappuccinos with your ridiculously good looking friends. Of course, when you work in the photo department, you have to take some awesome photos of everyone.

I really liked what the pleather corset did for me.

Here are my ridiculously good looking photo dept co-workers. Matilda (Jen Wheatley), Mugatu (Me), Derek Zoolander (Casey Hyer), and Hansel (Dirk Widdison). Can I just say that Hansel is sooo hot right now!

This is my evil posse. Denise made an awesome Katinka Ingabogovinanana.

By the end of the day Casey had “Blue Steel” down. He’s still perfecting “Magnum,” I shouldn’t even be talking about it right now. Hansel. He is soooo hot right now. Hansel.

Casey and Dirk had to settle their differences on the runway, old school.

Jordan played an impressive Maury Ballstein even while being restricted with today’s sexual harrassment in the workplace laws. By the way, that is my velour track suit that he is sporting. I knew that was a good find at the thrift shop. Hopefully he gets all the fake chest hair washed out before my next evening of relaxation in the suit. Speaking of uncomfortable, Denise gets extra points for sporting the least breathable costume, not to mention thigh high, platform stripper boots. I unsuccessfully tried to convince Kristin to borrow her outfit so we could go together for Halloween.

Here is the whole crew. The video of the Derelicte show/walk-off is linked here.

Happy Halloween!