Talastima (part 1)

[Michael13]

Talastima is one of America's legendary locations for landscape photography. First made famous by a Michael Fatali photo a few decades ago, it remained forbidden fruit due to its remote location on reservation land and the need to visit only with an authorized Hopi guide. I finally made it here a month ago.

It was a long drive over washboard dirt roads from the Hopi Cultural Center. There is a crux move just before you arrive at the Canyon - a long descending curve into the canyon. The hard part is - it is very deep sand at the steepest part, so going down is no problem but coming back up is a do or die situation. It was fun. Still we had about 2.5 hours on location.

We also had a lot of clouds and just enough rain to bring some drama, as there was little overhead cover amongst the rocks.

We had more time in shadows and less direct light than I hoped for, but still better than an empty blue sky!

More to come in part 2 ...

 

[AlanLichty]

Wow - this must have been an incredible photo trip. The formations and colors are stunning and the contrasts to the blue skies are delightful. Can't wait to see part 2.

 

[Jameel Hyder]

Stunning location from your images. The formations with the range of colors and patterns is just wow.

 

[larryj]

Talastima is one of America's legendary locations for landscape photography. First made famous by a Michael Fatali photo a few decades ago, it remained forbidden fruit due to its remote location on reservation land and the need to visit only with an authorized Hopi guide. I finally made it here a month ago.

View attachment 84720

It was a long drive over washboard dirt roads from the Hopi Cultural Center. There is a crux move just before you arrive at the Canyon - a long descending curve into the canyon. The hard part is - it is very deep sand at the steepest part, so going down is no problem but coming back up is a do or die situation. It was fun. Still we had about 2.5 hours on location.

View attachment 84722

We also had a lot of clouds and just enough rain to bring some drama, as there was little overhead cover amongst the rocks.

View attachment 84723

We had more time in shadows and less direct light than I hoped for, but still better than an empty blue sky!

View attachment 84724

More to come in part 2 ...

Absolutely beautiful images Michael, thanks for sharing! I can see why the Hopi's don't want a lot of people wandering alone through that great landscape!! ; )

 

[MonikaC]

Great colors, Michael!. What time did you & your guide start? With that kind of drive, it must have been a relief to have somebody driving you who knew what they were doing.

 

[Michael13]

Wow - this must have been an incredible photo trip. The formations and colors are stunning and the contrasts to the blue skies are delightful. Can't wait to see part 2.

Thanks Alan, it was a bucket list location for me. However, I would like to take one more shot at it.

Stunning location from your images. The formations with the range of colors and patterns is just wow.

Agree - just wish we had more direct light. There was too much time spent waiting on the clouds to move along.

Absolutely beautiful images Michael, thanks for sharing! I can see why the Hopi's don't want a lot of people wandering alone through that great landscape!! ; )

Absolutely right Larry - if this were a National Park, it would probably be trashed by now.

Great colors, Michael!. What time did you & your guide start? With that kind of drive, it must have been a relief to have somebody driving you who knew what they were doing.

Monika - we did a 2-6pm tour, late September. Actually the drive was pretty easy, except for the last little drop into the canyon. In fact, I was wondering if the flat, prairie scenery was going to change before we got there!

 

[JimFox]

Super cool Michael. You scored on this. #2 and 4 are my favorites.