Tag Archives: Utah

Photography, Utah

Silence of a Ghost Town—Grafton, Utah

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Farm buildings, Grafton, Utah

Silence. No people, just empty buildings and cobwebs gathering in the windows.

Aside from the occasional door creaking in the breeze, there’s no place more silent than a ghost town. Travel down a rough dirt road from Utah Highway 9 to find one such place, the desolate Grafton, Utah.

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Grafton’s silent graveyard tells its story.

Beautiful But Brutal

This ghost town was a Mormon settlement located near what is now Zion National Park. Grafton was established in 1859 on beautiful and fertile land in the Virgin River floodplain. (The Virgin River is the one that carved out the spectacular canyon that contains what is now Zion National Park and its the location of one of the world’s most famous hikes, The Narrows.)

Grafton was pretty yes, but not a top-notch place to live. These farmers experienced floods (no surprise in a floodplain) and Indian attacks as well as brutal weather in both summer and winter. Before long, most residents packed up their wagons and headed to nearby Rockville, though the last of them didn’t leave until 1944.

 

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Serene Yet Haunting

Now, visitors may stroll around the five buildings that remain from the town’s 30-some structures. Peak into the schoolhouse/church, walk inside a home, wander around farm buildings and the old cemetery. The Grafton Heritage Partnership has restored them.  The surrounding farmland and orchards are still used, but you’ll probably be the only person there.

Enjoy the silence.

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Horses and cattle are the only inhabitants.

 

Utah

Arches National Park, Utah

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Delicate Arch in Arches National Park, Utah

The WordPress photo challenge this week is “rounded” which immediately brought to mind my recent trip to Arches National Park near Moab, Utah.  Sculpted by wind, water and time southern Utah is like a geological Disneyland.  It’s no wonder there are five national parks in the region (and some stunning state parks), each quite different but equally amazing.

In Arches, giant rounded rock forms have emerged over thousands of years as potholes near cliff edges grow deeper and deeper until they wear through the cliff wall below them.

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Park ranger Victoria Coraci was our guide on Arches’s aptly named hike, The Fiery Furnace.

We arrived in Moab during the heat of August, with temperatures soaring to 100 degrees.  “Dry” heat or not, that hot!  Consequently, we ducked into a few shops in the afternoon to get out of the heat. One was a terrific bookstore on Main Street in Moab, Back of Beyond Books.  There I discovered the work of the revered environmental writer Edward Abbey. Desert-SolitaireIn Desert Solitaire, which I highly recommend for anyone planning a visit to Arches.

Regarded as one of the finest in American literature, the book recounts his time as a park ranger in Arches and his opinions of the crowds that flock to national parks.  He’d be apoplectic is he could see the throngs now in many parks.  Still, if you go at the right time of year and early or late in the day, you too can experience “desert solitaire.”

We trekked out into Arches at night with Moab photographer Dan Norris for a little starlight photography.  Here’s Dan’s amazing photo of the the Milky Way:

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A photo of rock “fins’ and the Milky Way in Arches National Park.  See more of Dan Norris’s photography and his photo tours see his web site.