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.