Snow Canyon and Gunlock Reservoir

I found out that I had two days off of work in a row this week so Mandi and I decided to make the best of it. Although it would be raining in most of the parks in Utah, we found out the weather would be nice down in St. George. Most of the campsites were full in the area so we had to camp in an overflow group site in Snow Canyon. It rained a little bit in the day but we were still able to get a short hike in on the butterfly trail.
The next morning we woke up hoping to stay one more night in Snow Canyon but the overflow was booked by a group. So we headed 20 miles over to the gunlock campgrounds and found that there were tons of spots open. The park ranger from Snow said that Gunlock was very primitive camping. Give me a break. We had bathrooms near by, a fire pit and a picknick table. That's more than enough. The lake was pretty and the dam made for some great waterfalls on the red rock. We headed back over to Snow Canyon and did some more hiking during the day on the white rock and lava flows trails. Here are some photos from our trip.

Clark Planetarium

Mandi and I went up to the Clark Planetarium over the weekend and had a chance to watch the Hubble 3D movie. Pretty inspiring. We walked around and looked at all of the exhibits and went out for ice cream. Here are some photos. Enjoy!

Justifying Our Actions

Too many justify their actions by claiming to have God on their side. When will people start taking responsibility for their actions.

The sky was finally clear

The sky was finally clear last night and although I wasn't out for very long because it was so cold, I managed to take a few good pictures.

1. This is a photo of the star Vega. It is difficult to capture a star without a motor mount because of its drift.



2. Saturn is high in the sky right now. It's always exciting to view through a telescope.



3. This is a short, 2 minute exposure of polar north.



4. This is a one hour exposure of polar north. Notice how the star trails get longer as you go out from the center. Pretty cool. I had to stick the camera in the window well of the house and run the remote cable through the window to my laptop. It was too cold to wait outside that long.