The primary motivation for the desert hike that led to the “Desert: The Sheer Variety” gallery was actually to find a more direct approach to the narrow slot canyon (that I had previously only photographed with the cellphone) and this time, with a proper camera and a tripod too… even though I knew it would be a bit of a pain to get the gear in there and operate it, of course.

With its many many climbs and meandering nature, I think “The Twisting Staircase” is a very fitting name and with plenty of new scratches on my tripod’s legs (“battle scars”, as a friend used to call wear on camera gear from using it in rough environments), I can now present a gallery of images that hopefully do it justice. They definitely satisfy me much more than the cellphone photos!

On large screens (desktop, laptop), the 2-column layout below should be good — on small screen devices like phones, tap on any of the images to open them larger in a 1-up carousel view.