Calf Creek Falls

Last November, I visited a fantastic place near Escalante, Utah. I had just visited Zion with my friend Dave, and he suggested that on our way back, we would visit Calf Creek Falls. I had seen pictures of this place before, but I had not expected the beauty and sheer magnitude of it. The falls are in the Grand Staircase National Monument and you start the hike from a small campground that is right of highway 12. From there you hike along Calf Creek in a very hot desert and in sandy conditions, until you reach the end of the canyon where it is very lush and forested and turkeys can be seen and heard. At the end there is a small lake in which Calf Creek Falls plummet from the edge of the canyon down. This is a very large waterfall and you can easily see it on the satellite pictures of this area. It's an almost surreal experience to reach this place after hiking through the desert. We took many pictures there and I'd just like to show a few. These are all very high resolution images that can be printed at extremely large sizes while retaining detail. I slowed down the falls by using a neutral density filter. The falls have beautifully colored moss behind them and in spring there must be many blooming orchids of which I saw a lot of evidence, but no flowers of course.

Reflection:


Changing trees:


Side view



Vertical pano:



This last image is extremely high resolution and will print 8 feet high without any issue. It was inspired by an image of the same falls my friend Pete has in his living room that he shot with a very large format panoramic film camera.

There are several more images in the smugmug gallery I created for this place. You can also go to flickr to do the social networking thing.