February 14 -- Falling Man and Little Finland With Kim Barton (And Leucania)

This was a day to realize (once again) that you can meet the nicest people while on the road...Early morning saw me heading off to the Gold Butte area east of Overton where I would meet up with Kim Barton, a photographer from Vernal, Utah. We had "met" on Facebook after she saw my Valley of Fire photos I'd posted; she took off a week to visit VOF and Gold Butte, where I met her near Whitney Pockets. She had camped in her Toyota 4-Runner for a few nights accompanied by her German Shepherd named Leucania, who I soon discovered was pretty much the perfect hiking dog. We drove to Falling Man and hiked around, looking at petroglyphs (they are much easier to spot with 2 pairs of eyes than 1) and the colorful rock formations that are everywhere. I'd missed "Newspaper Rock", a large petroglyph panel, during my previous visit but we found it this time, seen by accident --

It's a stunning piece of rock art. While at Newspaper Rock a hiker wearing a big backpack came up to us. It turned out his name was Jason, 35 years old, and he was a "speed hiker", averaging about 24 miles a day, who was carrying a load in the backpack just to "keep fit".  I told him about the tough hikes in the eastern Sierra Nevada (climbing 6000 feet in 8 miles) and he said he'd love to do them. After chatting for a few minutes we parted ways and Kim and I went further along the trail down into a canyon wash, where we accidentally found the other panel I'd missed previously, "Sheep Panel" --

Once you see them you ask yourself,  "How could I have missed THIS the first time around?" But in spite of their size, the panels are easy to overlook if you don't know their location. By this time it was around noon, so Kim and I had lunch in the wash, then headed back where we ran into a couple who were examining some petroglyphs. It turned out he was an archaeologist and along with his wife were traveling in their Lance camper from Alaska to Mexico -- and he was an expert in petroglyphs! I gave him my Lone Wolfe Photography card and we agreed to meet for a "rock art" hike sometime before I left the SE Nevada area in late March. Kim, Leucania (who was "hiking" along with us) and I then drove our vehicles over to the Little Finland area of Gold Butte -- a bumpy, rough 4-wheel-drive road that was nevertheless scenic in itself. We arrived at Little Finland where clouds and the afternoon sun cast a spell over the fins and hobgoblins there ---

And we took some photos of each other; here's Kim and Leucania --

And the light just kept getting better and better as the afternoon turned into evening. Kim showed me petroglyphs on some rocks there --

And the setting sun cast shadows on the fins and hobgoblins --

As you can see, the clouds were fantastic too. Some more photos as sunset approached --

Sunset caused the fanlike clouds over Virgin Peak to glow, along with the rocks at Little Finland --

 The scene was really unworldly, with the light of the setting sun reflecting off the clouds, casting a pastel glow all around us --

And then the sunset to the west gave a fiery final performance --

I left Kim and Leucania camping overnight at Little Finland, while I picked my way back along the rugged dirt road to "civilization".  It was just an awesome day at Gold Butte, and I will be back for more...