Indian Creek Utah

Indian Creek National Recreation Area is a rock climber's wet dream. The canyon walls surrounding Indian Creek rise up from the ground on all horizons like looming monuments. It is a sight that is unbelievable until you've been on the walls. Hiking up the talus slopes puts you at the base of innumerable cracks that seem to go on forever into the sky. Climber or not, if you've never been there, I highly suggest you put it on your list. At the Southeast corner of the Utah's Canyonlands National Park, it is only about an hour South of Moab and extremely accessible. Get there.

Like A Dream

Although I've wanted to live out West for as long as I can remember, it was a trip to the Grand Canyon that really gave me the kick in the butt to get out here. Even with all the crowds and buses right along the South Rim of the National Park, it is still magical. There is nothing like watching the sunset over the Canyon. It's an entire education on light in about a 45 minute period.

This was a quick snap I made as we were running to catch the sunset. It's also one of my favorite shots of the Grand Canyon, despite the lack of canyon in the frame.

Enjoy,
Tyler Gates
Good Life Photography

Goodbye Tucson

So if any of you actually follow this blog regularly, you may have noticed a severe lack of posts, and I apologize. Although there isn't any real excuse, I've just been really lazy with my photography, I will blame it on the fact that two weeks ago I found out that I'll be moving two weeks from now. I am leaving the desert for the complete opposite, the rain forest of the Pacific Northwest and the Puget Sound. Conveniently I also had a reason/excuse to go through a lot of my images, including a few rolls of film that I hadn't done anything with. Anywho, enjoy this scan, shot at the Grand Canyon. Being a half day's drive from the Grand Canyon is definitely amazing, and although I'm bummed that I still have never been down the the bottom of it, the list of things I'd like to do in the Southwest is too long to get bothered too much by any one thing.

My new life resolution is to be more active with my photography and therefore this blog. I've let photography slip into the periphery of my life, and that needs to change.

Enjoy,
Tyler Gates
Good Life Photography

REI Tucson

So I was leaving work tonight and there was picture perfect light. I could think of a thousand places I'd rather be with that light just in Tucson, but there I was outside of REI, so I figured I'd shoot what I had. Here are a few shots of the new store, more of the mall to come soon.

Enjoy,
Tyler Gates
Good Life Photography

Indian Creek Landscapes

Looking Towards the Six Shooters from 2nd Meat Wall

I recently took a trip to Indian Creek Rec Area in Utah to do some climbing. I met up with a friend of a friend, Conor, and his two friends, Damien and Megan. Damien's an Indian Creek veteran and kindly showed the rest of us around on our first trip to Indian Creek, and my first time doing real trad climbing. More importantly he shared his plethora of gear, which without it we wouldn't have been able to climb anything, so thank you again Damien.

Indian Creek is at the south east end of Canyonlands National Park, about 40 miles south of Moab. The place is an unreal labyrinth of canyons, that seems to go on forever. It shares a lot of land with local ranches, and in fact used to be all ranch land. It wasn't until 1976, when climbers finally discovered and freed the first route on the Supercrack Buttress, that people started using it for recreational reasons. It was slow going, as far as climbing development goes, until the cam was invented. With the cam, good protection could be easily placed on any of the nearly parallel splitters covering all of the cliff faces. Shortly after climbers started flocking to the area the land was purchased from the ranchers and is now controlled by BLM with the help of the Access Fund and of course the Friends of Indian Creek(donations to either will help keep Indian Creek free and accessible to everyone, including climbers).
The landscape in the area is at once awe inspiring and humbling, especially as you discover just how truly massive the canyons and cliffs really are. I hope you enjoy these landscape photos of the canyons. The next posting will be filled with climbing shots from the area.

Enjoy,
Tyler Gates
Good Life Photography

Bridger Jacks and Six Shooters

Looking East down 211

Where it all started, Supercrack Buttress

Donnelly Wall

Sunset over the Six Shooters

Joshua Tree Continued

Alright here are the rest of the photos from my recent trip to Joshua Tree.

Enjoy
-Tyler Gates
www.GoodLifePhotography.com

Couples gather for the sunset at Key's View, the Salton Sea can be seen in the background.

A couple check out a roadside Ocotillo

Lost Palms Oasis

Hikers gather in the shade in the Lost Palms Oasis

The hike to Lost Palms Oasis passes some great examples of desert wildlife

Sunset from Jumbo Rocks campground