Michael Bartikyan //Photography

Sep 20

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Mono Lake

Mono Lake is located in Mono County, California. It is famous for it’s bizarre rock formations on a shallow water and on the shores that are called tufa. Tufa towers have grown underwater over hundreds of thousands of years and are a result of various chemical reactions. The reason why we can see them now is because the lake level have dropped unveiling this uniquely shaped rock towers. It was not an easy job to find the exact place of tufa formations because there are various locations where you can see them. I arrived to Mono Lake Tufa Reserve just before sunset but strangely it was not the place that I was looking for. Nevertheless I walked along the shore to find the taller towers but useless, I was at wrong place. I didn’t wanted to waste the light so I made several shots from that spot and they turned to be not really bad. I decided to stay there overnight and find the right place to shoot at sunrise. The place that I was looking for was in few kilometres away, so I drove there at 5am. I was surprised when I saw a crowd of people there with […]

Sep 19

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Yellowstone – Wildlife

Yellowstone spans a vast territory of almost 9000 square kilometers and 140 miles of roads in 2 loops. And it’s more likely to see wildlife early in the morning or late evening when the weather is cool. Still while you are driving from one point to another there is a chance to see some animals. Bison is probably the most populated species in Yellowstone, you can see them on the roads near Lamar Valley, and my first encounter with bison was near Old Faithful geyser. In the beginning they were just hanging out in the fields not far away from the geyser , but few hours later two male bison have started a show that none expected. Obviously it’s their mating season so they’ve been showing off in front of the female by chasing each other and fighting. Those massive beasts were growling and butting each other, they ran all the way till the parking lot with plenty of people out there and all I could see was a pile of dust. I rushed to them to get some shots from closer distance when they started charging back. One male just blasted back towards me and I managed to get […]

Sep 18

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Yellowstone – Nature

Yellowstone is the most distant spot of my trip and the most desired one. It’s considered to be the first national park in the world. The sheer size of it is a host of many geothermal features, lakes, forests, waterfalls and most importantly wildlife. One of the most famous features of Yellowstone is Old Faithful geyser, it erupts boiling water every 90 minutes and shoots up to 50 meters high. Many other smaller geysers and springs can be found in surroundings, they erupt randomly but for most of them there are estimations written on boards so you know when to expect next eruption. They look quite amazing but they stink very badly. This one with large deposits is called Castle Geyser. Partially because of volcanic lands and partially because of fire, vast majority of trees are dying in Yellowstone. Hot springs are the other part of Yellowstone that you can’t miss, coloration of those springs are a result of bacteria. The biggest and the mot beautiful spring in Yellowstone is Grand Prismatic Spring. It has vivid colors ranging from green to red , and the center of the spring is blue because of purity of the water and high depth. […]

Sep 17

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Grand Teton

I left the canyon states of Arizona and Utah and headed to Wyoming where I am going to visit Grant Teton and the key of my whole journey – Yellowstone. Those parks are radically different to the ones I visited previously. Here you are among forests, lakes and rivers and most importantly wildlife. I was really hoping to make sots of bears and other beasts and I don’t know if I was really lucky or this is common thing but after 15minutes of being in Grand Teton I saw a moose right from my left window, so I parked the car rapidly and ran back to have a look and to make some photos. He was just there standing in a small pond in bushes and drinking water. I moved a bit further and there was another one just few meters away I didn’t wanted to disturb the animal with shutter noise so I went back to my car and there were some other people coming to see the muse and they told me heyy have you seen the bear ? I said , what bear !? there is just a moose !? No no, was the answer , there […]

Sep 14

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Arches National Park

I’ve seen a lot of great sites in America and every time I was astonished by diversity of them and there was always something more brilliant than previous ones. But Arches National Park is just mind blowing !!! This is something really different, than Grand Canyon or Antelope, there are about 2000 stone arches in the park, and of course the diamond of the arches called The Delicate Arch. But let’s start with the monuments located at the beginning of the trail, first one is an enormously tall sandstone tower called The Organ. While you stand near this “made in nature” skyscraper you feel so much small… I lost the count of my wows in this park, as each and every monument is unique by it’s shape or kind or position ! I mean look at this Balanced Rock ! Incredible ! And this is called The Garden of Eden Cove of Caves North and South Windows Double Arch And finally the most famous arch of all The Delicate Arch. To get to this arch you need to hike more than 2km over steep rocks and hills, but it’s totally worth it , it’s so beautiful ! The best time […]

Sep 13

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Monument Valley

Arizona and Utah share this valley of greatness and beauty of Navajo Nation Reservation. There is a group of huge mesas and buttes of red rock that are surrounded by desert. Each one of them has it’s own name and is shaped uniquely and all together they create the view which is quite familiar from lot’s of movies posters etc. And it’s not only the rocks that create this wonder, but also the road that takes you from one state to another. Some people confuse it with Route 66 but in fact its’s Route 163, I’m sure all of you seen this at least in some American movie. One of such movies is Forest Gump and the spot on the first photo is the exact place where Forest Gump has ended his cross country run. I have reached Monument Valley visitor center just before sunset, there is parking space an from the left side of it there is nice view of 3 monuments. There were lot of people with tripods and massive cameras shooting this view and then someone from the back yelled heey look over there , and there was this beautiful red sky with clouds on the right […]

Sep 12

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Antelope Canyon

After visiting Zion National my next destination was Antelope Canyon. Good thing about trips like this is that sometimes under some circumstances the plans can change and you have to improvise. This trip wasn’t an exception, on my way to Page city I saw sign of Coral Pink Sand Dunes and I thought this will be a great place to shoot at sunrise, and I turned from my way and headed to the campground of Sand Dunes. But all my plans and expectations were ruined by heavy rain, there was mud all over the place so once I woke up at 7am I had nothing else to do but drive directly to Antelope Canyon. The rain went on and on and I already started accepting the idea that Antelope won’t be accessible for visitors, and I was right when I arrived to Lower part of the canyon. To visit this canyon you need a guide , and once I arrived there were 2 guys sitting in an old muscle car , my first thought was that they are visitors, and I had kind of relief that canyon is open, but unfortunately those two guys were local guides, and they told […]

Sep 11

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Zion National Park – Utah

One of the most challenging spots so far in my journey, Zion National Park. it offers variety of activities but most of all this place is attractive for hikers and photographers. Frankly speaking I’m not a hiking person at all, but this one was worth it ! One of the most premiere hiking sites of the park is called The Narrows, the name I guess is self explanatory as you will see from the shots below. The canyon where you are walking through is getting narrower as you go along, at some points it can be about 3 meters wide. And of course you have the river on your way which makes the hiking more challenging. First of all you need special boots, but since I did not had the special ones I went on with regular ones because there was no other way, rocks are very slippery and here is when a walking stick becomes handy. There were lots of those sticks prepared already so you just pick up one and go, and when you come back you leave it in the same place for other people. It took me about 5hrs in total to get to a junction […]

Sep 10

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The Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon was one of the most desired places I wanted to visit, and my expectations were really high, I have reached there around 5pm when the sun was going down and spreading a warm light over the canyon , I rushed there desperate to see the canyon for the firs time, and this was just breathtaking ! I froze for a minute with my camera in my hands and I was gasped with this beautiful beautiful view ! Then I stared making shots and here is the first thing that I have captured there. There are plenty of points along the Grand Canyon and each one of them has a name, the one I was shooting from was called Mather Point. After that one I walked over few others, but the darkness came quick enough so I gathered all my gear and went back to have a rest. Here are some of photos that I made before dusk. At sunset. I decided to stay there at night and sleep in a car, there was a great sky with Milky Way after few hours and I went back to the canyon to make night shots of the sky. Sunrise […]

Sep 09

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Hoover Dam

My today’s trip is aimed to Hoover Dam, it,s located in 25miles southeast of Las Vegas. Temperature here in one word is freak’n hot. You are dehydrating very fast and you can actually feel it with each exhale. Ok back to Hoover Dam, so it’s located on the border of Nevada and Arizona on Colorado river. From now on I’ll be leaving the hottest states and heading to Grand Canyon !