Nature's Surrealism

Craters is a fabulous place to record stark, minimalist modern art. Nature provides the subjects! All the painter, photographer, writer, maybe the musician? has to do is record and interpret nature's work. This is Inferno Cone. The light track in the middle of the picture is a path to the summit. The Venerable Pinniped slogged to the top, followed a few minutes later by a busload of schoolkids, many of whom ran most of the way up.

Here a hardy limber pine has somehow found a place to grow among the cinders. It's easier for dwarf buckwheat, which grows in a seemingly symmetrical pattern on the slopes. Each plant establishes its own space. Blow up the pic for more detail...on this scale it just looks like the landscape was spattered with paint or something. The sagebrush grows in more hospitable spots on flatter terrain.

This scene was created not by volcanism, but by a man-critter consortium. The park service laid a sidewalk along a nature trail, but before it dried some rodent had a track meet on the wet cement. Probably a squirrel, I reckon.

Here the Solara joins the minimalist scene. Fits in rather well, I reckon...adds an element of chiaroscuro.