Added a gallery of 20 photos from the White Pocket taken in the last three years, and added White Pocket travel directions from Coyote Buttes South and from House Rock Road. Added a link to the Natural Arch and Bridge Societies List of US arches. The list includes google maps of the arches in Utah and Arizona. In the Arizona section Top Rock Arch (NABSQNO 12S-410195-4094000) is misplaced. Melody Arch (NABSQNO 12S-410520-4094320) is called Joanne's arch and is a buttress natural arch eroded through Navajo sandstone. Vreeland listed Joanne's Arch as number 12-2 in his catalog and reported a span of 10 feet. The outer arch there is described as Danny's Arch and is a fin natural arch eroded through Navajo sandstone. Vreeland listed Danny's Arch as number 12-1 in his catalog and reported a span of 12 feet. The Utah map is missing what I call "Overlooked Arch", the 5238AT arch on the map.

Added 90 new photos taken in North Coyote Buttes over 15 trips between 2004 and 2010. New locations added include unique views of Melody Arch, Fatali's Boneyard, Sand Cove, Top Rock Arch, the arch near 5238AT on the topo map, and the dinosaur tracks on the West side of the Buttes. The map section has been expanded to include directions to each of these areas.

Added a gallery and map of the Bisti Badlands. About 50 images added, most are geocoded. The photos were largely taken in two trips - late May of 2009 and late May of 2010. The Bisti is one of my top ten sites in the US West. While the area generally lacks color the fantastic shapes and great light at dusk and dawn more than make up for it. The Bisti photographs well during the "Blue Hour" and even works well for nighttime shoots. The Bisti has no formal trails so if you go I recommend you bring a GPS and map and know how to use them.

This page was totally reworked, primarily to add this section on site news. Clicking on any heading in this section will bring up details for that section. I've also added a section on Coyote Buttes South with about 40 photos and maps to the trailheads. All trailheads are only accessible with a high clearance 4WD vehicle. Most added photos have GPS coordinates, and all have exif information.

Added a section on Horseshoe Bend. You need a 24mm lens or wider to shoot this effectively. I've also included the location of a dinosaur track that is right on the trail. I found out about the track from a volunteer at the Bigwater BLM visitor center. If you're interested in dinosaur tracks you should definitely stop there.

The story behind Edmaier's Secret- The story behind the pictures is perhaps more interesting than the photos. For some time I've been looking for areas to go to in the Arizona Strip (area of Arizona between the North rim of the Grand Canyon and Southern Utah) when I can't get a permit for the Wave. Wave permits are increasingly difficult to get. Thanks to Laurent Martres' books I've been to many of the (already obscure) areas in the strip such as the White Pocket, the Upper and Lower White Rocks, Yellow Rock, and Wahweap Wash. I wanted to see if I could find something on my own. So I started looking at Google Earth aerial maps for terrain which looks similar to that found in North and South Coyote Buttes. I found an area about five miles North of the Wave and East of Buckskin Gulch that looked interesting, the aerial photos showed that it had lots of "Brain" rocks. When I looked last December on the web in preparation for a January trip I couldn't get any info on the area, or find any photos. I never got there in January because the weather didn't cooperate on the day I planned to go. In March I decided to look at Google Earth again (for an April trip) and to my surprise I found a new "Panoramio" photo labeled "Edmaier's Secret". So I googled "Edmaier's Secret" and found that the area is just starting to become known (about 3 years now). As is so true of the Southwest, it was first photographed by a German photographer Bernhard Edmaier from a plane. A photo can be found in the book GeoArt authored by him, I haven't seen it. Another photographer named the area "Edmaier's Secret" because even having seen Edmaier's photo it is very difficult to find out where it was taken. Even Edmaier didn't know exactly!

Getting There - The normal route into "Edmaier's Secret" is from the Buckskin Gulch trailhead (four miles down House Rock Valley Rd). You'll need to pay the BLM a fee of $6 to day hike in Buckskin Gulch, you can pay where you park. You then hike about 2.5 miles down Buckskin Gulch before you exit to the east to arrive in the general area of Edmaier's Secret. I have not been in from this direction because it looked like there was a much shorter way (described next), but I can see that this way would be a little tricky, there is a barbed wire fence that needs to be crossed, and a way needs to be found to climb up to the area. I devised an alternate route coming in from Long Canyon Rd, take Long Canyon Rd about 4.5 miles to the Road labeled "Jeep Trail' on the topo map and bear right. In .6 miles you hit "Dry Flat" on the topo map "West Clark Bench", bear left and continue on "Jeep Trail" for about 1 mile and park anywhere. From your car its about .7 miles to the edge of the escarpment versus 2.5 miles via Buckskin Gulch. You will have to descend 200 feet from the top of the escarpment and do a bit more hiking to get to the best area for photos. You will need a 4x4 for Long Canyon Rd and especially the "Jeep Trail" , and the road is totally impassable with substantial dropoffs when wet. Only a fool would drive this when wet! Long Canyon Road also goes to "Cobra Arch".

Photography - The area has many good photo ops, but of course none nearly as good as "The Wave". Definitely a late afternoon location, in fact you get good light almost till dusk. At dawn the escarpment will block off the best light for 2 hours or so. Overall - I'd rate the area as Good-Very Good, not quite as photogenic as the White Pocket, but a lot easier to get to!