Saturday, August 28, 2010

Castle Valley and Canyonlands

This is a picture of Castle Valley, where I stayed for three nights while visiting Arches and Canyonlands. No special effects used...the rocks are really that color in the morning and evening hours! The valley is completely surrounded by red rock walls...it's like a lost world.
Here's a shot from the valley floor, near the B&B where I stayed. Castle Valley Inn...highly recommended! Hosts Jeanette, Jason, and Ashley (the Cat) are all friendly. Great brekkies, and a hot tub and hammocks too. And the setting...can't be beat! The tall spire on the right of the pic is Castleton Rock, the signature formation of the valley.

Here the Lizards are at Deadhorse Point, where the Colorado River almost doubles back on itself. This is a fine area west of Moab. You can find a chunk of slickrock, engage in slotation, and be at peace with the grandeur of nature.

Canyonlands NP, near Grandview Point. I first visited the park in the late 70s...just drove in and camped. Roads weren't paved, no services...nothing but dramatic landscape and solitude. The main roads have since been sealed but otherwise it's still about the same...a wild, remote, rugged, absolutely grand place.

This shot is on Utah highway 12, between Capitol Reef and Bryce. The light was just right. Breathtaking scenery is everywhere in southern Utah. The summer monsoon season provides dramatic cloud formations...it's probably the best time to go for photography from a light perspective. But the countryside will be spectacular in about a month, when the aspen leaves turn a brilliant gold. If you can combine the golden aspens with a late season thunderstorm day you've hit the jackpot.

More Bryce Images

Had to throw in some more Bryce shots. At sunset the rock formations get ghostly.
Gnarly old bristlecone skeletons near Yovimpa Point, in the southern end of the park. This section is little visited, and very quiet. On a day with glowering skies and nobody around, it's magical...and spiritual.

Took this shot as I hiked down into the canyon on a gray, drizzly day. Such days are prized by photographers...bright sunshine washes out the colors.


Hiking up Wall Street. Is this an exotic trail or what? I did this in the '80s...1988 I believe...but I didn't remember how amazing it was. The folks on the trail are hiking up switchbacks carved into the bare rock. Steep trail, but worth every step...and the steep part is rather short. Blow up the pic for the best effect.

Annother type of weather that is good for photographers at Bryce is convection. Thunderstorms produce odd and ominous clouds, and all sorts of neat light. Sometimes you just sit on a rock, look out, and stare in awe and amazement. Splendid!

Friday, August 27, 2010

I've been visiting Bryce Canyon for the past two days. The place is so visually stunning that anyone can take a slug of great pictures. I'll be posting them for a while, but here's a start...I went to Bryce Point last night at sunset to get this shot of hoodoos mingled with forest.
The last rays of sunlight illuminate the hills.

The colors and landforms at Bryce are unbelievable. The former are caused by various minerals in the rock...the landforms are due to erosion caused by wind, rain, and especially freezing and thawing, which occurs on about half the days of the year here.

I hiked down into the canyon today, and came up on Wall Street, an almost unique trail that runs through a narrow cleft in the redrock that, amazingly, is dotted with Douglas Firs! The only other place I've seen, or heard, of this phenomenon is in Zion.

At the far southern end of the park, I took the Bristlecone Pine trail from Rainbow Point. I found this ultra gnarly tree, perched on the edge of the outcrop, under glowering skies. It was just awesome here. More posts in future days!

Ramblings in the Rockies

I spent last weekend in Breckenridge. I like to rent a condo there, within walking distance of downtown. The condos are plush and have some nice furnishings, like this lamp.

I hiked up to an old mine at 11,500 feet last Sunday. There were buildings, tailings, and rusted equipment all over the place. Imagine what kind of a life it would be, living in a little cabin like this, at timberline, lugging all your gear up miles of dirt road and enduring bone chilling rain and cold temperatures...in summer! Worse the rest of the year. Talk about hard work.
The mine was in an amphitheatre at timberline. Here, in late summer, there was virtually no snow left and the air was balmy, but the countryside still had a forbidding appearance.

This is the highest tree in the amphitheatre. It defines timberline. I found a nice rock and achieved alpine slotation here.

At lower elevations, the weather is more benign, and the country more gentle. This is in Glenwood Canyon, next to I-70, a little over a mile below the other pictures in this post. The canyon is a fine venue for river rafting, cycling, rock climbing, and hiking. I should mention that although I did a lot of hiking and backpacking in Colorado when I lived here, I only saw one (1) bear. And it was only a few miles from here! I was driving in the fast lane of I-70, just a mile east of downtown Glenwood Springs, when I saw a black bear running in the slow lane of the freeway...in the middle of the day. I paced him on the left, and a camper from Florida drove behind him in the right lane for awhile. Then the bear hopped over the guardrail and proceeded toward the river. More than a little surreal.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

The Splendor of Arches

A few days ago I visited Arches National Park in Utah. I had been there three times before, but not since 1990. As usual, I made the trek up to Delicate Arch. The trail goes over slickrock in many areas, marked by stone cairns. Except...for this section, where the slickrock is so steep that some very diligent individuals carved steps out of the rock.
Classical shot of Delicate Arch...it's on the current Utah license plates. Blow the pic up and you'll see a touron underneath the arch, giving a sense of scale.

The Lizards rule the Arch! They hitched a ride up in my pack, so they didn't have to crawl or scuttle up, or whatever it is that lizards do when on the move. Our saurian friends are hanging out right below a natural rock chair, from which the observer can view the Arch and a vast amphitheater from above. It's a bit of a clamber and I didn't get up there this time, but on previous visits I scrambled up and felt like a Roman emperor presiding over the throng below. Delicate Arch would be an awesome sight for a really high quality rock concert!

This is Landscape Arch, the longest in the park at 306 feet. As you can see, it's leading a rather precarious existence and could collapse at any time...maybe tomorrow, maybe 300 years from now. Actually, a large chunk of rock fell off the right side of the arch in 1991...nobody was killed or seriously hurt, but due to the geological uncertainty of the situation, the area under the arch has since been closed to foot traffic. I reckon I wouldn't go under the arch anyway.

Double Arch is much more massive. This complex rock formation developed when water seeping through a crack in the rocks above the arch eventually eroded away enough rock to form first one arch, then two. They're huge...well over 100 feet high. At the end of a long, hot day of trekking, I was beat, and sought shade under the arches with dozens of Euros. The Euros love Southern Utah...there's nothing like it in Europe; in fact I don't know of any other area in the world with such numerous, colorful, and amazing rock
formations. The Euros come in droves to soak up the exotic nature of the place. At my B&B near Moab, most of the guests were Euros...my neighbors all three nights were French families.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Fisher Towers

Highway 128 is incredibly scenic. When I first drove this road, in 1978 or 1979, part of it wasn't even paved. Now it is, but it's still very quiet. It follows the Colorado River for over 30 miles. In this shot Fisher Towers is in the center distance.
The lizards are back in their element! After weeks in the rainforest, then another gig two miles above sea level, our saurian friends have returned to their natural habitat...the desert. They dig Fisher Towers.


Blow up this pic and look in the center, at the top of the rock formations, and you'll see what appears to be a double beaked gargoyle...or maybe he has a single beak and is extending his arms, or wings, or whatever gargoyles have. I have been fascinated by this rock pattern for over 30 years.


Here's a good shot of Fisher Towers, taken from the end of the road. There's a campground here if anyone wants to spend the night at the scene.


This pic was taken from my deck at the Castle Valley B&B. Not bad! The valley is entirely surrounded by red rock formations like this one.



I'm currently chilling at an isolated yet luxurious B&B in Castle Valley, a shangri-la about 17 miles east of Moab. No cell, no TV, sketchy internet, delicious food, hot tub, hammocks. Roughing it in style with the Euros! Mais oui, I'm thinking in Francais whenever possible as my neighbors are French. Most of the other people here are German...naturally the French and Germans communicate in English. On the way here I visited Fisher Towers, a rock formation that has always intrigued me since my first visit here in the late 1970s. It's a surreal spot, a couple miles off scenic highway 128 on a dirt road.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Ambling in the Rockies

For the past couple days I've been hanging out high in the Colorado Rockies. Here the Lizards and I are at Loveland Pass, 11,990 feet above sea level. Blow up the pic and you can see I-70 far below. We are above the Eisenhower Tunnel at this point. Temp here was a chilly 54 degrees, an hour after my car thermo registered 86 in Denver. Here we're a little more than 6000 feet above Denver, so the air is warming dry adiabatically as it descends from here into the city.
Summit county is a year round recreational mecca. Of course in the winter everyone skis or snowboards, but it's equally busy in summer with white water rafting, hiking, camping, and cycling...there are many miles of bike paths that are then used for cross country skiing in the winter. This is Lake Dillon, nicely full...not like a few years ago when it was very low due to drought. Notice the old beaver lodge in the foreground...I have no idea when it was built.


I'm currently staying in Breckenridge, 9600 feet above sea level...and all the hiking trails go up from there. This shot is along the Spruce Creek Trail, just south of town, at an elevation of about 10,900 feet. At this elevation on Mount Rainier, you've got...glaciers! But here, far to the south and well to the east, summer temperatures are much warmer and snowfall, though plentiful, is considerably less than on Rainier.


I was surprised to see these massive mushrooms growing near timberline, around 11,300 feet. The largest 'shroom is about a foot across.


A tranquil scene. The log and the grass to its lower left are real...most of the rest of the pic is a reflection. I hiked about 5 miles today, with around a thousand feet elevation gain and loss, all above 10 thousand feet elevation. All by noon. Not bad for an old sloat! I've done a lot of hiking on this trip and have gotten into noticeably better condition than a couple months ago. Loooong way to go on that score, though.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Western Scenes

I drove Trail Ridge Road enroute Denver a few days ago. Here's a pic looking toward the Gorge Lakes, accessible only by a rigorous cross country trip. I've always been intrigued by this spot, visible from the road to throngs of people but the lakes reachable only by a few hardy mountaineers. Blow the pic up and you can see two lakes in the lower left center...the higher one is Inkwell Lake, the lower is Arrowhead.
The Lizards make an appearance above timberline, almost 12 thousand feet above sea level.

This is the aptly named Flaming Gorge reservoir in northeastern Utah. The gorge was named by John Wesley Powell, who led the first expedition that rafted through the Grand Canyon.


The Morrow county courthouse in Heppner, Oregon, a classic stone structure built in 1902. A year later Heppner was hit by a massive, catastrophic flash flood that killed over 200 people...almost a quarter of the town's population. Due to its sturdy construction and elevated location, the courthouse survived.


An old, abandoned grain elevator in Ione, near Heppner. These desolate elevators have become a symbol of the vanishing farm towns across America. However, in Ione this picture is a little deceptive...there are two defunct elevators in the vicinity, and two functioning ones that have simply replaced the old structures. Amazingly, despite having grown up in Portland and visited many times since, I had never been to Heppner and Ione, though they are only about two hundred miles away. With all the traveling I do, I still find many roads in the west that I've never driven, and others that I haven't traversed in a quarter century or more.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Roaming the Gorge


Yesterday I spent a day rambling through the Columbia River Gorge, one of my favorite spots. Between the river, waterfalls, massive basalt cliffs, verdant forests, and amazing geology and meteorology, the Gorge is endlessly fascinating. Here's a good example...the trail to Ponytail Falls goes behind it!


Farther downstream, Horsetail Falls descends beyond the graceful arches of the old Columbia River Highway, built around 1915..a thoroughfare and a work of art.


Basalt rises above the river, forming the walls of the gorge. 12-15 thousand years ago, the gorge was sculpted by the catastrophic Missoula Floods...I've blogged the floods before. Now, wind is a major player, shaping the vegetation dramatically.

This view from between Hood River and The Dalles shows the drier eastern end of the gorge. To the left center of the pic is the Washington town of Lyle, built on a gravel bar deposited by the Missoula Floods. From just west of Hood River to just east of The Dalles, a distance of about 30 miles with negligible elevation change, the gorge transitions from lush Doug Fir forest to barren sagebrush desert. I know of no other place in the world like this.


Wind blasts through the gorge year round. West winds bring marine air from the ocean, moderating the temperature; east winds bring continental air from the interior, resulting in extreme temperatures. Here, at the western end, these trees have almost no branches on their east sides. 40 miles farther east, at Hood River, the trees are branchless to the west.

The Sidewalks of Portland

I roamed around Portland a couple days ago, doing my ongoing sidewalk contractor photo shoot. I've been interested in the old contractors' stamps in the concrete since I was a kid...the only other city where I've seen so many of them surviving in the pavement is Coronado. They're rare or nonexistent in most cities that I've walked in. In the Irvington district in NE Portland, many of the stamps have been lost...they were usually located at corners, and many of the corner sidewalks have been repaved in recent years to make curb ramps for wheelchairs. But one contractor...Elwood Wiles...put his name in the middle of many blocks that he paved...over a century ago. Thus many of his stamps still exist.
When the sidewalks in Irvington and other older areas of Portland were laid in the first years of the 20th century, horses were of course still in wide use in the city. So rings were installed in the curbs and people could tie up their horses on the streets. Again, I've never walked in another city that still has horse rings! This one appears to have been installed lying to the left when the concrete was not yet dry, leaving an imprint.

This curb in Irvington reflects the street naming method before 1931. In that year, the city was divided into five districts...north, northeast, southeast, northwest, and southwest. East-west lanes were designated as streets, while avenues ran north-south. Thus, about 20 years after this curb was laid, the street became Northeast 18th Avenue.


Irvington is a gracious neighborhood of old, well kept homes. Look at this one...how'd you like to vacuum and paint it? Of course, the owners can probably afford to have someone else do it. What a fine porch...on both the first and second floors! Great for outdoor living. Irvington has been upscale for a long time...my mom recalled that when she was a girl in the 1930s, the rich kids lived in Irvington. Living north of Fremont Street during the depression, she was in the "poor German" demographic.


This is one of the oldest stamps I've seen. This one is not in Irvington but on the corner of NE 26th and Halsey. I recall seeing a 1903 in the past, but none in the 19th century.

The art of the contractor stamp is not dead! Here's a brand new one, near Grant High School. The design has changed a little, and it's cool that the contractor is named Cindy! I would guess that there were not many female sidewalk contractors a century ago.





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