Travelog: Zion National Park

Zion National Park, once the ancestral home of the southern Paiute, as well as the Ute and Navajo, and once known also as Mukuntuweap.

I hadn’t been back since I was a kid. In fact, I found a display in the park noting the last time I was here, 1995 when I was trapped with my family in the Zion Lodge due to a landslide. I nearly jumped when they mentioned said landslide on the shuttle ride in.

The Court of the Patriarchs at dawn

You can’t help but be inspired by this place. I feel like a poor man’s Ansel Adams. No photos do these incredible cliffs justice.

The crowds were a bit much. I got an earlier start, parking early enough to catch the very first shuttle into the park to see the famous Court of the Patriarchs at dawn. I got in a few of the simpler hikes, ate at the Lodge, then left the park midday back to the airstream camp I’m staying in.

I loved the various natural hanging gardens along the Riverside Walk.

I know why everyone—the indigenous folks, the Mormons, the Methodists who named three towers here after three biblical patriarchs—sees this place as a temple of sorts. The un-scalable cliffs humble you almost instantly. 

The famous Zion arch, about 900 feet long.

I actually spent two full days in and around Zion. I also worked on some video, so I’m working on a way to share that as well.

Chroma at The Met

The Chroma exhibit now at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

I’m back from a whirlwind few days in NYC. As always, the trips there feel too short, especially when there’s so much to see. And so many friends I missed!

I somehow always end up at the Met, and I’d been wanting to see this exhibit ever since I had first heard of it. And I’m so glad I got a chance to go. Greek and Roman sculptures were once painted, though we think of them as pristine white marble. I’ll just admit it: to us it might look utterly tacky, but seeing how these statues once meant to look to the ancients changes our relationship to them.

This exhibit combines research finding the exact pigment remnants on the statues, along with 3D reconstructions of them as they once appeared.

Highly recommend it. And, as always, find your way to the roof of The Met for some great views of Central Park. 

Photos by me with the Leica Q.

Visit the The Met website for more info.

Palm Springs palms

Hello, summer.

An early heatwave hit Southern California and for some reason I thought it a good idea to hit the desert for a weekend in Palm Springs at a friend’s house. This is normally calm, relaxing, and fun with plenty of libations flowing by a cool pool.

It was somewhat challenging this time around. The temperatures lingered around 116 degrees all day. It was so hot, the pool water resembled a lukewarm bath. My friend lightly burned his bare feet on the hot patio, and we even had a few power outages.

Still, as pandemic worries slow down steadily, and as the world starts or reopen, it was nice to walk around (yes, in hot noon sun) with the Leica TL2 taking in bars full of chattering patrons under the palms of Palm Springs.

Palm Springs spritz.