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December 2025
Project Southwest
A Roadtrip through the Southwest of the USA
Part 2: Arizona & Utah
Part 2 of Project Southwest covers the photo locations in Arizona and Utah. This is desert country and some of these locations are more difficult to reach. 4X4 wheeling through deep sand and over steep rocky trails is part of the fun. These are not just 5 mile trips into the desert and cell coverage is lost very quickly. Getting stuck is a real possibility and being prepared is essential. Besides enough fuel, water, and food, an air compressor to inflate the tires after deep sand or rock driving, for which they should to be aired down from 39 to 15 PSI is a must. In addition we carried sand ramps and a shovel to be able to get the Wrangler out of the sand in case we would get stuck. Punctured tires are another not unlikely event. We brought only one spare tire (a full-size, not one of those little donut tires) but carried tire plugs and repair kit to be able to fix a flat on the trail. Another good reason why you want to bring a compressor. Off-road tires with deep treads and reinforced sidewalls are strongly recommended, trust me, I know!
One obvious advantage of these remote locations is that there are no crowds yet, but also no immediate help if you get yourself in trouble. This however could change in the near future. There are already local tour companies offering guided photography trips to some of those locations. Some wilderness areas already require permits and I am sure if visitation would increase significantly more locations will limit access via a permit system. Therefore the quest for even more remote photo locations continues. 😀
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below map shows the approximate locations where the photos were taken,
JMZ
For best viewing click on photo to enlarge
White Pocket, Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, Arizona
White Pocket, famous for its white-red colored, swirling sand stone formation is located in a remote area on the Paria Plateau, which is part of Vermilion Cliffs National Monument. The drive to White Pocket takes you off-road for about 60 miles in the desert with some 20 miles on sandy tracks. The landscape of White Pocket is amazing and surreal at the same time. The area is not very large and can be explored within a few hours. This was our second time here and I already had a good idea where I wanted to put up my tripod. We left our motel in Kanab at noon with the plan to stay at White Pocket until after sunset and then drive back in the dark. The genesis of White Pocket is still debated. There are three main theories: soft-sediment deformation, a large scale landslide caused by an earthquake, or deposition of minerals caused by uprising ground water. Whatever it was, it generated an otherworldly landscape and a photographer's dream.
Coyote Buttes South, Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, Arizona
This location is in the same area as White Pocket. There are two entry points: Paw Hole, where I already photographed three times and the much more remote Cottonwood Cove. To visit Coyote Buttes you need to secure a permit, for which you have to apply 5 months ahead. Permits for up to 10 people per day are issued and to obtain the permit you now have to confirm that you watched an online video addressing trail conditions, 4x4 requirements and other safety related topics. About 12 miles before you reach Cottonwood Cove the road becomes very sandy with some rough rocky segments. Here you pass an official sign: "4X4 only, know the difference between 4x4 and AWD!" Okay, I guess you were warned!
Cottonwood Cove is quite different from Paw Hole and I would say much more photogenic. There are amazing rock formations and it would take days to explore and photograph the entire area. For sure this was not our last trip to this location.
Like for White Pocket we arrived early afternoon, scouted the area and stayed until after sunset. A handheld GPS is highly recommended since there are no established trails in the wilderness area.
The little sister of the famous Wave in Coyote Buttes North
The Seahorse after sunset. If you look at the formation from the hills in the background to the right it looks more like Witch's Hat.
The Control Tower at sunset
Toroweap Point, Grand Canyon National Park. Arizona
Our first trip to Toroweap dates back to 2012. That time we had a rental Jeep and two flat (street) tires! This time I definitely wanted to do better. Today you need a permit to visit Toroweap and the gate only opens at sunrise and closes at sunset. The distance from the gate to the rim is just a little more than 4 miles but the last 2.7 miles are an extremely rugged high clearance vehicle trail and it takes almost an hour. This means, for serious landscape photography you need to stay overnight at Tuweep a small primitive campground for which I had secured a backcountry permit. Best of all, we were the only ones at the campground!
To get to Toroweap you leave the paved road shortly after Fredonia and drive south for about 60 miles. These are clay wash-board roads and they are infamous for puncturing tires, as I can attest. Reducing tire pressure and going slow is the best way to avoid this. For the whole trip you should plan on 4+ hours of driving. When you arrive at the lonely ranger station you pass a sign: "Entering Toroweap Metropolitan Area!" They definitely have a sense of humor. The weather however, was a bit of a concern. The Southwest monsoon season was still in full swing and while we drove towards Toroweap we saw storm cells forming. The clay roads become impassable when wet, which would mean we could get stuck out there. Luckily most of the storms moved around us and we had an absolutely amazing sunset and a clear night.
The view at Toroweap is just amazing. This is Grand Canyon experience at its best. No crowds, no guardrails, and probably the best view at Colorado River. Torowaep is located on the north side of Grand Canyon and luckily was not impacted by the wildfire, which destroyed the lodge at Nort Rim.
Heading 6
Monsoon sunset at Toroweap overlooking Colorado River with a sheer drop of 3000 vertical feet.
After sunset the sky cleared up and this was the view from our campground. This is a single frame, not a composite photo where sky and foreground were photographed separately. The light on the foreground is from sheet lightning, which was still going on in the distance. Kind of nature's light paint brush!
Sunrise next morning.
Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah
We have been to Bryce Canyon several times and my favorite season is winter when snow adds some drama to the red sandstone pinnacles in the canyon. Personally I think the photo opportunities are kind of limited there and we would not plan a trip to just visit Bryce again. However, driving from Kanab to Hanksville you pass the park and since it was still early in the day we decided to have a quick stopover.
Hanksville, Utah
"Where the Hell is Hanksville?" - a popular phrase on T-shirts seen in the remote town of some 200 people. You can also ask what is in Hanksville? Depends! If you are a landscape photographer and/or an outdoor guy - a lot. For regular tourists? Hmm, well, next question!
The area around Hanksville had been on my list for quite some time. Besides its proximity to Capitol Reef National Park there are 4 locations I was interested in: The Spire, Moonscape Overlook, Factory Butte and Goblin Valley State Park.
Moonscape Overlook
This is an almost otherworldly place. Standing there at the cliff looking down to the eroded landscape you are not sure if you are still on Earth. It had rained that day and the dirt roads to Moonscape are not clay, therefore we decided to go there first. In that area there is a simple way to find out which roads are what. Checking Google Earth and the roads, which are in reddish terrain are sandy, the ones that look grayish are clay. The first photo was taken at sunset and the second one is a blue hour panoramic composite of two frames taken with a 24mm tilt/shift lens and stitched together in post processing.
The Spire, Utah
Another one that I had on my to-do-list for a long time. The landscape looks like on a different planet. Our first attempt to get to the Spire was hampered by incoming rain. We just arrived where the clay road starts when it began to rain. Not heavy, but for maybe 30 minutes. After the rain stopped I decided to test the road conditions. Even in 4x4 mode after about 200 yards I decided to turn around. It was like driving on slippery ice and I could feel the clay soil getting stuck to the tires. You lose traction very quickly and once the threads are fully covered with clay soil the wheels will spin like crazy without moving the car an inch forward. At that point you are pretty much out of options, beside to wait until the clay dried.
We returned to our motel (yes, there is a motel in Hanksville) and decided to try it again in the evening, weather permitting.
And it worked out well, the desert air had dried up the road enough. We parked the car at the of the road and used the GPS to hike to the location. There are no marked trails and the handheld GPS comes handy to record your path, which makes it much easier to find the way back to the car in the dark, or next morning to find the Spire before sunrise again.
The first image shows the Spire at sunset. the second one was taken on the way back after sunset. The third and fourth frame were taken the next morning.
Goblin Valley, Utah
Goblin Valley is located in the San Rafael Desert in Utah. The park is famous for its large number of hoodoos, here called goblins. The location was featured in the movie Galaxy Quest as a foreign planet. And that's exactly how it feels when you hike between the goblins through the valley. The first photo was taken after sunset, from the top of a hill to have a better overview.
The second photo features Little wild Horse Butte right before sunrise. The third frame show the Three Sisters, maybe the most prominent feature in the park.
Factory Butte, Utah
Factory Butte is very close to Hanksville and easy to access via a short clay road. We had a very clear night and my hope was to shoot the first light hitting the delicate structure of the butte.
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