Red Canyon in Monochrome

Wikipedia lists more that 70 canyons in the U.S. named "Red Canyon", not surprisingly most of them in the southwest, but this particular one is located on the road to Bryce Canyon, and is only about 9 miles to the west of the national park entrance. Many people don't bother to stop here; the landscape is extraordinary enough to produce "oohs" and "ahhs" but probably that makes everyone anxious to get to Bryce, so they whiz on through.  It's worth stopping for more that a quick roadside snapshot, however.. it's got some lonely trails to hike and fantastic scenery if you turn off the main road for a bit, plus it's totally uncrowded. There's no entry fee and it's open to mountain bikes, horses, ATVs, camping... you can pretty much do whatever you want.

The famous outlaw Butch Cassidy grew up near here and is said to have used it as a hideout on occasion... you can see why. If you were familiar enough with this area I don't think anyone could ever find you.

I made this shot in bright mid-day sun, so the deep blue sky and the bright red/orange rocks exposed through a polarizer produce a kind of infrared effect when processed in monochrome. 

Be sure to visit Aileni's Monochrome Maniacs index every Monday for a weekly list of B&W submissions from around the blogosphere.