IMAGES OF A LOST WORLD

"West Canyon was my favorite peace and beauty and shade in the desert," Tad Nichols said of this 1958 photo. "It was a place you could walk barefoot. It had a wide sandy bottom, and there was always flowing, falling water, a meandering stream where cattails, reeds, horsetails, and scouring rushes would grow. We would walk on the lovely warm sand by the clear running water."

Tad Nichols first heard about the natural beauty of Glen Canyon from John Wetherill, who had explored the San Juan River to the Colorado River in the early days of boating. Eventually, in May 1950, Mr. Nichols had a chance to see the canyon for himself as a photographer for a television production crew. From that day until the day the waters of Lake Powell made it impossible, he photographed the main canyon and its many side canyons. Although his portfolio includes work for the U.S. Air Force (during World War II), National Geographic, Walt Disney Productions and the Sierra Club, Mr. Nichols is perhaps best known for his images of Glen Canyon. Shortly before his death in 2000, at the age of 89, he compiled the best of his 4,000 photographs of the canyon in a book titled Glen Canyon: Images of a Lost World. The beautiful book is available from Museum of New Mexico Press, 800-249-7737 or www.mnmpress.org.