Death Valley - Artist Palette - II

We stopped at the parking are and I ventured up among the boulders to see what I could see.

Death Valley - Artist's Palette

The Artist's Palette is aptly named. This is place filled with color. Not all of it is a rich, saturated color, but it is varied and draws one into the scene.

With more of a watercolor kind of intensity, the colors sometimes seem to be pained in. Parts remind me of neapolitan ice cream.

Other times, I am convinced that this is an other worldly place and that I've been transported to another planet.

With the deep blue sky overhead though, I am reminded that I am, indeed, still on the mother planet where grooves are formed by flowing water and colored hills are the result of chemical compostion.

 

Death Valley - Zabriskie Point - III

In the image above, you can clearly see how different the nearby rocks are from the ones across the valley. This place is filled with contrasts, not just with heat and dry alternating with cold and flood, but with materials and composition.

Death Valley - Zabriskie Point - II

Death Valley was historically important for two main reasons: borax mining and killing people trying to find their way to California during the 1849 gold rush.

Death Valley - On to Zabriskie Point

Mesquite flat is fun place for photos. It was easy to pick a place to stand and turn in different directions for photos.

Death Valley - Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes

After Hoover Dam, I stopped in Las Vega to pick up Elizabeth from the airport and we headed out for Death Valley. We arrived well after dark. The ride through the desert in the dark was eerie. It felt like there was a forest closing in all around us when, in fact, it was all open desert. the lack of anything to reflect the headlights back was mistaken for something absorbing all the light.

Hoover Dam - III

Notice that the water level downstream from the dam is just where it always it. This tells us that water has been released from Lake Mead at a rate to keep the water flowing to California as usual.

Hoover Dam - II

This sire for the dam was selected because the canyon was narrow here and the dam would be as small as possible. This makes the view of Lake Mead seem puny. Nevertheless, it is the largest reservoir in the US.

On to Hoover Dam

Western Arizona is an empty, beautiful place to drive. Even here, well away from the predation of the eroding Colorado river, it is filled with tortured rock formations. 

Grand Canyon West - III

Unlike the national park where we were looking down on the river and its works, here we are at eye level with the vast array of mesas and canyons.

Grand Canyon West - II

You will excuse me for failing to properly crop the photo above and the next one. Mea culpa. But you get the idea. Interestingly, the formation you are looking at is not on the main flow of the river, rather on a small local tributary.

Grand Canyon West

While most folks who visit the Grand Canyon visit the location I showed you before, north of Williams, AZ, there is another place to see the efforts of the Colorado River to carve the rocks into interesting shapes. This place, however, is not a national park. It is on the Hualapai Reservation and one must pay for the privilege.

Meteor Crater - II

This crater is one of, if not the largest intact craters in the world. This fact is what attracted the attention of geologists and engineers.

Meteor Crater

Even the best laid plans are executed imperfectly. I managed to forget my camera battery charger and battery I was charging in the hotel room back in Winslow. So, once I finished at the Grand Canyon, I reversed course and went back to the hotel to fetch the forgotten items. Along the way I realized that I was now easy to stop for a look about at Meteor Crater.

Grand Canyon - V

 

I mix in these images in monochrome for nostalgia. When I was young, what I saw were photos of this places and others in the southwest that were similarly B&W. Thus, much of perception of this place is through that filter. While the color is beautiful, often breathtaking, I need a few monochromes to help my mind's eye fully grasp what I am seeing.

Grand Canyon - IV

The intensity of the colors as the light shifts is really quite something.

Grand Canyon - III

The blush of light from the rising sun continues to grow in the east.

Grand Canyon - II

As dawn approaches, the colors become more distinct.

The Grand Canyon

After an evening visit to the Painted Desert comes a very early morning drive to the south rim of the Grand Canyon.

Painted Desert - IV

As the sun sets, the shadows lengthen and become more dramatic.

Painted Desert - III

Looking at the formations from a distance, there is little sense of scale. I cannot tell if the distance between the smallest ravines is 10's or 100's of feet nor if their height is 100 or 500 feet.

Painted Desert - II

There are sections of the rock formations that give the appearance of something organic.

Painted Desert

After our house sit in Albuquerque ended, I dropped E off at the airport to fly home for a wedding and I started the drive west across Arizona. My first stop was an afternoon visit at the painted desert.

Santa Fe Colors

Santa Fe is a place for color. Even among the bare trees, the red chilies and the blue sky belies the winter season.

Santa Fe in the Sunlight

Sometimes even the mundane around us has a symmetry and design that catches the eye.

A Visit to Santa Fe

On a clear and a little cold day, we visited Santa Fe. Next to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi is a small park and there are some interesting statues found there.

Albuquerque Balloon Museum

At part of the celebrations of the annual balloon festival in Albuquerque, there is a really good museum. It is filled with balloon equipment that span much of the history of their usage. Lots of displays on expeditions that I knew nothing about that included ballooning.

A Last Look at the Historic Site

By the time I reached this point in the self-guided tour, it really was beginning to rain.

Jemez Springs Historic Site

This place is the ruins of the village built by the ancestors of the current residents of Jemez Springs.

On to the Jemez Springs Historic Site

The clouds continue to gather and it begins to rain just a little.

Jemez Springs - III

This area is filled with natural beauty and expansive vistas. As in much of New Mexico, the people here are not wealthy. While there are some impressive houses near the main road, Jemez Springs proper is a Pueblo and inhabited by people of very modest means.