Southwestern Winter Scenes

A few shots from my current trip.  Around Christmas, the sun angle remains low all day, even in California and Arizona.  Light and shadow mingle softly.  This scene is near New Cuyama, between Santa Maria and Bakersfield.

This is old US highway 99 just south of Bakersfield.  This road was displaced by the current freeway around 1960.  Before that, it was traveled by everyone from the Okies of Grapes of Wrath fame to, probably, James Dean and Jack Kerouac.  It's quiet now.

Tehachapi had received a dusting of snow a day or so before I passed through.

Windmills near Tehachapi.

Rocks in Joshua Tree NP.  Especially mellow in the early morning and late afternoon.

The San Pedro River valley near Tombstone AZ.  The lighter colored trees, cottonwoods, mark the river.