On my last trip, I worked with a guide company to have a pickup from Cottonwood Cove. That meant being able to wake up before sunrise, walk to Paw Hole for that, and then spend the rest of the day working towards Cottonwood Cove. (I don't trust my vehicle to get to Cottonwood Cove without getting stuck or having some other problem.)
This was great in that it allowed more time to explore things, rather than trying to walk out to Cottonwood Cove and then walk back. I've done that a few times before and while it's doable, it does smoke my legs out pretty hard due to all the sand.
I tried to focus on taking shots of different things, or different compositions of things I had taken shots of before, rather than retreading the same things.
Pre-sunrise in Paw Hole.
The Shrike arch from the north side looking south. Have taken pics of the other side several times before, so this was new.
A skylight arch that my brother found along the same lace rock wall that the Shrike arch is on.
This looked like a taco to me. Maybe I was just hungry.
This one reminded me of a stegosaurus.
One as the light was starting to fade behind the cockscomb ridge.
I would definitely like to do South Buttes again this way the next time I visit. Not sure when that'll be, but hopefully within the next year or two!
Very nice Rat! Lots of great variety you captured there. That place is really amazing and sounds like you had a fun adventure there. That was smart the way you planned it.
Jim Dockery wrote:
Nice shots. Great idea on the pick up. How much was it?
Thanks! It was the same price as a standard tour, so for myself and my brother it came out to I think around $400. I told them I'd be happy to pay their regular guided tour rate when I pitched the idea to them, since it was such an unusual request.
Still a bargain for me though. The average tour is ~8 hours, which includes about 2h drive out, 2h drive back, so maybe 4h roaming around on site at most, normally afternoon/sunset. By comparison, this way my brother and I were boots on trail at 6AM and didn't meet the guide for pickup at 7:30PM. Very grateful for having had that opportunity!
