Brad Templeton's Photography
Nevada, Utah, Northern Arizona, and Colorado

Nevada, Utah, Northern Arizona, and Colorado

These photos tell the story of my trip in 1999 through one of the most amazing parts of the world. The trip began with a stay at Burning Man 1999, in the desert in northern Nevada.

It's a good idea to have an RV at Burning Man, and once I rent the RV, I've tended to continue on with it to explore other parts of the west. In 1999 I took advantage of a deal from Cruise America RV Rentals. They offered the RV rental at half price if you took it eastward, one-way in the fall. They want to move their RV fleet from the west in the summer to the east and south in the winter. However, the experience turned out to be quite negative due to poor quality of the RV. I can't recommend Cruise America, even at half price.

This trip began at Black Rock City and crossed Nevada on highway 50 to reach Great Basin National Park. From there we drove into Utah.

Southern Utah (with northern Arizona) is a contender for the title of most spectacular place in the world. Stark, beautiful and colourful, if the wonders or erosion and geology are your thing, this the place for you. There are five national parks in southern Utah, all remarkably different, plus the Grand Canyon in Arizona, the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area containing Lake Powell, and the Monument Valley Navajo tribal park. On top of that are several other amazing national monuments and state parks.

Our trip in Utah started at Zion, then dipped down to the north rim of the Grand Canyon. From there past the Vermilion cliffs to Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell, then back to the astounding Bryce Canyon National Park. The road leads on from their through Capitol Reef National Park and on to Moab, which adjoins both Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park.

After Canyonlands we took route 666 into Colorado and the San Juan Mountains, crossed to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument (now Park), over Monarch Pass and into Rocky Mountain National Park. From there we cruised to Denver for the flight home.

On these pages are the best of my photos of this excursion. However be sure to also check out:

  1. A large map of our path through Utah & Colorado
  2. Burning Man 99 -- the start of this journey.
  3. Lake Powell -- the return to Lake Powell, including a visit to Antelope Canyon, Monument Valley, Goosenecks state park and Painted Desert/Petrified Forest National Park.
  4. My Panorama Pages where you will find links to pages of panoramic photographs (my specialty) for all these destinations.