Road Trip Out West; Exploring, Wandering and Photography; Part IV; Dead Horse Point State Park & Potash Road

Dead Horse Point State Park 7-image panorama.  This scene was our introduction to the grandeur
of Utah's landscapes, plateaus and canyons. (click any image to enlarge)
Except as noted, all images were made with the OM-1 Mark II & 12-100mm f/4/ Pro lens

NOTE:  Until the end of the road trip, I’ll be posting three times a week—Monday, Wednesday & Friday.  After we return home and I write a ‘wrap-up’ post, I’ll go back to two posts per week—Tuesday & Friday.

Finally!  Utah!  The good stuff!  The photos you’ve been waiting to see.  The spectacular landscapes of the American West!  I love it out here!  Utah is where we plan to spend quite a bit of time on this road trip visiting several national parks, state parks, taking in the grand landscapes and just being mesmerized by our surroundings!  

A closer view of the right side of the image above.

It was an easy and relatively short drive from Grand Junction, Colorado to Moab, Utah.  Since it was too early to check into our hotel, we made a couple of detours along the way.

Utah is where, for the first time this trip, I grabbed my OM-I II with the 12-100mm f/4 Pro lens attached.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I also brought the OM 8-25mm f/4 Pro lens.  I brought this camera and lens combinations for a couple of reasons.  First, it is relatively small, lightweight, compact and my previous experience on cross-country road trips with only a Micro4/3 system showed me that a Micro4/3 system is fully capable of producing the excellent image quality I demand.  I had no hesitation about it.  

Second, I know I will need an extremely wide angle lens for our upcoming visits to Horseshoe Bend and Upper Antelope Canyon (slot canyon) outside of Page, Arizona.  The OM 8-25mm f/4 Pro lens is a much better lens than either my Fujifilm 10-24mm f/4 WR lens or my Nikon 14-30mm f/4 lens.  It is tack sharp at its shortest focal length (where I anticipate needing to use it), wide open and right out to the edges and corners.  I can’t say enough good things about this lens.  I’d rather deal with fewer pixels and a smaller sensor than with a lens that can’t get the job done as I want it done.

There were a lot of these dead juniper trees scattered about the landscape
in the park,  Each was photogenic in its own way.  I just picked a couple
and made some handheld exposures.

To expeditiously utilize a feature in the OM-1 II I think may come in handy, I have the red Record button programmed to enable and disable the 50mp Handheld High Resolution (HHHR) shooting mode.  My plan is to use both the standard 20mp shooting mode as well as the HHHR mode for landscapes.  This is more or less an experiment to see how much of a difference, if any, it makes in the real world.  In my past testing, I concluded it was better to use 20mp and then upscale in Photo AI or Gigapixel AI if needed than to use this mode.  I’ll let you know if that opinion changes.  In the mean time, it is no trouble at all switching back and forth.

The road trips continues…. First, we drove to Dead Horse Point State park.  Dead Horse Point gave us a good introduction to the geology, geography plateaus, canyons and colors we would be seeing in Utah.   It is, indeed, a vast landscape.  If you’ve ever seen the movie Thelma & Louise, the last scene in which the two of them drive off the cliff and into oblivion in their 1966 Ford Thunderbird convertible was filmed in Dead Horse Point State Park.  Dead Horse State Park has some spectacular scenery as well as some very interesting geology.  It is worth a visit.

I found the park quite spectacular.  I made some panorama photos as well as normal 4:3 format photos.  The the 200mm FF equivalent field of view was long enough and the 24mm equivalent wide enough.  Near the parking lot, I spotted a nice intimate landscape and outcrop with a few juniper trees scattered about so I made some B&W photos of them with the X100VI.

I spotted this next to the parking area.  Using my Fujifilm X100VI, I made a couple of exposures
utilizing one of my monochrome film recipes.

After we left Deadhorse Point State park, I wanted to find Potash Road.  Potash Road is a two-lane highway that parallels the Colorado River on one side and is at the base of 1000 ft. sandstone cliffs on the other.  I mean the cliffs are right next to the road—1000 ft. straight up!  Spectacular does not adequately describe what we experienced here.  I found out about Potash Road during my pre-trip research and wanted to see it for myself.  When we drove the road, we noticed several vehicles stopped at the base of the cliffs.  Rock climbers.  1000 ft. straight up!  Good for them.  Not me!  Like Dead Horse, Potash Road was well worth the side trip.

As I mentioned, these cliff rise as high as 1000 ft.  They are
truly an spectacular sight!
Fujifilm X100VI

There were petroglyphs left by an early Native American culture hundreds or even more than
a thousand years ago.  These were about 20 ft. up from the surface and I'm not quite sure what
method they used to get up that high.  If you are having difficulty seeing them, some appear
in the dark desert varnish in the center and then to the left.
Fujifilm X100VI

Next, Arches National Park.  I'll have an extra post Wednesday describing our visit to Arches National Park.

Join me over at my website, https://www.dennismook.com.  

Thanks for looking. Enjoy!  

Dennis A. Mook  

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