THE MAZE

These were taken on our recent week-long excursion into the MAZE district of Canyonlands National Park, outside of Moab, Utah, with good friends NE and DJ. Picture rugged abyssal canyons chiseled from Martianesque red sandstone, soaring rock architecture and perfect desert solitude. The Maze is by far the most remote section of the park, accessible only by boat or a day-long ride down a rutted and rocky (modified 4wd-only) trail. As you can see, we opted for the water access, a 50-60 mile jet-boat ride down the Colorado river. Although the boat required a STEEP hike out of the river basin (1200' in 1.2 miles), and 2 frigid 2.5-hour boat rides, it was really our only option. Unfortunately, being the desert and all, we had to pack in most of our water by jug and backpack adding an additional 150 lbs. or so to our collective burden. Worth it? Oh yeah...


The so-called "jet boat" that carried us to our desert paradise, complete with prototypical Moab "burnout" at the helm.
("this...is like my 19th season...dude")


The ladies kicking off the ascent out of the river basin with 10g water jug in tow. (This arrangement didn't last very long..)


After a few miles of hiking through the desert, we came to the MAZE threshold. Below this white-rim sandstone layer lies an elaborate labyrinth of canyons, and our luxury accomodations for the next week.


Shot looking out from our first campsite after descending below the white-rim and into the MAZE.


What?! I didn't know they wuz' thugz' in 'da MAZE?


At the top of the pic, sitting atop the white-rim sandstone, are the "chocolate drops," some of the most prominent rock features in the Maze. They're actually just large sections of rock that have yet to erode, despite the geological carnage all around them.


[Insert your own caption here]


This is the "Harvest Scene," supposedly Native American pictographs depicting the Harvest. Some say Native Americans; I say space aliens. I mean look at the striped one in the middle..what is that??


Resting in a Canyon. Waiting for The Flood.


We were also shooting a l'Oreal commercial.


A few miles down "Horse Canyon." Notice AE and DJ kicked back on the slickrock.


WATER!? Actually, we found water in a few places..Who knew?


Some natural rock art. Notice NAE at the other end of the wall.


Yonic sandscapes.




These three pics were taken from the base of the famous "chocolate drops." Amazingly, we managed to find a steep and broken (off-map) route up one of the canyon walls to stand at their base. Not a bad view back down into the MAZE.


Chillin' out, maxin', relaxin' all cool, down by the water ditch.


Shadow monsters fighting on the sandstone.



These two were taken during a nice sunset.


Desert woodsnakes.


We all climbed a rock wall about 40-50' to this ledge for the sunset. This canyon is adjacent to the only campsite we inhabited for more than one night.




These three pics were taken after ascending from the depths of the Maze proper up to the white-rim sandstone layer during a snowstorm.


Nice spring color...blood red.


This is a picture of a piece of the "dollhouse" formation. Our last campsite was located in the rock opening on the left side of the pic. Notice NE and DJ walking in front of the rocks.


Some crazy fool crawling around on rocks.


and so it goes...

Moutain Madness

Here are some shots from our trip to Denali National Park, Alaska this summer. I can't say too much about the trip that these pictures don't convey. Jessie, Allie and I had an incredible time. A day after we arrived in the park the clouds broke and a summer full of unseasonably nasty Alaskan weather graced us with a week of (mostly) sunshine. We spent six nights in the wilderness, traversed glaciers, forded raging rivers, hiked mountains, gained elusive passes, encountered the grizz, and saw some of the most amazing places on the planet. Just serves to reinforce the fact that Alaska is my favorite state, and Denali my favorite place in it.

"A long hard slog" to reach the park.

From the bus on descent into wilderness.

Those white specks are Dall Sheep..I think...

My bodyguards protected me from the grizz.

That other "mountain."

Land of the free...

...and home of the...brave?

"Big Mac" with the Muldrow glacier in the foreground.

Some icy puddles on the Muldrow. We spent approx. four days walking beside this massive glacier/icefield. The entire time we heard it rumble and crack as if it were alive. It left us with little doubt of its power and ability to shape landscape.

A closer look, notice the ice walls rimming the lakeshore. ~150-200' tall

Denali from our first campsite in the backcountry.


Hiking along the edge of the Muldrow.



Ummmm....so where are we again?

Syd?

The beginning of an incredible sunset.


Alpenglow.




Holy S#@T! What's that?

Oh, just a man-eating grizz poking around our tent. Glad I brought bodyguards.

On a ridge looking up towards Anderson pass. That wind has to be blowing around 70 mph.

Looking up into the bowels of the Muldrow.






Six nights in and a little dirt won't stand in the way of our freeze dried bounty.

Like Bambi...waiting for the slaughter.


Our last campsite in the park, in the front-country.


Civilization is a nice place to visit, but I woudn't want to live there.




Here are some pics from earlier in the summer. The next few are from a mini "epic" on Mt. Colchuck, North Cascades. Let's just say that what goes up, must come down, sometimes really really fast... I did manage to summit Colchuck though. Yeah I did...
Many thanks to some great friends NAE and DJ for waiting around for me and then assisting in the descent. Without them I would be ice ax-less. All photos courtesy of Pho-tog master, NAE.

Ascending into the Colchuck/Dragontail basin. Dragontail is on the left and Colchuck on the right. We ascended via th Colchuck glacier between the two.

The summit block is off to the far right. We ascended via the Colchuck glacial col on the far left and then traversed on the back side of the pointy rocks.

What goes up must come down.

Standing on the Colchuck glacier. Oh yeah, that's ice!

Out again.



These are from a weeklong adventure in the Olympic mountains with good friends MDS, LC and BG. This trip kicked off a summer of "moutain madness;" not an easy trip by any stretch. We traversed just under 30 miles, over a mountain pass and back down into a rainforest, with good glissades and bad blowdown. All photos courtesy of MDS, LC and BG. For a better trip description see: http://www.markopolis1980.blogspot.com/