1989 | Virgin River Narrows
This was a good trip; my father had called to say he was heading out to Utah, and he could pick me up at the airport in Las Vegas for a week away. We had not traveled one-and-one for many years, so I packed some gear and figured out how to load my view camera and hefty field tripod for the short hop from San Diego. The only hard part was carrying enough film holders with a decent way to reload them in unknown conditions. Later, it turned out that the darkest place in Utah was the kind ranger’s staff restroom in Capitol Reef, which allowed me to set up for the second half of our trip.
On this day, after checking the weather forecast for the huge drainage many miles upstream, we waded up the river through the narrows. I chickened out when the water reached the middle of my thighs. I trusted my tripod to hold its footing on the cold and cobbled river bottom, but I just wasn’t sure of my hands and feet; a slip could easily topple my whole rig, or at the least, drop a cable release or film holder into the current.
As I worked my back toward the parking area, I turned around for this picture. It brings to mind my pal Jim Noel’s National Park Rule, “All good pictures are made within fifty feet of the car.”