6.21.17 - Pastel Canyon is a short slot canyon not marked on any maps in the Valley of Fire. It's not far from the road, but it's totally hidden from sight and a bit difficult to find. The colors, textures, lines, layers, and shapes in this place are just stunning, as they so frequently are in the desert.
6.24.17 - Lone Pine Peak (largest peak on the left) and Mt. Whitney (spiky peak on the right) framed through Mobius Arch. Although Lone Pine Peak looks higher in this image, it's a matter of perspective. At 14,505 feet Mt. Whitney not only dwarfs Lone Pine Peak by over 1,000 feet, but is also the highest peak in the Lower 48. The rugged Alabama Hills at the base of the Sierra Nevada were used to film countless westerns over the last century, and are still used today for many Hollywood films.
6.20.17 - "The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world." - F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great GatsbyWhile I don't share Fitzgerald's affinity for New York City, or cities in general, I feel the same promise whenever I catch sunrise on the Grand Canyon.
6.24.17
6.22.17 - "...not again in all the world's turning will there be terrains so wild and barbarous to try whether the stuff of creation may be shaped to man's will or whether his own heart is not another kind of clay." - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
6.23.17
6.21.17 - I stumbled upon a group of sheep while out for a short hike in the Valley of Fire. They seemed entirely apathetic to my presence and thoroughly oblivious to the 119º heat. It's easy to see how they differ physically from their cousins in the Rocky Mountains, seen here and here, due to the climate and landscape in which they each reside. I was really entranced by this ram's beautiful horns.
6.19.17 - For over twenty miles I could see these bizarre silhouettes as I took Indian Route 59 toward Kayenta into the setting sun. They struck me as fantastical or mythical structures, like something one might see in Lord of the Rings. When I finally looked at a map, I realized these were some of the less-recognizable buttes of Monument Valley. I didn't realize I was so close, as I had never approached Monument Valley from the south before.
6.18.17 - I just had time to glance through a few photos from last night. I'll do a much more robust post later, but for now let me get at least one photo up from the Bisti Badlands in the De-Na-Zin Wilderness. It truly felt like being on a different planet.