Camping trip in Utah makes Bellingham man a winner

A Bellingham man is one of 11 winners in a “Share the Experience” photo contest by the National Parks Foundation.

John D’Onofrio won in the “Scenic, Seasons, and Landscapes” category for a photo he shot last year at Fantasy Canyon in Utah, where the sandstone rock formations “look like they belong on the cover of a progressive rock album,” according to atlasobscura.com.

D’Onofrio is editor and publisher of AdventuresNW, an outdoor adventure magazine that’s based in Bellingham. An avid photographer, he told the National Park Foundation the sandstone formations at Fantasy Canyon can be difficult to photograph because the rock is mostly grey in color and the lighting is harsh.

“I elected to camp on-site and after the sun went down I noticed the almost ghostly illumination of moonlight on the strange formations and was transfixed,” he said. “I’ve been a life-long pilgrim on our public lands. ... I believe that finding and nurturing deeply-felt connections to the natural world is an antidote to the stress-inducing pace of modern life.”

More than 16,500 photos were submitted for the contest.

The National Park Foundation is the nonprofit partner to the National Park Service.

This story was originally published May 4, 2017 at 12:13 PM with the headline "Camping trip in Utah makes Bellingham man a winner."