There are certain photos of certain places which are famous in landscape photography.  Some places are in Iceland.  Others are in Chile.  Yet others are in Canada.  Still, there are closer locations for me.  I found more than one site within a reasonable driving distance from me.  Here’s the story of me capturing one such location recently.  It’s a famous waterfall nearby.

Indeed this famous waterfall has a name.  It’s called Kanarra Falls or Kanarraville Falls.  It’s the single draw for the tiny town of Kanarraville Utah.  Still, it’s quite a draw!  This waterfall scene and setting is amazing.  It’s well worth the effort.  I do mean EFFORT.  Let me set the scene for you.

This waterfall is almost a couple miles up the trail in a slot canyon.  It’s deep into the mountains.  The hike to it is called moderate to strenuous.  This is for a reason.  I learned that reason as I traversed the trail.  I came back with some sore leg muscles which took a couple days to calm back down again.  It’s actually quite strenuous.

As a point of reference, I think I over-prepared and over-packed for what I found.  This meant that I carried extra weight which became unnecessary.  Sadly, this weighed me down for most of the hike.  I made my hike more difficult than it needed to be.  But still, even without the extra weight, it was still a tough hike.

You start off hiking up a service road.  The trail is delightfully wide but quite steep.  Pay attention to the signs.  They will tell you where to go.  You cross a couple shallow stream crossings on your way up.  These deceive you into believing things are easier than they are.  I kept this in mind when hiking up but still set my expectations inappropriately because of this.

After a point, you reach a gate.  This gate seems to separate the wilderness from the service road.  Next to the fence you’ll find the city water supply for Kanarraville.  I wouldn’t mess around there if I were you.  That’s trouble.  But the path leads on far beyond this spot.

It’s a bit further up the path that things start becoming quite difficult.  You’ll find yourself crossing the stream multiple times.  There’s barely dry land to walk on.  It will become tiresome to keep crossing the water to progress.  However, that’s the path you must follow if you want to reach the famous waterfall.  The water wading is a rather short part of the trail but it feels interminable.  This part of the trail is why they strongly recommend you take trekking poles or at least a hiking stick with you.  The footing is treacherous.

Just when you hope that you reached the end of the water, it gets worse.  You find yourself needing to hike entirely in the water.  This means you’ve arrived at the mouth of the slot canyon.  Fortunately for you and me, you needn’t go far into the canyon before you find yourself gazing upon the very famous waterfall you came to see.  You’re arrived at Kanarra Falls.

Almost every photo I’ve seen of this famous waterfall makes the cavern it’s in seem rather big.  However, it’s far from big.  In fact, it’s actually quite small.  I found myself crowding up against the walls in the water and using a wide angle lens to capture these views.  The wide angle lens can, indeed, make a tight space look spacious.

Another concern was that I needed to time my photos around those other hikers coming up or down the ladder.  The day I took the hike was also a popular day for others as it was a Saturday.  One must be polite to the other hikers too.  The longer shutter speeds I used for silky water made things more difficult that way.

Once I completed my attempts at the traditional shots, I started looking for something different.  After all, most people capture photos of the waterfall and the ladder (no matter which incarnation of the ladder it is).  I didn’t want to waste the opportunity to shoot this famous waterfall from a different angle.  Perhaps I could find something which others hadn’t considered yet.  I found my shot too.

Most people don’t attempt to shoot this waterfall from above.  I decided that idea was the unusual angle for me.  So, I climbed up the ladder and set up for that shot.  I ended up needing to stabilize my tripod myself as I couldn’t rely on it to not topple over the cliff without my assistance.  It wasn’t easy to keep the tripod steady and not introduce motion blur from my own body.  Somehow, I made it happen.

After I finished with this shot, I turned around to see another beautiful sight ahead of me.  There was another beautiful waterfall cascading over some huge boulders.  It was such a perfect scene.  I trudged up through the water and set up for another shot.

Once again, I needed to time my shot.  There were hikers passing both ways in front of my camera lens.  People scrambled over the boulder to the final waterfall ahead.  Others were returning from seeing it.  However, probably due to the waning daylight, the number of other hikers present was dwindling.  This freed me up to take more photos quickly and easily.

Initially, I planned on taking the route to the second waterfall.  However, once at the top of the ladder, I investigated the path.  Then I changed my mind.  The water in the pool at the base of the huge boulder was deeper than it initially appeared.  Indeed, if I decided to traverse the pool, I would have guaranteed that my feet would get wet.  My aim was to come back with dry feet.

After completing my photography work at the famous Kanarra Falls waterfall, I turned back towards the parking lot.  Due to my heavy burden, the road back felt longer than the road in.  Also, I found my footing less stable than before and kept slipping off the rocks and splashing into the water.  I believe that I splashed quite a bit of water into my boots then but my wool socks prevented me from noticing, which was fortunate for me.

Thanks to the shade of the slot canyon, I didn’t need to worry about whether or not I shot at sunrise or sunset.  I had soft and even light the entire time.  This made things much easier to shoot and to process.  In fact, these photos were relatively easy to process up thanks to that fact.

In summary, this hike is rather strenuous.  It took about 4 hours round trip for me plus about 1 hour for photography.  You really need to take trekking poles or a hiking stick to keep your balance.  You also must prepare for walking directly in water which can be ankle deep or knee deep depending upon the water level and conditions.  Choose extra tall hiking boots and woolen socks to keep your feet dry or sandals/water shoes/crocs to not worry about dry feet.  Winter conditions will make this hike even more difficult than it already is.

Also, make sure that you book a permit.  You need one for each party member in order to pass into the canyon.  You can book online and pay $12/person.  They only accept 150 people a day.  If you plan on going, then book early as the slots will fill up.

I found my trip profitable as a landscape photographer.  However, I do recommend you consider your physical condition and current hiking gear before you take this hike.

So, what do you think about this latest landscape photography excursion to a famous waterfall?  Do you like my photos?  Do you hate them?  Please leave your thoughts in the comments section below.