Ryan Jeffery - Wild Spaces and Unique Places: Celebrating the Natural Wonders of Utah

Celebrating the Natural Wonders of Utah

Ryan Jeffery

Digital Edition 1.0

Text 2021 Ryan Jeffery

Photographs 2021 Ryan Jeffery

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any meanswhatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except brief portionsquoted for purpose of review.

Published by

Gibbs Smith

P.O. Box 667

Layton, Utah 84041

1.800.835.4993 orders

www.gibbs-smith.com

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021931685

ISBN: 9781423658771 (ebook)

I would like to dedicate this book to my wife Nancy for all thelove and support she has given me over the last thirty-one years. She has been atremendous source of inspiration, a great traveling companion, and my best friend.

Contents

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge

Michelle Branson and Suzanne Taylor for providing me anopportunity to fulfill my dream of having my work published, Mekele Reynolds for herawesome editing skills, and Michael Fatali for being a great friend and mentor.

Introduction

U tah has some of the most diverse,unique, and beautiful landscapes of any place in the world. Few otherlocations have the geology so openly exposed. The mountains, deserts, and themassive expanse of the red rock with its mesas, balancing rocks, and arches havespoken to me for more than thirty years. I have been compelled to searchfor, explore, and discover the treasures this amazing state has to offer. I amhonored to help celebrate its wonders.

No matter what our personal beliefs might be, I think we can allagree that our origins as humans began in the wilderness. It was our firsthome, so naturally we are drawn to wild places. Its encoded in our DNA. We findourselves drawn back to the memory of our first home, the forests, the deserts,anywhere wild. When the demands and pressures of the modern world get too great, weall should have a place to run to. We need to escape from the cities andurban sprawl, down that dirt road that leads to exciting adventures, sometimes moreexciting than hoped for or wanted. It is important to slow down, to open our eyes,and to absorb what nature has to teach us.

Photography is my medium of expression, much like a painter woulduse paint and brush. It motivates me to see more clearly the beauty aroundme and seek out details in nature that others may pass by. Creating images that Ican return to again and again allows me to relive those moments of wonderexperienced in wild places. With my photography, it is my hope that I can to expressthe magnificence, wonder, and beauty that the natural world has to share, and usethose images to stir that same sense of wonder and awe in others.

While this book only offers some of the wilderness and wildlifethroughout the state of Utah, please enjoy what I can share, and then go outside andsee what you can see, wherever you may be.

All we have, it seems to me, is beauty of art and natureand life, and the love which that beauty inspires.

Edward Abbey

Northern Utah

Alta

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous,leading to the most amazing view. -Edward Abbey