Late Autumn Hike 2018

Autumn color is past. The brilliant reds of Rocky Mountain Maples and warm golden glow of aspens have come and gone, always, it seems, in too much of a hurry to go. Grays, ochres and russet tones dominate the landscape in this season.

Of course, any season can be good for hiking in the Wasatch Mountains. Last week I went for a hike in a nearby canyon. The weather that day was very pleasant, a little cool but not really cold. Higher up there was frost on the ground and small patches of snow in parts of the canyon that never see the sun this time of year. The higher peaks are snow capped.

When hiking, I try to always carry a few things I might need with me in a day pack. Things like water, snacks, compass, flashlight, knife, warmer clothes for when the weather turns colder, etc. These days, one of the things I try to always have with me is a camera. The images in this post were all taken during last week's hike.

First Meadow, Left Fork

Up near the top of the canyon the trail forks. Following the right fork, I came over a rise to see two large, dark animals in the path. Two cow moose blocked my way. When I took a couple more steps toward them, the larger moose laid her ears back. That's when I decided it was no longer my path and retreated a few steps. After one more look back at the moose, I decided to hike back the other way, away from the moose!

Moose

In case the above photograph isn't clear enough to easily see the moose, I've added something in the next photo to help point them out to you.

Returning to the fork, I then went up the left trail to a favorite meadow. There I ate some snacks I'd brought with me, drank some water and refilled my water bottle at a spring in the meadow. Wandering around the meadow I found a broken tine from a moose antler. I wondered if it had been broken off in a savage fight between two adult bull moose. 

Broken Moose Antler

A few years ago I was in this same meadow when I heard a loud grunt off to my right. I turned to see a huge bull moose coming off the mountainside and into the meadow. The moose was walking straight towards me! The moose would take a few steps, pause, then move a few steps closer. As He approached, he slowly tilted his head back and forth as if to draw attention to the massive antlers that adorned his head! Not waiting to see if and how the bull moose intended to use that rack, I quickly surrendered the meadow and headed back down the trail walking at a fast pace. 

There were no moose in the meadow when I was there last week, so I took my ease and enjoyed exploring the place. As I wandered around through some aspen trees I discovered some extensive carving on a couple of them. This one stated,

"I WILL CROSS THE GREAT DIVIDE    GARY TAYLOR   1871"

I can't verify the date carved at the bottom, nor do I know anything about the rest of the carved statement, but it was a mildly intriguing find.

A nearby tree had an even more extensive text scrawled into the bark. I'd imagine that any comment that began with the word "Yea" might be important. Unfortunately I couldn't make out what most of it said, so that Wasatch Mountain prophet's message is lost to me. Good luck if you think you can make it out. If you can, let me know in the comments, OK?

These three little figures were carved on the same tree. Maybe they have something to do with the message carved on the tree? 

Mesa Top Juniper

9" x 12" Oil on Panel

This was painted during a recent trip to the the four corners region of southeast Utah. I was driving around the high desert looking for something to paint when I spotted this tree on a mesa top. After deciding to make a painting of it, I parked in a safe spot off the road, grabbed a 9 x 12 pochade box, and headed up through the sagebrush toward the tree.

The Four Corners Region is full of bits and pieces of ancient civilizations. One can pretty much hike into any canyon and find stone ruins high up on cliff faces. Lithic flakes and pottery shards are also common finds. Lots to look at and wonder about, but don't take!

As I approached the tree, I found two little pieces of ancient broken pottery. Farther on I found more shards. Every few steps revealed more and more pottery fragments, including this spot where it seems someone had gathered different kinds of pot shards into one place:

Likely this much ancient detritus wasn't dropped by someone just passing by. I thought there must have been people living here on this mesa top long ago. Looking around for any signs of past settlement, I found an incongruous pile of rocks and dirt. I think this was once a pueblo, now collapsed and overgrown with sagebrush:

What a great view the ancient residents of this pueblo would have had! From the Abajo Mountains to the north to the spires, buttes and mesas to the south, their view of the landscape would have been wide open!

____________________

As for my own dwelling during this trip, I brought one with me. It's a new tent that's roomy and big enough to stand up in:

And I brought a kitchen, too. Made of pine and baltic birch plywood, it was painted with oil primer that was colored with thalo oil colors I no longer wanted in my paintbox:

My Chuck Box.

I bought this Coleman stove in 1982. It was once my backpacking stove but is now a permanent part of my chuck box gear, as I now have lighter options for backpacking stoves. After 36 years it still works great!

Cooking breakfast on my 36 year old Coleman stove.

Autumn Comes to the Valley

11" x 14" Oil on Panel

This is a painting made last week at a ranch west of town. Autumn colors in the mountains came and went in a hurry. Here in the valley however, Fall colors are just beginning to ramp up!

Lady Grey

9" x 12" Charcoal on Grey Paper

My drawing from last Wednesday's live portrait session. This portrait was drawn using charcoal and "charcoal white" pencils. It's fun working on grey paper.

For more about portrait sessions, go to "Labels" on the side bar and click on "portrait", "sketching" or "drawing".

Back to the Portrait Sessions!

12" x 9" Charcoal on Grey Paper

It's probably been since February that I haven't been to the weekly portrait sessions. It's about time I got back to them, so this week I went to both Howard Lyon's class and Casey Child's class. Shown above is the sketch I did at Casey's studio on Thursday, and below is the sketch I made Wednesday at Howard's studio. Both sketches were made with charcoal pencils and "white charcoal" pencil on grey paper.

12" x 9" Charcoal on Grey Paper

For more about portrait sessions, go to "Labels" on the side bar and click on "portrait", "sketching" or "drawing".

Barns, Sheds and Shacks

9" x 12" Oil on Panel

This jumbled collection of ranch buildings beneath a big cottonwood tree has attracted my attention for quite some time. I finally was able to set up my pochade box on a neighboring ranch, from where I was able to paint the scene shown above. The day I visited the ranch no one else was there, but I had the companionship of several head of cattle, a couple horses, a mule, and a bunch of chickens.

It's been difficult to paint en plein aire lately. There's huge wildfires in the mountains not far from here. Often smoke from the fires obscure the mountains, and sometimes makes it hard to see here in the valley. The smoke is unpleasant to eyes and lungs. On this day a change in the wind cleared the air in most of the valley making painting on location possible. 

To date the fires have burned one hundred and thirteen thousand acres. Roads in the area of the fires have been closed and communities near the fires have been evacuated. So far no homes have been lost and hopefully none will. 

A week or two ago I was planning to go up Payson Canyon to the Nebo Loop Road to paint, but most of that is charred now, parts of it still burning. Those plans have also gone up in smoke. For the foreseeable future, I'll be looking elsewhere to paint.

Late Summer Ranch Road

18" x 24" Oil on Panel

The weather's still rather warm, but nights are becoming a little cooler and autumn color is beginning to sneak into the summer greenery. The rancher who owns this property is letting me have access to his ranch for plein air painting. It opens up new places to paint in the valley not far from where I live. On an earlier trip to the ranch I saw this scene and was struck by it, but only had a 9" x 12" pochade box with me. I thought it should be painted larger than that, so I returned earlier this week with a much bigger panel and made the painting shown above. Ranches are great places to paint! I'm looking forward to returning there for more paintings.