Horizontal orientation.
While visiting family in Idaho Falls one August, I hiked out at Hell’s Half-Acre west of town. There are two trails to choose from, one being a shorter nature loop, and the other stretching out to the crater, about 5 miles out. I have hiked more than 10 miles numerous times, but the dry August heat at Hell’s Half-Acre was different than I was used to! I took a water bottle as I always do but should likely have taken 2 or 3. The morning was beautiful, and I found all kinds of beautiful scenery to shoot, but the things that caught my attention most were the enormous cracks in the lava at ground level, and the twisted and gnarly junipers and sage brush growing out of the cracks and crevices. The ancient, twisted roots and branches of the junipers have so much character and represent such resilience and strength in such a harsh environment. I stopped for photos dozens of times but still got fatigued and extremely thirsty well before I got back to the car. It was a fascinating hike, and I came away with several fantastic images, but it took me several hours to recover from the heat exhaustion and dehydration!
Horizontal orientation.
While visiting family in Idaho Falls one August, I hiked out at Hell’s Half-Acre west of town. There are two trails to choose from, one being a shorter nature loop, and the other stretching out to the crater, about 5 miles out. I have hiked more than 10 miles numerous times, but the dry August heat at Hell’s Half-Acre was different than I was used to! I took a water bottle as I always do but should likely have taken 2 or 3. The morning was beautiful, and I found all kinds of beautiful scenery to shoot, but the things that caught my attention most were the enormous cracks in the lava at ground level, and the twisted and gnarly junipers and sage brush growing out of the cracks and crevices. The ancient, twisted roots and branches of the junipers have so much character and represent such resilience and strength in such a harsh environment. I stopped for photos dozens of times but still got fatigued and extremely thirsty well before I got back to the car. It was a fascinating hike, and I came away with several fantastic images, but it took me several hours to recover from the heat exhaustion and dehydration!
