Getting Dusted at White Pocket
For a long time, I have wanted to venture out to white Pocket Arizona. I can’t recall where I first heard about this place, but it has a been a bucket list location for years. Fortunately, and unfortunately it is a beast to get to and you must have the right vehicle to make this trip. My Kia Optima is certainly not the vehicle to take here. Many people get stuck trying to make it to this location, and the tow fees out of there will almost require you to get a home equity loan to cover the cost. The bad part is that these factors kept me from making it here sooner, the good part is that massive crowds have not ruined this location.
While researching White Pocket online, I found Dreamland Safari Tours and saw that they provided an overnight photography tour for $375. The tour supplied not only the transportation to and from White Pocket, but also dinner, breakfast, snacks, AND they set up your tents and bedding for you then break it down before you leave. All you need to bring is your camera gear and toothbrush. After working out some scheduling, I booked a trip for April 19th and 20th.
We met up at the Dreamland Safari Tours office in Kanab and our guides Sunny and Maddi greeted us with big smiles and a sense of calm confidence that let us know we were in excellent hands. After Sunny and Maddi loaded up all of our gear, we hopped in for a pleasant drive to a very long dirt road. I was in the vehicle with Sunny, and four others; two younger professionals on long road trips and a retired couple. Sunny explained the topography we traversed through, some recent fire history and kept us entertained with stories about the area. She also drove the long dirt road like a boss. It was great to leave that to her and just sit back and enjoy the ride. I have driven many dirt roads, but this one was more than most vehicle can handle.
After arriving at White Pocket, Sunny and Maddi got chairs and a table set up so that we could eat a snack and talk before Maddi lead us on a tour of the White Pocket. This was helpful to orient ourselves and scout out some locations to shoot later. The place was overwhelming for photographers. Maybe not so much if you are just wanting to look at rocks, but the photo options are basically endless. In fact, there are so many options that I experienced some paralysis by analysis here. I honestly had a hard time deciding what to photograph because there were too many options. Kind of like those times where you browse Netflix, Hulu, Prime and YouTube without finding what you want to watch.
During the orientation hike, the wind started kicking up something fierce! I do not know how fast the steady wind was, but my guess is 20-30 mph with gusts that topped 60 mph. I really wished that I had my anemometer with me to measure the wind, but I don’t bring it with me often (Yes, I have one of these and yes that certifies me as a complete dork, but I’m cool with that). Plus, the wind was full of very fine sand which completed a nice microdermabrasion on our faces. The weird thing is that the wind was a westerly wind, but across White Pocket it came from almost every direction. The gusts would come across the flat plains, then hit the rocks and channel around groves and openings. One time when I thought the wind had died down to a safe level, I opened my camera bag in perfect timing for a tremendous gust that deposited a slug of sand all over all my gear.
The first day was a wash photographically. I got a sense of the area for the next morning, plus just walking and around White Pocket was a visual and geological treat. The best way to describe it is the imagine a mile long and half mile-wide pile of taffy that is orange and cream colored. Now imagine mixing and twisting up the taffy into swirls and little alcoves and then solidifying that taffy into rock and then you would have White Pocket.
When I got back to camp, Sunny and Maddi had set up tents for ten people while fighting the crazy wind and sand. They also cooked up a nice dinner. After dinner, I didn’t stick around to talk with others for very long. We had nice chairs and a table, but I was tired and wanted an early start, so I found my tent, brushed off a layer of sand that was on my sleeping bag, pillow and basically everything, then tried to sleep. The wind kept going howling for several hours, but my tent held up well. It was loud, but eventually I fell asleep and woke up around 5:00 a.m.
After getting dressed, I exited my tent to a nice, quiet and windless morning. The stars were bright, and things were looking good. I found my way through the dark to the rocks and started taking some images. As sunrise got closer, more people started showing up to take photos. Of course, we had a few taking the obligatory Instagram selfie while standing on rocks as they tried to look disinterested in the camera, but none of them were obnoxious. A few people put drones up and started buzzing around. I got a few shots that I would classify as “okay” but I can’t say any are portfolio worthy. The sky was bland and cloudless, so I added skies to a few images in photoshop. I am not against that but I don’t do it often and if I do, I try to be upfront about it. When you pay a sum of money and travel long distances, I think that completing a decent image with a nice sky is permissible. Is it pure photography at that point? That I debatable, but for me it is more of a digital manipulation once you have replaced the sky. A lot of landscape photographers, even some of the best-known swap out skies and never mention it. One of the most well-known landscape photographers has even dropped in a moon on some images without mentioning it. However, it should be obvious since the moon is in front on the clouds in these images, which isn’t physically possible but what can I say, he sells a lot of expensive prints and no one wants my photos so..touché good sir! You win, even with your moons that defy the laws of physics.
Once the sun was up and the golden hour was over, I made my way back to base camp and enjoyed breakfast. Shortly after, we piled in the trucks and started back to Kanab. Like it always is, the ride out was 50% longer than the ride in. I don’t how miles stretch out when returning home, but they do, just like time slows down when you are counting the seconds for something to end.
I can highly recommend the Dreamland Safari Tours if you want to get out on an overnight to some of these locations. My experience was enjoyable enough that I am considering another overnight on their Toroweap tour when I can make the time work. The road to Toroweap is 61 miles of dirt roads, which I hear is good a lot of the way, but not something I want to try in a car. I feel confident the trip would go smooth with the team at Dreamland Safari.
Most of the photos I got were fair, but not great. To show scale, I started taking photos with people in it. Although I didn’t get any images that I am blown away with, I had a great time and met some really friendly people.
