The Coyote Buttes, in a remote area on the Arizona/Utah border, was considered inaccessible and almost unknown. It has become easier to explore the desert back country and venture into locations that were once too dangerous and too remote. These places are protected by acts of Congress as wilderness areas, to keep them from being overrun and exploited. The Bureau of Land Management uses a quota system and issues limited numbers of permits to keep visitors to a minimum in fragile areas like the Coyote Buttes.  If and when you get a permit and spend a whole day photographing the Wave, you will want to explore the area surrounding the fantastic formation of the Wave. Walk up the long slope on the east side of The Wave, all the way to the top of the rim. It’s an easy climb to the upper level where several large pools of water can be found almost year around. Here you’ll find some great reflections. Move around the pools and try different angles. Climb up to the higher slopes above the pools and look around. There are long lines of pillow-like formations at the foot of the cliffs above. Off toward the southwest, a few hundred feet beyond the pools, there is a bright yellow/orange stone formation, four-feet high. The far side looks like a hamburger with two slices of beef. The best angle for a photograph of this rock is just beyond the “hamburger,” looking back toward the pools.

You will find more information on photographing the Wave in Issue #71 of Photograph America Newsletter. 

Several years ago I spotted the remains of an old bicycle along the trail into Waterhole Canyon, about eight miles south of Page, Arizona, on the east side of Highway 89. Everyone in my photo workshop groups enjoyed photographing this rusty relic in the sand. It has probably been removed by now but things like this are often seen if you keep your eyes open for the unusual.

You will find more information on the Southwest Deserts in Issue #77 of Photograph America Newsletter.

One of the first sites you come to entering the Chaco Historical Park from the North entrance is the Far View Ruins.  Look through the two door openings facing south. There are more openings to inner rooms that can be lined up to recede into the distance. Move in close with a 20mm lens and the rooms appear much larger. Back off with a 200mm and line up the openings to make an interesting pattern. In mid-morning and in the middle of the afternoon, diagonal shadows are cast across the openings. This ruin is exposed to the open sky and it doesn’t make much difference what time of day you arrive. Climb the short ladder to the top of the wall. Move to either side of the ladder and include it in a wide-angle composition of the large kiva just beyond. A 17mm lens will include both the ladder and the kiva. This is only one of thousands of Kivas spread over miles of New Mexico desert. The roads are not paved. Avoid driving here during the rainy season.

You will find more information on Cliff Dwellings of the Southwest Issue #32 of Photograph America Newsletter.

The only route to the ghost town called Nelson is south of Henderson, Nevada, on U.S.Highway 95 past a ten-mile-long dry lake where you can often see motorcycles, quads, and every type of car trying for a personal speed record. Lots of dust is usually blowing out there so I kept my cameras wrapped up and stayed off the playa. Rusting pickups, Plymouths, Packards, and a large collection of rusty cab-over trucks are scattered everywhere along with rusting bikes, antique gas pumps and an airplane resting nose-down into the canyon wall. The interior of the General Store is a museum covered wall-to-wall with dust-covered treasures, someone’s vision of the area’s gold mining days of long ago.

You will find more information on the wilder side of Reno, Nevada in Issue #155 of Photograph America Newsletter.

Three miles north of Fort Bragg on California’s North Coast is the entrance to MacKerricher Beach State Park. This eight-mile stretch of beaches, dunes and rocky shoreline extends north from Glass Beach to Ten Mile River. Turn left at the entrance sign and drive to the end of the road, past all the campgrounds, and park at the last parking spot. Walk past the restrooms and follow wooden boardwalks beyond the cypress groves to some of California’s best accessible tide pools. Long stairways lead down to small sandy beaches at the edge of rocky tide pools extending out to sea, especially during the lowest tides of the year. This spot is on my list of Ten Best Tide Pools on the California Coast. Arrive here ready for some tide pool photography sometime in December or January during a low tide of minus one-foot or lower. Pack a long macro lens of 100 - 200 mm or a short telephoto zoom with close focusing. You’ll want a polarizing filter, too. Because of the rough and rocky terrain a monopod is easier to maneuver than a tripod. Rubber boots and wool socks are better than going bare foot and freezing your toes.

You will find more information on the Northern California Coast in Issue #133 of Photograph America Newsletter.

About 12 miles south of Kent, Washington is the small town of Shaniko, The reason most visitors drive out there is to photograph the remains of a hundred-year-old ghost town. The last time I was there I photographed a large collection of mostly horse-drawn wagons and fire vehicles under a sunshade cover. I walked around the collection to find the most photogenic wagons against backgrounds without modern cars and other photographers. This was my favorite buggy.

You will find more information on Oregon Ghost Towns in Issue #168 of Photograph America Newsletter.

Eight years ago I was exploring a desert landscape paved with pink hexagonal blocks decorated with orange stripes. This remote canyon near St. George, Utah has walls of red and white striped patterns and strange pillow-like formations. Cool, dry October days lured me back to Utah. If you are a fan of desert photography, add Yant Flat and the Candy Cliffs to your travel list. You'll definitely want to photograph these strangely-sculpted desert formations. This hike is mostly level and the trails are not crowded.

You'll find more details on Yant Flat and the Candy Cliffs in Photograph America Newsletter #144.

Bear grass (a lily) blooms every four-to-seven years. Ninety-five percent of Glacier National Park is maintained as wilderness area. You will need to do some hiking for the vistas that Glacier’s high country offers. Pick up one of the books describing the trails of the Park or one of the Day Hike pamphlets available at the Visitor Centers. These pocket-sized guides have maps of the popular areas in the Park with descriptions of forty-one of the most scenic day hikes in the Park. On an all-day hike in the mountains, I use a fanny pack with a lightened load of lenses and camera gear. The electronic flash, the heavy tripod, and the large set of filters are left in the car. For the shorter walks, carry the full pack and a tripod. Even if you do most of your photography from the trunk of your car, buy a comfortable fanny pack for this trip. While I’m driving, I keep my fanny pack looped around the passenger-side seat back to hold my camera and telephoto lens ready for any quick wildlife shots along the road.

Rain forests, black sand beaches, volcanoes, and snow-covered peaks are a few of the reasons to photograph the big island of Hawaii. The peak of Mauna Kea may be covered with winter snow. Eruptions on the slopes of Mauna Loa send rivers of molten lava down the southern slopes and into the Pacific. One of the marked trails along the Crater Rim Drive is called the Devastation Trail. Several bleached-white oheo trees in a landscape of black pumice are best shot in the direct low light of a sunny, late afternoon. This dramatic landscape photographs best in contrasty light. Some of the most spectacular cloud formations I have ever seen were photographed from the Volcano Observatory on the west side of the caldera. To find this quality of light, arrive on the crater rim overlooks before sunrise. To do this, spend the night in the Park. It’s a 28-mile-drive up from the town of Hilo. Make hotel reservations well in advance to stay several nights at the Volcano House, located right on the rim of Kilauea Crater. The location is convenient, across the road from the Visitor Center. Mark Twain wrote about staying at the Volcano House in 1866, when these were called the Sandwich Islands. He climbed down into the crater at night and walked across the still-warm volcanic crust. There were no park rangers to prevent such things in those days.

Photographing Death Valley is largely a matter of timing. Forget about a summer visit and even a late spring trip is risky. Plan now for your photo trip for the last part of November through the first two weeks of March. This fifteen-week period of mid-winter is the only safe time to travel there. A recent April visit ran into 102˚ F. temps. Easter vacation trips in the past usually coincided with spring winds that blew sand and dust into all my gear. Summer temperatures range over 100˚ The summer of 2024 brought record temps, in the 130 degree range. Your camera equipment is too valuable for that kind of treatment. If you want to avoid any crowds...skip Easter Week, President’s Birthday weekend in February and the 49ers Death Valley Encampment, a regular event, held every year around the second weekend of November.

Look at your feet... don’t miss the strong, wind-blown patterns of sand all around you. Try a wide-angle lens to accentuate the relationship of those patterns around you to the patterns of the distant dunes. A 28mm, 24mm, 20mm, or even wider lens, especially used in a vertical format, will exaggerate these spacial relationships and will produce a strong image. If you were lucky, a strong overnight wind came up last night and blew away any foot prints while you slept. If foot prints are visible in your viewfinder, you should probably stick to the longer telephoto lenses and shoot over them. ​Unless you are trying to show man’s effect on this environment, you will probably not want foot prints all over your sand dunes. Bring out your wide-angles and concentrate on the panoramic shots. Watch the skies for vapor trails of jets.