Escalante Country

The adventures of N in the canyons of the Escalante

New England Part 2: Connecticut

The Collinsville Axe Factory straddles the Farmington River in north-western Connecticut. In it's heyday it produced it's own hydro-electric power and the factory made axes and hammers that were shipped all over the world. Today it's empty except for a few struggling artists running small studios in the dark corners of the factory.

The factory supported the small town of Collinsville, built into the hillside above the river. It reminds you of something from a Washington Irving story. Nooks and crannies in the woods beg exploration, the river lulls you as it laps the granite bank and candles illuminate pane windows framed with colonial shutters. Tall hardwoods diffuse the sunlight and render a warm fuzz on everything in sight. The cemetery, complete with crypts, obelisks, massive tombstones and rusting wrought-iron fences looks down from the hilltop. The stone steeple of the church and smokestack from the factory are all that break the treetops in the valley below.

It's one of the most calming and soothing places I've ever been. Everything is familiar: the streets, houses, the riverbank – even the sandwich shop. It all invites you to stop and...tarry. I spent three days shooting rivers, bridges, old buildings, cemeteries, houses and historic districts.

It was one of the best three days. It felt like going home.

The full gallery: www.stevensfoto.com/conn

New England Part 1: Rhode Island

I recently dug a bunch of photos out of the archives. Actually, the photos are only a year old, but in terms of the camera and my abilities they might as well be from a lifetime ago.

I've since replaced my camera and lenses and I now shoot exclusively in manual mode. All photos were taken with a Nikon D70s in automatic, so the camera made a lot of decisions for me. The ISO was set at 1000 (who know WHY?), so the images are grainy, but it adds mood and I kinda like it.

These images were shot along the Rhode Island coastline in mid October. Only weeks before, the beaches were packed with people – the Kennedy's and Carnegie's (and the like) call this home in the summer. The annual migration of the nations wealthiest and most political families was over and we were completely alone on the beach for 3 days.

It was fantastic.

See the complete gallery at www.stevensfoto.com/ri

Refinery

Photos of the Cheyenne, WY refinery. This would be a great location for a photo shoot if you could get access to the grounds. All images were shot from about two blocks away.

Elk photos from Rocky Mountain National Park

Run Forest, Run!

I spent the last week working in Cheyenne, WY. I don't even know how to begin blogging about that town. Woah.

After 9 straight days of 14 hour work days my guys rebelled and told me I was giving them the day off. I complied. They took a tour of the Budweiser factory in Fort Collins. I decided to check out Estes Park and Rock Mountain National Park.

It was a running day but once I got to the parking lot and looked around the long-dormant mountaineering spirit deep down in my gut wriggled it's way out and made other plans. Spectacular 12, 13 and 14,000 foot peaks surrounded me on every side, each of them flaked by massive cliffs, escarpments and vertical granite buttresses. In my minds eye I saw myself ascending every one of them. I had to get to the top of one of these babies so I devised a plan; run to the top of a mountain. Diabolical!

I was anxious to see what effect my running/training would have on my stamina and cardio system at that altitude. Six months ago getting to the tree line would have killed me. I feel better than I have for a decade, though, and this was the perfect opportunity to see what I was capable of. I chose a well traveled trail to the top of Flat Top Mountain. The map said it was a constant grade with no quad and calf burning steep stuff near the top. Perfect. I also chose it because I was alone but knew that there would be plenty of other hikers along the way. Dying of heart failure or oxygen deprivation is best done with a little company, even if it is a perfect stranger. I loaded a small pack with the essentials, donned the new boots I bought at the Sierra Trading Post the day before and took off up the trail.

The long and short of this story is that I made it to the top and the summit was spectacular. The guts of the story is that it was five miles to the summit and 3200' in elevation gain and I did it in 2 hours 23 minutes. And, I went from the truck to the summit without stopping. Well, I stopped for about 3 minutes at mile two to put some moleskin on a blister and at mile three I had to explain to someone that the little critter was not a mouse but a Pika. It's actually in the Rabbit family. That took about 30 seconds.

I was passing people left and right and never felt excessively winded. I actually got a huge ego boost when a group of girls I passed told me that I made them feel bad about stopping to rest. Am I wrong to feel good about that? Anyway, it felt great! I'm pretty sure that ALL of my friends, including Kristi, Amy, Kim, Cory, Joe, Hillary, Jared, Jaren, Tracy, Curtis, Jamie, Chris...could have shaved 45 minutes off of that time with little effort. But I know for a fact that six months ago I would have hacked up my spleen making it to the top of that hill.

I rewarded myself with a Gatorade and Wheat Bagel with Nutella then fell asleep under a huge boulder. It was bliss. Then I ran most of the way down and made it back to the car in 1 hour 12 minutes.

It was, like, the best run E-V-E-R.

And I was told that the Budweiser factory is pretty interesting.