This was an amazing area called the Devils Playground which was also in the Grand Staircase area in Utah. It is an amazing collection of interesting formations and arches and was a lot of fun to climb around and explore.

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This was taken while climbing around among the Red Canyon area near Bryce Canyon. It is a really nice area to explore and often gets overlooked by people coming through the area. I think I was a good ways off the trail which was nice because I got to shoot some areas that were covered in snow without being walked all over or messed with by other visitors.

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These are called cairns and they are used to mark trails so you dont get lost out wandering through the slickrock trails around here in the western US. Who knows, maybe these are common around the world, I'm not sure. I do know that I really like them and how they are different and sometimes people that make them get pretty creative with them making little arches and other structures. I find that it makes a nice sense of community within a trail. When you see one fallen over it is pretty common to help out my reconstructing the stack. So these desktops are to pay respect to these little wonders.

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These were shot while exploring slot canyons in the Grand Staircase area of Utah in an area called Dry Gulch. Really beautiful, I absolutely love slot canyons. Some of the most amazing formations on earth...

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This is another plant hiding in the snow just before sunrise...

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Just as the sun was rising I snapped this photo of a desert plant hiding in the snow.

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One of many cactus plants around in the desert area...

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This was taken while I was exploring a little piece of Bryce Canyon outside of its main gates. There was an amazing cave of ice and I hiked down a frozen stream. It was a nice afternoon and this is just a little piece of the story. Im not sure it is possible to take a bad photo in this area.

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These little sculptures of ice formed at the base of a spring coming out of the side of a cliff in a canyon. The splatter of water that hit the ground beneath made these formations. Really beautiful.

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Does anyone get this reference? Anyone?

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On a small frozen pool among the canyons there was this chunk of frozen ice that had broken off of a larger icicle as it fell to the ground. Simple but I really love this image so I thought I would share.

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This is the view from the end of a 4 mile hike up to this view point from the valley that you see below. The hike was about 80 percent in the snow which was fun and the hike down was a nice relief from the climb up. The end point here is called Observation Point and gives this grand view of the canyon. That point there in the middle of the canyon that kind of pokes out into the middle of the valley is called angels landing and is where I was the day before. Its hard to give perspective to get an idea of how big these cliffs really are so look down to the valley and you will see a road there. It is a two lane road. Now imagine a car on that road. Now imagine a person standing next to that car oh so tiny you can hardly make them out. The elevation change from the valley to the mesa above is over a thousand feet up. I don't have my gps with me right now so I can verify the exact elevation but hopefully you get the idea. There is something incredible about standing on a cliffs edge that puts you at the peak of an area as large and powerful as this. Really inspiring indeed.

There are two versions of this desktop, one after I messed around with the color a little which I thought ended up pretty nice, and one that is simply a black and white version of the original exposure. If people really want it I will post the original color image eventually but I prefer it in black and white.

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The west coast of the US has a lot of rocky beaches where you can find huge boulders on the oceanside and there you will find water crashing into the rocks from time to time and its really beautiful to watch and hear. Soon after this I got a little to close to a wet area in the boulders and found myself covered in water from the waist down. This game me an excuse to just get in there and try and get a couple good shots from right at the breaking point of the waves pummeling the rock. It was tricky to snap off a few shots and get my camera out of dodge but I did get a couple of cool looking shots from the ordeal including this one here. Getting wet also got me to just sit on top of a nice warm rock and dry off in the heat of the sun for a good half our which was nice to just sit there and relax for a while.

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This is simply another shot of the flowers that I found sitting on the edge of a road.

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I found this bunch of flowers on the edge of a road which were beautifully lit by the afternoon sun. I simply had to take a few shots of them. I love how something such as these fairly plain flowers can become so magical in the right moment.

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These trees can be found out in the california desert and are called Joshua trees. Kind of like a bizarre cross between a cactus and a palm tree. The spikes on these things are sharp! I have a scratch down the side of my leg as evidence to that. This photo was taken from underneath a bigger one of them I came across while driving down a dirt road in the middle of the desert.

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This is the view from the top of the world. Well, this little corner here near San Francisco at least. Not to much to say about this one, I just wanted to include a landscape shot for those of you who like this sort of thing.

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Sometimes when you squint your eyes in the light of the sun you find that things all blur into these simple shapes and colors that are so unique. I tried to catch that feeling with this, thats why everything is not in perfect focus, just so you know...

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