Sunrise at Larkin's Garden
Wow. Can’t believe how long it’s been since I posted a Blog update. I must apologize; my only excuse is that I have been incredibly busy these past few months and things are only now slowing down enough for me to begin posting updates again.
What I’d like to start with are the images from my trip out west in September. Take the one above, for example.
What I love most about this image, after its apparent uniqueness (I can’t find any image like it after extensive searching) is the way the clouds are a reflection, if you will, of the canyons below them. I love how the pine provides a balance with the canyons in the background and how the entire image generates a sense of isolation and peacefulness.
Most folks I’ve shown this image assume this is the Grand Canyon. It’s not. It’s called Dead Horse Point State Park and it’s in Southeast Utah, next to Canyonlands National Park.
Almost every image I’ve ever seen of Dead Horse Point is taken from the observation deck at the end of the road, or from the rim near the observation deck.
“Sunrise at Larkin’s Garden” is taken from a ledge about 20 feet BELOW the observation deck. Some published images of Dead Horse Point are wide enough that you can actually see this tree, a Pinyon Pine, in the bottom right of the image. I thought this was such an interesting tree, I had to find a way down to it to make it the subject of my picture.
To get to this tree, you must brave a short climb (about 10 feet) down to the ledge by walking west of the observation platform until you see a way down to the lower ledge and then make your way back to where the tree is, almost directly below the observation deck. It’s not exactly a narrow ledge, but there is the small matter of an 800 foot drop straight down should you venture a little too close to the edge. Overall, it’s about 2000 feet down to the level of the Colorado River you see in the background. From the point where I’m taking this picture, I’m about 5 feet from the edge in front of me, and about 8 feet from the edge where the ledge ends to camera right. This image was taken with a Canon 5D Mark II and a Canon 16-35 mm zoom lens at 16 mm. The exposure was 1/10th of a second at f/16 using ISO 100. The camera was on a tripod, naturally. Unlike many of the images I make of my trips out west, this image was made with a single exposure.
I’ve titled this image “Sunrise at Larkin’s Garden” because there is a boulder to the right of this pine tree (just outside the frame of this image) with the words “Larkin’s Garden” carved into it. From the amount of weathering, it might have been 100 years since these words were carved.
The boulder with "Larkin's Garden" carved into it
I wonder who Larkin was. A little research has shown that Larkin is a fairly old name somewhat common among the Mormons of Utah. If anyone who comes across this blog post knows anything about who this particular Larkin might be, a rancher in the area at some time in the past, for instance, I would be very interested in hearing about it.
More images from my trip out west to come!
July 24th, 2010 at 11:13 pm
Possible origin of Larkin’s Garden
My name is Ty. I grew up in West Valley City Utah, attending Hunter High School, graduating in 1995. I stumbled across your photo blog by accident, after having done a search for “Larkin’s Garden.”
I had a friend growing up named Chris Hancuff. When I met Chris he was bald as a snow globe. He had cancer. A few years after I met Chris, he started a high school band with some of his classmates (he was a junior at the time…I was a sophomore.) They were quite gifted as high school bands go, and called themselves “The Garden.”
Chris’ cancer grew gradually worse and late into his senior year in high school, Chris passed. Just prior to passing, he was approached by the Make A Wish Foundation and his wish was to have studio time for his band to have a CD produced and released. Sadly, Chris passed before the album started recording.
The band pressed on, however, and finished Chris’ wish. In honor of Chris, they renamed the band…”Larkin’s Garden”, Larkin being Chris’ middle name. For a time you could find the CD at local record stores. I bought my copy from one of the band members for $10. They played a few live shows in tiny clubs in Salt Lake City. But life went on, they went their own ways and started careers, education, and families.
I am Facebook friends with a couple of the band members and am pretty close friends with one of them. Part of my FB shtick is to do a “song of the day” and I had asked my friend permission to post a Larkin’s Garden song. He agreed. I did a Google search to find images for Larkin’s Garden…hoping to maybe find some photo on Flickr that an old high school friend might have posted. Your site popped up first.
The group of friends that Chris hung around with the most belonged to an auto club that dealt with off-roading and Jeeps. They loved southern Utah, Moab specifically, and went down there often. I don’t know if your photo showing the boulder with Larkin’s Garden has anything to do with Chris, but I found it pretty fascinating and coincidental and I thought I would share that story with you.
Beautiful photographs by the way.
July 26th, 2010 at 2:29 am
Thank you very much for the story! I’m sorry to hear about your friend. I’m proud that an image of mine may help to further his legacy if that is the origin of the words carved in the rock.