Goblin Valley State Park, UT

[Basil]

I had never heard of this place until a friend in one of my photog groups mentioned it. After looking it up I decided I had to visit, so I rented a trailer and drove up there (11 hours). Here are a few pics from that trip. It's like being on another planet in some areas.

Valley of the Goblins:

View from the road on the way to the park

about 20 miles up this road is the nearest "town". The small gas/ market they have sells a T-shirt that says "Where the H*LL is Hanksville". If this town had a horse it would be a one-horse town.

But the real reason I went up there was to shoot the Milky Way (It's a registered Dark Sky area.

 

[JPSmit]

amazing! and the stars...

 

[AngliaGT]

Very nice - but how do you drive a trailer?
Most people rent a car.

 

[DavidApp]

Some amazing photos. They must be large or my internet was slow. They downloaded like dial up. Line at a time.

David

 

[Basil]

Very nice - but how do you drive a trailer?
Most people rent a car.

 

[Basil]

Some amazing photos. They must be large or my internet was slow. They downloaded like dial up. Line at a time.

David

I did downsize before uploading. None should be bigger than about 3Meg.

 

[DrEntropy]

It's my understanding the first folks who came into that part of the country were thought to be telling tall tales as to what they'd seen. Wasn't 'till photographers went there and recorded the geography that it became believable.

 

[waltesefalcon]

My dad took me once back in the early 90s. It's a really amazing place.

The depth of that third photo is just took my breath away a bit.

 

[Basil]

The depth of that third photo is just took my breath away a bit.

Thanks. I am partial to scenes where there are "layers" of hills and terrain. I like to use a telephoto lens on those kinds of shots as it adds some compression to the scene which, I think, makes it look more like a painting than a photograph. I used a 70-200mm Zoom on that one, set at 140mm. It was a scene that I spotted as I was driving on the long road out to the park, I pulled over on the spur of the moment and shot it from the side of the road.

 

[Basil]

A couple more from my trip.

Shiprock New Mexico

Sunrise at the place I camped overnight in Farmington, NM

This is at Goblin State Park. This formation is called Three Sisters. This is where I had originally hoped to take the Milky Way shot, but this time of year, the direction of the Milky Way core wasn't conducive for getting a good composition.

 

[GregW]

Those are some ugly ladies. The one on the right has a very unhappy look.

 

[Basil]

Those are some ugly ladies. The one on the right has a very unhappy look.

She's the ugly step-sister nobody talks about!

 

[GregW]

Found her dad.

 

[Bayless]

Really some spectacular shots Bas

 

[Popeye]

Beautiful shots, as always. Thank you for sharing!

 

[pdplot]

We haven't seen stars in years here in the East. Maybe a half dozen plus Mars and Venus. Sad.

 

[Bayless]

Not quite that bad here but I haven't seen the milky way in many years.

 

[Basil]

We haven't seen stars in years here in the East. Maybe a half dozen plus Mars and Venus. Sad.

Looking at my "Dark Sky" App, it looks like your best bet would be the Aderondack Park. The center of that park would have very low light pollution. But anything closer would be pretty much impossible.

Not quite that bad here but I haven't seen the milky way in many years.

You would have an easier time finding Dark Skys. Heading Northwest toward, and past Woodward. A lot of space out there with pretty dark Skys.

 

[DrEntropy]

Whole state of Florida is lit up like a Christmas tree. Only ways to get to "good seeing" would be to go fifty miles off-shore or buy an airline ticket to get to the western North Carolina regions.

 

[Basil]

Whole state of Florida is lit up like a Christmas tree. Only ways to get to "good seeing" would be to go fifty miles off-shore or buy an airline ticket to get to the western North Carolina regions.

You could head north to Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge…