Photo/birding trip to AZ/NM/UT: places to visit?

My friend and I are taking a photo/birding trip to the SW (5/29-6/9). We're flying to Phoenix and hope to get to Bryce, Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, and Bosque del Apache NWR. I will be birding and trying to photograph landscapes (without visual clutter, I hope!), and my friend will be birding.

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Have you any tips you don't mind passing on? Are there any "don't miss" locations? Time of day, that sort of thing?

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I can't afford all the Photo Traveller Guides for the Southwest. Which of the volumes would be most useful for me?

If birding's the focus, you should really head to SE Arizona, which

is where you'll find most of the species which can't be found anywhere else in the US. Things like whiskered screech owl, painted redstart, numerous others - I picked up 40 life birds on my first birding trip down there years ago.

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Bosque's a big detour from the Big Scenics you seem to want to hit. From Phoenix, you could easily zip down to Saguaro Nat'l Monument and at least pick up the local trash birds like cactus wren and verdin and the like. This would be more productive from the birding POV and better shooting, too than Bosque. Bosque's decent spring birding but doesn't have the unique avifauna that SE AZ has, and isn't particularly scenic (you mention landscape photography, not wildlife), and is at its best in winter when thousands of sandhill crane winter there. The crane won't be there when you're planning to be.

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So, my suggestion is to skip Bosque and spend the time you'd spend there to at least hit Saguaro Nat'l Monument for (preferably) a morning. Once you're down there, though, I don't know how a birder can pass up the one hour drive down to Madera Canyon and its painted redstarts, magnificent and blue-throated and broad-billed and other hummers (you can pick up a dozen hummingbird species in SE AZ), and

the like.

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If you want more details on a quick Saguaro/Madera Canyon trip let me know and I'll provide them if skipping Bosque makes sense to you.

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Note that you've set an agressive driving schedule to hit and adequately enjoy the Big Scenics you want to visit given that you want to put together what sounds like about 75% a birding trip (how much input does your 100% birding friend have?)

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You don't say where you're from, but if you're from the east and haven't been out west before you can see a ton of new bird species

by visiting the areas I mention for desert specialties then hitting the plateau country (like around Grand Canyon) for pine forest and other species, etc.

While in New Mexico:

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1. Avoid Taos unlike you like crowds, traffic jams and tacky t-shirts.

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2. Visit Acoma Pueblo's "Sky City". This is the oldest continously inhabited city in the USA. It's got that town in Florida beat by a few centuries. The Acoma guides will take you up there on a bus where they will give you an interesting history (lots of great information without trying to make you feal guilty if you happen to be of European origins.) You can also buyt some of their famous pottery. Great vistas to photograph. Lots of Pueblo type structures. BRING A POLARIZER. Be sure and take the optional stair case path back to the visitor center. We did and it rained on the way down. That really made the rock colors stand out. I got several nice photos that way. The Pueblo charges $10 for a photo pass and it is well worth the cost since you can take photos at the Sky City and anywhere else on the pueblo that you can legally go.

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Oh, Did you know that Captain Jean Luc-Picard's decendent was among those who trashed the Pubelo Indians?

If coming to Northern Utah be sure to see Brigham City and the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. I live here & was shooting this morning. Dowichers, 2 Heron varieties, Sandhill Cranes, 2 egret varieties, lots of ducks, plovers, white faced Ibis, 20,000+ American White Pelicans, and a lot more. Easy drive through and with the river up & a lot of land flooded, Black Necked Stilts & Avocets are all over. If you want a bit south, Farmington Bay where you can walk on the dike road with Great Salt Lake to the west, lots of birds of all types.

If you want remote, try Fish Springs Natn'l Wildlife Refuge on the Pony Express trail where you can camp out at old Pony Express way stations. There are other refuges, and a lot of canoe areas near some of them. Then Zion & Bryce Natn'l parks have a lot, with very different species from up here. Good luck.

I have to disagree with Don - The area around Socorro (the main town north of the Bosque) is scenic (although it is very different fromsome of the places youmention). You could try the Quebradas back country byway (east of Socorro), the Magdalena Mountains (there is a road to the summit, with superb views, and numerous walking trails) - it all depends on what takes your fancy. There are recent lava flows west of Albuquerque at Grants and east of Socorro on US 60 (the Malpais). Don't forget White Sands, or 3 rivers petroglyph park.

Bandalier NM is worth a visit, as is Chaco Canyon - it especially interesting to visit Chaco and Acoma on the same trip.

Remember if you miss the Bosque you miss the Owls world famous Green Chile Cheese burgers (actually better GCC burgers can be had at the Coyote Moon, 5 miles north of Socorro, or at Evetts cafe in Magdalena, 26 miles west of Socorro).

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Steve

About Monument Valley...

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I was there a few months ago. If you want to take pictures of the mittens and other incredible rocks located in the Navajo country and want some very red colours on them, but still natural light colours (Here I mean without the help of a warming filter) you MUST arrived well before the sunset at the Utah/Arizona border.

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Even if the sky is partly cloudy, you should have 5 to 10 minutes of (very) red light before the sun goes down. The window is very short so plan well in advance the subjects you'd like to shoot and be ready with your tripod and composition set.

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A wide angle is required if you don't want to shot only one piece of rock.

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You don't need to get into the Navajo Tribal Park since some beautiful and huge rock formations can be shot from the road. But, of course, a trip in the Park is very interesting and a must if you really want to *feel* the place.

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If you get up early, sunrise is a good moment to shoot from the Tribal Park platform, but don't forget your Grad ND filter since you'll have to shoot with the rising sun in front of your lens.

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When coming from Utah down to Arizona, you can find, on the right, a place where you can frame your picture when shooting the main Monument Valley's horizontal rock formation (very red a sunset !)... The problem is that I was unable to find this place before the sun goes down, so if everyone knows where is the hole in the rock that permit to take such a nice framed picture...

I just got back from a week-long excursion to southeast AZ. It may be a little out of the way from where you're planning to go, but I couldn't recommned it more. My favorite area was probably the Chiricahua Mtns. Incredibly scenic and chock full of unique birds (to the US at least). The Cave Creek area is renound as probably the best place to find the elegant trogan and it lived up to that reputation. Also saw painted restarts, tanagers, orioles, numerous hummingbirds and an endemic green rattlesnake. Chiricahua Natl. Monument has marvelous rock formations. We went there as an afterthought and I regret not devoting more time to it.

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We also hit the Nature Conservancy's Sonoita preserve at Patagonia (nice riparian area), the San Pedro River (another riparian conservation area), and Ramsey Canyon (hummingbird capital of the US). Also, if you're anywhere near Tucson, don't miss the Arizona-Sonora desert museum. Has to be the best natural history museum/zoo I've ever been to. I took some great bird shots in their aviary (sure it's cheating, but you can't tell in the photos!). THey really know how to design an exhibit.

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have fun wherever you go.