Cliff Dwellers

For the last couple of years we have been building a little bit of a family tradition by doing some down South exploring on the day before Thanksgiving. This year we decided to go some place new and headed down to Capital Reef National Park. I was shocked to drive into the park and not have to pay $10 - $20 of scenery tax. It was a nice surprise. I thought all the National Parks were pay per view.

We got down there about noon and poked around the visitor's center for a while. It made me laugh to see a bunch of animations that we did for the BYU Geology department like eight years ago on the screens in the visitors center. They still looked pretty good so I guess we did OK on them.

After some lunch we picked a trail and headed out for and afternoon of exploration. We picked Cohab Canyon. It Started out with about a half mile of switch backs up about 400 feet of elevation gain. Caden started to fall behind right away so I stayed with him while everyone else waited at the top.
Here are Caden, Grant, Mason and Trent in the little pass that leads down into Cohad Canyon .

Here's one looking down into the canyon.

There were tons of fun sandstone holes, pockets, slots and little caves for climbing and exploring.


and occasionally getting stuck.

or taking a rest or posing for a family picture.

We got to the valley overlook at about 4:30 it was an amazing site looking into the gorge cut by the Fremont river but I was getting worried about getting back out before it got dark. None of us had flashlights and there would have been some dangerous spots to get through in the dark. Miki and the older boys went ahead and Caden and I took up there rear. Caden was going slow but he kept at it. By the time that we got to the switchbacks he was saying that his feet and legs were hurting and was kind of shuffling along. He kept at it and we made it to the bottom when the last bit of twilight was fading away.

Personal Surf Spot

Last Saturday at about 4:30 I decided that I wanted to get on the Provo River by my house. For a number of weeks, I've been enhancing a small feature on the Provo River right below the Geneva Road bridge, building eddies, adding rocks to a small drop to make a wave more surfable (hopefully). There was only about 60 cfs in the river so it was pretty boney but it was good to paddle again.


By about 5:00pm I was on the river with Miki watching from the shore for "safety." Here I'm trying to paddle up into the sweet spot to do a little front surfing. The surfing is tiny but it will be fun to watch what the feature does with more water.


By about 5:30 it was getting kind of dark and time to throw a few more rocks around and then get out.

Chickens a-go-go!

Hey, here is this shot that I have been animating for the BYU produced film "Sheriff". I've been working on it in my spare time for a very long time now. I think that it is finally ready to hand off to the people who are going to do the shading, lighting, rendering and compositing.

It is supposed to show how completely this old west town has come together with a rooster as its sheriff and the people now free from fear of the previously running amuck bad guys. Peaceful and prosperous coexistence between people and poultry, that's the deal. There are 140 baby chicks, 29 mother hens and 5 roosters in this shot. Each rig has 6 or 8 animation clips that I animated in maya and then sequenced in maya's trax editor to match the gross transforms in the scene. This rough compositing was done in After Effects.


Let me know what you think or if you spot a chicken behaving badly. If you want to see a bigger version of it let me know and I'll send you one.

Cave Rats

Hey both of you who read this blog. Here are some lovely pictures of some cave climbing/exploring that I did last weekend with my son Mason and Austin Mills and his brother Jordan. They led us up rock canyon to Spanish Moss cave. When we were headed up there it was snowing steadily and I was worried about coming down the steep slope with a bunch of snow on the mountain. But Inside the cave was so amazing that I forgot about the snow and when we got out it had stopped and all melted.

Some cool formations in the upper room.


Mason off rappel in the bottom room.


Looking up the ramp to where we dropped in about 100 feet above.


Austin and Jordan at the bottom.


I think that Mason was attempting a potentially embarrassing "rabbit ears" but was thwarted by unanticipated helmet height.


Mason getting clipped in to start ascending out of this very interesting hole.

glass tastic

Hey well I got some more hours in on the window this weekend and finished it off. I think that it turned out pretty nice. Miki and I both like the simple, elegant design of this one. It is the first time that I have tried anything with this extreme of variation in the line quality or width of the solder joints. I wrapped an extra copper foil width on the ends of the grass segments. I'll have to mess with that more sometime.

grass a la glass

Hey here's a little project that I am doing in a round about way to raise money for UV united way. Everyone from work donated a good and or service into an auction and all the money bid was donated to united way. I donated a custom stained glass window. Suzy was the highest bidder and she is having me do a design with that funky grass that grows in segments. I'll call it monkey grass grass for know because there is a complete lack of right word in my brain at the moment. Anyway I got the last of the glass and the copper foil Saturday and put a few hours in on it while listening to the KRCL radiothon (commercial free in a very narrowly defined sense of the word). Anyway I think that it is coming along nicely. Some of the thin pieces have been a pain to cut because the piece I'm trying cut out is barely wider than the glass is thick. Does anyone have a diamond wheel glass grinder that they want to donate to a good cause?

First Rapid

Here's another shot from last month's Green River Trip. Miki and Caden were supposed to slip into an eddy and wait for me to help get Trent in his boat and then for me to get into my boat so we could go down the rapid together. Instead they went into the current and were into the rapid before Trent had his spray skirt on. I watched as they did everything right, lined it up straight and ran down the middle.
Photo by Craig Waddell.

Green River - Beginners' trip in the news

Back on August 23rd the Utah Whitewater Club sponsored a trip for beginning (first time ever in a hardshell) kayakers down Grey's Canyon on the Green River. I was thrilled to bring my wife Miki and my sons Trent and Caden along. A good friend Nate Swallow also made it down with us. Everyone had a good time in the sun and water.


Trent's on the left in the red shorts and white helmet. He made it down the entire run without tipping over. Nate (silver helmet) made it down too. Caden and Miki (big yellow life jackets) went down in an inflatable kayak and ran over some big rocks and holes that I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere close to. They cruised right over them and had a fun ride.

Maggie and Roxanne, to Salt Lake Tribune reporters came along for their first kaykaing adventure. You can read their article and watch their slide show here. It sounds like they were pretty scared but they did great and looked like they were having a lot of fun.

Hummer SKnE

Hey Here's the latest quickdraw from work. It was distorted birds. We had a pleasant return of the hummingbirds to our backyard after I sweetened the nectar a bit. Haven't had 5 or 6 at a time like last year but it is good to see them and have them peak in our windows to check us out. There are better ways to distort this now that it is over. Maybe I will try some more later.

Hey I read in the paper that wall arch in Arches Nation Park collapsed earlier this month and I thought to myself I'm pretty sure that we hiked by, under and on top of that one last time we were down there in arches. Well here's proof that we hiked under it at least. Sad to say that this spot is just a lot bigger pile of rocks and not much to look at up above. It's kind of cool to think about the geology/creation happening in a way that we can watch it in our short time scale.

Animal Quickdraw

Hi All, Here is the latest quickdraw from work. The theme was kind of a minimalistic value sketch of an animal. When I was running the cabarton section on the Payette river about ten days ago, in a clam and remote spot, I saw a mature eagle gliding up to perch in one of the huge pine trees. Most of the paddlers on the run had seen him before and were expecting him. This was my first time and it was pretty cool.

I like the looseness of the sketch. There are a few things that bug me now that I've had some time to not look at it for a sec.

Yak attack 08

Over the 24th of July weekend I joined the Utah Whitewater Club in their annual Payette river soiree. It was a blast with lots of unintended fish counting on my part. One day we had a videographer from channel 4 tag along and do a lot of filming. Here's the 4 minute spot that they aired about it. I'm in there a few times. Look for a Red boat and blue paddle or white shirt and green shorts.

QuickDraw 08-04

Hi All. Here is my humble offering for the today's "Tree of Life" quickdraw. I wanted a lot of soft flowing lines to show the gentle sweetness of the taste of the fruit. Enjoy!