Salt and Pablano Tacos

On a whim, Ryan and I drove out to the Bonneville Salt Flats on the Utah/Nevada border. Our motivation was to shoot photos of the setting sun on this unique desert landscape. While the sunset was not super brilliant, exploring the outskirts near Wendover captured our attention. We found old and oxidized WWII plane hangers, giant salt crystals and an awesome little mexican restuarant called Taco Pablano.

The below photo is actually a combination of three photos to gain the High Dynamic Range (HDR) effect. The shot has an ominous sort of appeal in which the snow capped mountains hold a vivid white, yet the foreground throws some deep darks.

I-80 streaks across the frame
Gnarly rotting wood salt encrusted

Rusted out WWII hanger that housed the Enola Gay

Rough crowd at the end of the road

Antarctic photo shoot?

Capital Hill Touring

The 7 Minute Drive . . . . . .

Living in Salt Lake City, you are easily programmed to believe that the only skiable destinations involve the drive up Little or Big Cottonwood Canyons. I beg to differ, so Beth and I drove a short 7 minutes to the end of Terrace Hill drive. Within about 15 minutes of leaving the house we were skinning up. This is why I love living here. We skinned up the Shoreline trail, decided to leave the Bobsled trail for the mountain bikers and continued up the ridge leading towards Black Mountain.

Applying skins with the Great Salt Lake in the distance!

Yippie! Beth turning down into the City Creek drainage.

Winter At The Ridge

This is our third trip to a cabin in the San Jaun Mountains of Southwestern Colorado simply referred to as "The Ridge." North of Telluride, near the towns of Ridgeway and Ouray, we skied a half a day into this cabin that Aaron's family built in the late 70's. The area is fairly remote, bordered by the Nature Conservancy land on most sides. It is not uncommon to see herds of elk in the shadows of 14,000 peaks.

Here is the actual space known as "The Ridge." Aaron's family cabin to the right, the tiny roof of the steam bath jutting behind and Auntie Lynn's cabin off to the left. San Jaun Mountains in the background.

We have started sort of a funny tradition by buying fake tattoos in Green River Utah before heading to the Ridge.

Our first full day at the Ridge was spent perfecting a quarter-pipe jump that we built off the edge of the deck. We could not get Beth and Jill to jump, so they drank coffee and napped. They claimed that the house shook everytime we went off the jump.

Not even Beth can distract this focused skier!

I think the below photo turned out pretty sweet as the remote flash fired and lit up Aaron under the house's dark overhang.

Beth has really come a long ways in terms of her photography talents, although she still could not manage to get my entire head in the shot. Once she took photos of me jumping off cliffs in Hawaii and all you would ever see was the splash.

Aaron ready for the steam bath. Nothing wrong fashioning clothes that have lived up in these mountains since the 80s.