Desert Cascade

I was standing at the edge of the flow, up near the dam on a slab of exposed sandstone, close enough that the low roar of the falls was about all I could hear. April 2023, and Gunlock was running hard — the event that only shows up in this part of Utah a handful of times a generation.

Thirty seconds of exposure went into this, through a six-stop ND in early evening light. Less would have left it a mess. The volume coming through was violent enough that it needed all thirty seconds to resolve into something with shape rather than chaos.

The square is a subtraction. Out of frame to the left was a big piece of sandstone catching light and pulling the eye clean off the falls; out to the right, just river running up to the drop, doing nothing. I’d normally have gone vertical for a scene like this but there was no sky worth including that evening, so square it was.

This was the first stop of the day. I shot the main viewpoints, then went wandering for the things nobody photographs, which is how I ended up at the side channel in Cracked and Split.

Afterwards we drove to Veyo and had a slice of perfect Dutch apple pie. If you’re in the area, I highly recommend stopping at Veyo Pies.