Zion Day 24

Bright sunshine, another day spent gathering images.

Today I went on a quest for a certain spot for a photo. I was going through one of the books on Zion and there were historical photos taken by Charles Roscoe Savage (1870) and John Hillers (1872), of a very distinctive large boulder in the river with the Court of Patriarchs in the background. I wanted to find the boulder and possibly do a painting of the scene as it is today.

I took my book and went on an expedition for a boulder the size of a small house, near a bend in the river, this shouldn’t take too long, there are only a couple of spots it could be. The trees will obviously be larger or different but the rock should be obvious. You would think.

I looked all over for that thing, I think I found it twice but it wasn’t in the same place as the photo and it was turned over against the bank. In the photo it was planted on the inside bend of the river, obviously not planted there but moved there by incredible forces.

  It's got to be around here somewhere.

I took some pleasant shots of the river with the same mountains behind the river in what I think is close to the same place but there’s no way for me to be certain.

In retrospect it seems obvious that a river with the force to carve a canyon a couple thousand feet deep, could probably move a little ol’ rock the size of my first house with relative ease, that rock could be in Vegas by now; in retrospect.

  Possibly the Rock? I can't tell.

My theme for the day was to get some river shots. Since I spent the day yesterday getting the view from above, I thought it appropriate to get the view from down low today.

The river runs a clear green when not flooding, which looks great against the red sandstone. In the sunshine it really has a nice color palette; it will be fun to paint.

  That is the Mountain of the Sun in the background.

I plan tomorrow to trace down a scene from a Howard Russell Butler painting with a very distinctive tree and possibly paint a scene from the same place, as it is today. (I know the tree is still there because I have photo of it) Unfortunately there is a parking lot around it today, and there are no leaves on the trees, so it may be a challenge to get a cohesive painting out of it, but the rock formation behind it is very interesting in itself.

It is sinking in that there are only a few more days of this experience here in the Park, I find myself trying to absorb the atmosphere here and soak it all in, and get as much reference material as possible. Each day is more valuable since the weather has been great I will spend much of my time out in the Park.

  Pretty bird, Pretty Bird.

I took this pic of this pretty little bird and I’m counting on Blair Currin to tell me what it is. (Blair and his wife are Birders)