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I have finished another pastel landscape titled “Dark Canyon Wilderness”.This new image was inspired by the scenery near the junction of Woodenshoe Canyon and Dark Canyons in the Dark Canyon Wilderness area, Utah.
My most recent pastel landscape titled “Canyon Falls” is a rendering of one of the waterfalls in Coyote Gulch, Utah.
Coyote Gulch is located in the Grand Staircase National Monument south of the town of Escalante Utah. The trailhead is roughly 35 miles down the gravel “Hole in the Rock” road off of highway 12 east of Escalante. My wife and I took a refreshing shower under these falls during a backpacking trip.
As promised…the completed painting “Anasazi Tourists” and the rest of our honeymoon adventure!
Anasazi Tourists
We were married at Sipapu Natural Bridge on October 1, 2007 at 9 a.m. Our plan was to honeymoon in Owl canyon, so we headed back to the car and were off to Owl Canyon (18 miles away). Once we arrived, we packed our backpacks and started hiking down just as several clouds started rolling in. This canyon is quite steep so our descent was slow. By 2 p.m. there was a steady rain which made the scramble down the final boulder slide quite challenging. The rain had caused many streams to form and made for some slippery crossings. We worked our way down to a pouroff by 5 p.m., set up camp and had a wet supper. We were drained from the long events of the day and turned in early. (Real romantic, huh?) At about 1:00 a.m. we were awakened by a BIG thunderstorm that seemed to be right over our site. It rained so hard that it even came through our rain fly. Although I’ve never experienced a flash flood before, that was exactly what I was thinking when I thought I heard a freight train coming from the top of the canyon. I told my new bride to get dressed…we had to head for higher ground! The pouroff we were camped near had suddenly turned into Niagara Falls! We hustled out of our tent and headed for a ledge to huddle under, hoping our tent would be there when we returned. About 2 hours later the rain lessened and we returned to our site. The water level had risen quite a bit and came very close to our tent but we were relieved to see it was still there. When the storm subsided we climbed back into our tent for a few more hours sleep.
The next morning dawned sunny and warm, Niagara Falls was back to its normal trickle and life was good! Needless to say, we will never forget our honeymoon night.
From upper left: Small Anasazi ruin; upper Owl Canyon; Pouroff site
I am currently working on a watercolor of Sipapu Natural Bridge, Natural Bridges National Monument, Utah. Finished size will be 12”W x 17”H. I have attached a photo of Sipapu Natural Bridge on the right, along with a photo of the work in progress on the left. There will be two Anasazi Indians in the picture to give it some sense of scale. The Anasazi lived here from about AD 750 to 1300. Their cliff dwellings and grain storage structures can be seen throughout this area. I may call the painting “Anasazi Tourists”.
Sipapu Natural Bridge
This is a special place for me, perhaps my all-time favorite area. There are many different canyons to explore and the place hasn’t really changed that much since I first came through here in 1974. Other than the main road now being paved it still retains its wildness.
Sipapu is special to me for another reason also. In October of 2007 my wife and I were married underneath Sipapu Bridge with two park rangers as our witnesses. For our honeymoon we then backpacked into Owl Canyon where Mother Nature had a surprise for us. Check back in next week, I should have this painting done and I can tell you the rest of our wedding adventure!
All artwork is copyright © 2009 Bruce McNabb. All rights reserved.
