Zion National Park

Here are some photos from a recent trip to Zion National Park. It was one of the most incredible places I've ever been. Hundreds of Millions of years ago this area was just 3,000 foot sand dunes (the tallest sand dunes today are in the Saraha and max out at about 300 feet). The sea filled over this ancient desert and the calcium carbonate in the water cemented the sand into hard sandstone. As the sea retreated it pulled away loose sediment and the rivers that were left continued to erode vast canyons over time. We did a hike up to a place called Angel's Landing.  It's a breathtaking hike that results in incredible 360 degree views of the park. We also hiked The Narrows, a knee deep river with hundred to thousand foot walls on either side. Both hikes were excellent displays of the topographical drama that has developed in Zion over so many years

Above: The view off the Southeast side of Angels Landing

The Thinnest Point on the Angel's Landing hike. Literally 2000 foot drop on either side. If you look at the upper right part of the photo and see that curved gray line, that's a large river.

Below: THE NARROWS

Beautifully look out on the North side of the park

FACES OF VEGAS

Spent a night in Las Vegas. So glad I finally got to see it. I would love to summarize Vegas in a few quick sentences but that wouldn't be possible. You have to go experience it to really what it's like, but these photos aren't a bad start:

CLICK HERE to see the Faces of Vegas Gallery

Urban Portraits

Main Street, downtown Salt Lake.
Quick portrait shoot, was a lot of fun. Click the photos to view them larger.

Above is Brian Frost - Check out his photos at:
http://flickr.com/brian_frost

Above is Gabe Scalise - Check out his photos at:
http://flickr.com/gabescalise

Above - Matthew Pothier
Check out Poth's skiing promo video

HARE KRISHNA!

I attended INDIA FEST last night with some friends. The first temple every built in the United States specifically for the Krishna followers is in Spanish Fork, Utah (about an hour south of Salt Lake) The temple is gorgeous and the event was a lot of fun. Very interesting to experience the Krishna culture, dance, art and most of all eat the incredible vegetarian cuisine. The final ceremony of the night was the burning of a wooden statue of the ancient king Ravana. The festival was fun and everyone from the temple was incredibly welcoming and nice. I wouldn't be surprised if I found myself visiting the temple again soon.

http://www.utahkrishnas.com/

WHY SALT LAKE IS SO COOL

A fifteen minute drive can take you from downtown Salt Lake City, onto an epic mountain road like this. We took a late afternoon drive yesterday just to explore in the mountains. We pulled over climbed on top of this big rock and I snapped this particular shot at about 7:00pm
(click on it for a larger view)

Oregon Trip

After only having moved into our house in Salt Lake for three days, we decided to take a road trip for a few days of summer skiing at Mt. Hood. The skier featured in the photo movie is my roommate Matthew Pothier.

New Blog!

Welcome to the Matt Stauble Photo blog! I will periodically write updates about jobs or trips and post recent photos that I have shot. Thanks for visiting.