Travels
Trona Pinnacles
I’ve heard a lot about Trona Pinnacles and seen some amazing photos from there as well. I was in SoCal over the weekend and decided a detour was in order for the day. Here are a couple of photos.
If you plan to head out there here are some suggestions. The road out there is washboard gravel. It’s a short bumpy ride, so a passenger car is do-able. (There were rv’s parked out there). Bring water, it’s early April and I was running around in shorts at 3 AM so stay hydrated & don’t forget the sunscreen. It can also get windy so be prepared to have dust in everything. There is one pit toilet and someone had left a lit citronella candle burning in there. Made for one of the most pleasant smelling pit toilets ever.
#28 Photograph Reflections
This week I pulled #28 from the Lightbox Photography Cards set. “The challenge here is to capture something of interest in a reflection”. Many iconic landscape photographs feature this technique. My samples this week are inspired by a recent trip to Oregon.
Lagomarsino Canyon, NV
Been back from my Southwest trip since early March. I had so many photos that I wanted to post from that trip that it’s taken me all the way into May. Now, for some shots from other adventures on the West Coast. Towards the end of March we ventured into Nevada to look for the Lagomarsino Canyon near Virginia City. Over 2000 petroglyphs have been recorded. The site is believed to be over 10,000 years old.
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- Bring water
Tonto National Monument
The Southwest trip was ending and we drove the old Apache Trail (Hwy 188) to visit the Tonto National Monument. Here they have two cliff dwellings (one was closed) of the Salado people that lived in the Tonto Basin roughly 700 years ago. To get to the dwelling there is a steep path with switchbacks to get up the cliff. As I stood along the mouth of the entrance looking over the basin, I could only image how the people traveled throughout the area without modern conveniences.
Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park, AZ
Spent part of a day at Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park in Arizona last March.
Sunset Crater Volcano National Park
The rains had chased out of our intended destination, lava tubes near Flagstaff. We went for the next best option on the road to Phoenix – Sunset Crater Volcano National Park. Hard to believe that there was an active volcano just about thousand years ago in Northern Arizona.
Dino Tracks 1 Mile Ahead
During this trip I wanted to find some dinosaur tracks. I searched the internet for secret locations and imagined a long hike out in the middle of no where and then stumbling on a great find. It was towards the end of our trip and I was running out of opportunities. Then just outside Tube City, AZ there was a road sign, “Dinosaur Tracks 1 Mile Ahead”. We had time to kill and said “why not?!?” and pulled into the makeshift parking lot. The “tour” was by donation and Jennifer our guide told us that this land was Navajo lands and in their stories, no one came out there because of the ‘bones’. It was only a short time ago when they realized that the bones where dinosaur fossils. She grabbed a bottle of water (to highlight the tracks) and it was maybe 20 – 25 feet from the parking lot and you could see all the tracks.
Monument and Mystery Valley
Last day in Monument Valley and we took a guided tour of Mystery Valley.
Monument Valley Tribal Park
We had arrived late to Monument Valley Tribal Park but in time to catch the setting sun illuminating the mesas and give the sandstone some added pop. The week before we arrived, the valley had 16″ of snow. While most of it had melted, there was still some areas with snow on it and it added some interesting contrast to the photos.
Owachomo Bridge and US-261
We spent a afternoon at Natural Bridges National Park. Owachomo Bridge was already in shadow but it didn’t make this bridge any less spectacular than the previous two we visited earlier. This was however, the easiest to get to from the Rim Overlook. It was late and we needed to get to Monument Valley before night fall. This meant a ‘shortcut’ down US 261 also known as the Moki Dugway. A seemingly nice country road until the pavement ends and for 3 miles or so it turns into a steep, twisty dirt road with views of the Valley of the Gods and the Goosenecks.
Snapshots by Kats 