Cottonwood Road is one of just a handful of dirt roads that pass through the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. The park encompasses a series of large steps and terraces in the landscape, rising from the Colorado plateau up to Bryce Canyon National Park. When I was there in June 2005, the valley and canyon that the road passes through was alive with color from blossoming cactus and wild flowers. The Paria River passes along the road for a few miles and it looked like it was flowing with chocolate milk due to a combination of winter snow melt and the type of rock and soil in its drainage area.
I used my Canon EOS 20D digital camera with a Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM zoom lens set to a focal length of 52mm. The exposure was 1/200 of a second at f/11 with the camera was set to ISO 100 in RAW mode. Adobe Photoshop CS was used for the RAW conversion and image processing. Photograph by Rick Scott.
Updated: 30 June 2005