31 Saturday Oct 2015
Posted in Photography, Road Trip
When I saw this sunrise at Badlands National Park during my recent road trip, I knew it was going to be impossible to take only one photo that would take into account the bright and colorful rising sun shining intensely over everything, and the hills that were only a third as bright. So I took three shots: overexposed, underexposed, and normal. Today, using Photomatix HDR software, I got the following result.
Badlands sunrise in HDR.
27 Tuesday Oct 2015
Posted in Photography, Road Trip
Tags
cliff dwelling, cliff palace, edward j. fraughton, kiva, mesa verde national park, photography, postaday, road trip, the ancient ones
This is the last of the “Additional Photos” posts on the road trip I undertook in September and October. It is fitting that it covers Mesa Verde National Park, near the town of Cortez, CO. The park is not about scenery but about the fascinating history and archaeology of those who lived in the area before the arrival of the white man and western civilization.
A variety of people have lived for 13,000 years in the Mesa Verde area. They started as small groups of nomadic hunter gatherers, but around 1000 BCE they began cultivating corn to supplement their hunting diet. They weaved baskets and dug into the earth to build pithouses. Agriculture allowed population to increase, and by 750 CE the ancestral Puebloans (the politically correct name for the Anasazi) began building entire pueblos above ground with houses, some with many rooms, and kivas or ceremonial rooms.
Ruins of above ground communities at Mesa Verde National Park.
Ruins of Coyote Village with kiva in foreground, Mesa Verde National Park.
Stone with spiral petroglyph as part of a kiva wall, Mesa Verde National Park.
However, Mesa Verde is better known for the cliff dwellings which the ancestral Puebloans did not begin to build until the 12th century. They only lived in those cliff houses for about 100 years, abandoning them at the end of the 13th century, following extended periods of drought that led to warfare and forced people to emigrate or die from starvation. The descendants of the ancestral Puebloans now live in Southern Arizona and New Mexico.
Cliff Palace the biggest cliff dwelling at Mesa Verde National Park. It has 150 rooms and 23 kivas.
Oak Tree House at Mesa Verde National Park.
Sunset House on two levels at Mesa Verde National Park.
Mummy House on two levels at Mesa Verde National Park.
Ancestral Puebloans cultivated their lands on the top of the mesa above their houses. So how did they go from their cliff dwellings to their fields, or move from one level to another? They used ropes and ladders, or carved climbing steps in the sandstone. At the new Visitor Center of Mesa Verde, there is a statue by sculptor Edward J. Fraughton depicting an “ancient one” descending a narrow column of sandstone while carrying a basket of corn.
“The Ancient Ones” by sculptor Edward J. Fraughton, in front of the Visitor Center at Mesa Verde National Park.
26 Monday Oct 2015
Posted in Photography, Road Trip
More photos taken at Great Sand Dunes near Mosca, CO. Click on images to view them in full size.
Great Sand Dunes National Park.
Hikers at Great Sand Dunes National Park.
Great Sand Dunes National Park.
Hikers at Great Sand Dunes National Park.
Man and best friend at Great Sand Dunes National Park.
Couple at Great Sand Dunes National Park.
Girl at Great Sand Dunes National Park.
The above photo reminded me of Christina’s World, a painting by Andrew Wyeth: http://www.moma.org/collection/works/78455
25 Sunday Oct 2015
Posted in Photography, Road Trip
Black Canyon of the Gunnison near the town of Montrose in Colorado only became a National Park in 1999, but it has been known over a century for its rugged features, steep and narrow walls, and impassable nature.
In 1853 Captain John W. Gunnison led an expedition to explore it and described it as “a stream imbedded in [a] narrow and sinuous canyon, resembling a huge snake in motion.” A few months later, his party was attacked by a band of Utes, and he was among eight who were killed. The canyon river was renamed in his honor.
I took the following photos from the overlooks on the South Rim drive of the park.
View of Black Canyon from Pulpit Rock overlook.
View of Black Canyon from Cross Fissures overlook.
The entire canyon is 48 miles (77 km) in length, but only the deepest and most dramatic 12 miles (19 km) are within the national park boundaries. The canyon is deep and steep because the Gunnison runs rather fast through it, dropping an average of 34 feet per mile (6.4 m/km) compared to the Colorado River at Grand Canyon which averages 7.5 feet per mile (1.42 m/km). Because of its almost vertical walls, sunlight only reaches the bottom of the canyon for 33 minutes a day, giving rise to the name of Black Canyon. However, the rocks on the canyon walls are varied in colors, not black.
View of Devil’s Overlook at Black Canyon.
Due to the rate at which the river cuts through the rocks, Black Canyon is also a very narrow canyon. At Chasm View, only 1,100 feet (335 m) separate the North and South rims.
View of Black Canyon at Chasm View overlook.
View of Gunnison River from Painted Wall overlook.
Between 1905 and 1909, a 5.8 mile (9.3 km) diversion tunnel was dug to channel water from the Gunnison River to the Uncompahgre Valley. The tunnel currently helps irrigate 76,300 acres of the valley which produces fruit and many crops, including Moravian malting barley used in Colorado’s Coors beer.
As we hiked up to Warner Point, I took the following photo of lush fields in the Bostwick Park mesa with the Uncompaghre Valley and the San Juan mountain range in the background.
Bostwick Park mesa viewed from the trail to Warner Point at Black Canyon.
Final stop was Sunset View point. I had hoped for a nice sunset, but a large black cloud loomed ominously. Still Sunset View yielded an interesting shot.
Spoiled sunset at Sunset View point in Black Canyon.
24 Saturday Oct 2015
Posted in Photography, Road Trip
Tags
painted desert, petrified forest national park, petroglyph, photography, postaday, road trip, teepee, whipple cholla cactus, wigwam motel
Painted Desert covers an area 120 miles long by 60 miles wide (190 by 97 km) starting from Cameron, AZ, near Grand Canyon National Park, and extending past Holbrook, AZ. It was discovered in the 16th century by Spanish explorers who named it “El Desierto Pintado”.
Most of Painted Desert now lies within the boundaries of the Navajo Nation. A small part of it is within Petrified Forest National Park, divided by Interstate 40 into northern and southern parts. Petrified Forest of course contains many deposits of petrified wood, although a lot of it had been looted and carried away before the place became a National Monument in 1906 and a National Park in 1962.
Arizona sunrise over Painted Desert.
Arizona sunrise over teepee outside of Petrified Forest National Park.
Visitors admiring park ranger horses at Visitor Center in Petrified Forest National Park.
View of Painted Desert in northern section of Petrified Forest National Park.
Painted Desert lies within the Chinle Formation which consists of sedimentary rocks dating back 200 million years ago. Its colors range from red, orange, and yellow to blue, lavender, and purple, depending on the rate at which minerals were deposited. Rapid deposits lead to colors like lavender, blue, gray while slower deposits produce the red and yellow seen in the northern part of the park.
View of Painted Desert in northern section of Petrified Forest National Park.
View of Painted Desert at Blue Mesa in southern part of Petrified Forest National Park. Small pieces of rock are petrified wood.
Rock formations named Teepees in southern part of Petrified Forest National Park.
A piece of petrified wood in southern part of Petrified Forest National Park.
Whipple Cholla Cactus at Petrified Forest National Park.
People have lived in Painted Desert for as long as 13,000 years and have left their imprints on the landscape. Ancestral Puebloans built houses, entire villages, and carved petroglyphs on rocks. I took the following photos at Newspaper Rock, which is not one rock but several containing as many as 650 petroglyphs.
Petroglyphs at Newspaper Rock in southern part of Petrified Forest National Park.
Visitors were not allowed to walk down to the rocks, and high noon lighting was not the best, but the petroglyphs were still clearly visible.
Petroglyphs at Newspaper Rock in southern part of Petrified Forest National Park.
Finally, the Wigwam Motel where we stayed is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was built in 1950 and its accommodations are rather austere by today’s standards, but it was really striking and the price was right!
View of a teepee at Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, AZ. Antique cars on site belong to the motel owners.
23 Friday Oct 2015
Posted in Photography, Road Trip
Tags
canyon de chelly, fortress rock, massacre cave, mummy cave, photography, postaday, road trip, spider rock, white house ruins
Canyon de Chelly (Chelly comes from the Navajo word Tseyi) National Monument is located within land of the Navajo Nation in Northeast Arizona. It is here that in 1864 Kit Carson managed to defeat the Navajo warriors and forced 8,500 Navajo men, women, and children to migrate to a reservation near Fort Sumner in New Mexico.
The Long Walk took place in the winter of 1864 over 300 miles. Some died on the way, while many others perished on the reservation due to disease, famine, and in general poor management of the reservation by the US government. In 1868 the Navajos were allowed to return to Canyon de Chelly. A few still live there, but more than 300,000 Navajos are now spread out over the 27,413 square miles (over 7 million hectares) of the Navajo Nation in parts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.
Fortress Rock at Canyon de Chelly. This is where Navajo warriors took refuge when they were attacked by troops under Kit Carson in 1864.
Massacre Cave at Canyon de Chelly. In 1805 Spanish soldiers shot at the Navajos from this vantage point, killing 90 warriors and 25 women and children. One Navajo woman grappled with a Spaniard and plunged to her death, dragging her enemy with her. The Navajos now call this place “Two Fell Off”.
White House ruins at Canyon de Chelly. These were built by ancient Puebloans who lived there from 1060 to 1275 AD. Look closely and you’ll see a good size petroglyph on the cliff wall between the two levels of these ruins.
Spider Rock at Canyon de Chelly. It is 800 ft (240 m) high and has been filmed in television commercials. The lower spire is Speaking Rock.
Unusual rock formation seen from Spider Rock Overlook at Canyon de Chelly.
22 Thursday Oct 2015
Posted in Photography, Road Trip
Tags
canyonlands national park, dead horse point state park, photography, postaday, road trip, wilson arch
By the time we went through Moab, UT, I had driven through two thirds of our planned itinerary, and the wow factor was slowly yielding to road weariness. We had been to the area already and knew some of the sights so we only made brief stops.
Dead Horse Point State Park is one of my favorites and you can probably see why from the following very popular shot of the Colorado River as it flows south to merge with the Green River in Canyonlands National Park. The name of the park comes from the legend that some horses corralled on the point were somehow left to die of thirst within sight of the river 2000 ft below them.
Colorado River at Dead Horse Point State Park.
Green River at Canyonlands National Park.
We went through the town of Moab on our way to our next stop in Arizona. Right by Highway 191, some 24 miles from Moab was Wilson Arch, easily accessible to anyone. I was told that unwary tourists have been misled by dishonest tour bus guides who took them to see Wilson Arch, since it was right by the side of the road, then told them they had been to Arches National Park!
Wilson Arch right by Highway 191, 24 miles south of Moab, UT.
21 Wednesday Oct 2015
Posted in Photography, Road Trip
On the way from Capitol Reef National Park to Green River, UT, we stopped by Goblin Valley State Park which merits a post all by itself. It lies north of Hanksville, UT off Highway 24. It is not a very big park as it covers only 3.6 acres (1.5 ha), but it is worth a visit. Nearby there are camping sites and even a couple of yurts. Families with young children favor this park as it is very accessible to the younger ones who can roam freely throughout the area.
From Hanksville the drive is 32 miles long to get to the park entrance where the majestic Wild Horse Butte dominates.
Wild Horse Butte at entrance to Goblin Valley State Park.
Inside the park are thousands of hoodoos or phantasmagorical rock formations unseen elsewhere. A movie, Galaxy Quest, was filmed at Goblin Valley because of the fantastic, out-of-this-world scenery.
Hoodoos at Globin Valley State Park.
Hoodoos at Goblin Valley State Park.
View from parking lot at Goblin Valley State Park.
Hoodoos at Goblin Valley State Park.
This last photo helps explain where those “goblins” came from.
Hoodoo at Goblin Valley State Park. On the hill at left are buried Entrada Sandstone rocks that erosion will eventually transform into hoodoos.
The hoodoos at Goblin Valley are made of Entrada Sandstone, the same rocks found at Arches National Park and in Cathedral Valley section of Capitol Reef National Park. All of these places are on what is considered the Colorado Plateau. In the Jurassic period, some 170 million years ago, Goblin Valley was the tidal flat of an ancient sea where sandstone, siltstone, and shale were deposited and transformed into solid layers of rocks. The Colorado Plateau started to be uplifted 10 million years ago, after which erosion by wind and water began carving Entrada Sandstone into goblins. Erosion is continually changing Goblin Valley and those hoodoos or goblins will continue to be born, shaped and weathered and eventually fall down to the valley.
20 Tuesday Oct 2015
Posted in Photography, Road Trip
Capitol Reef National Park, near Torrey in Utah, owes its name to two of its natural features: whitish rock formations that look like the Capitol dome in Washington, DC; and the giant Waterpocket Fold that stretches from North to South making the rock walls pushed up from the earth look like reefs. There was no easy way to cross the area from East to West until Highway 24 was built in 1962.
View of Capitol dome from Highway 24 at Capitol Reef National Park.
Capitol Reef National Park at sunset and moonrise.
Beginning of trail to the Golden Throne at Capitol Reef National Park.
I drove on the paved section of Notom Road which ran for 34 miles (54 km) on the East side of Capitol Reef. That’s where the Waterpocket Fold rock wall stretching for miles was clearly visible.
Rock formation by the side of Notom Road, with the long Waterpocket Fold wall seen on the lower right side of the photo. On aerial photos, the fold is clearly visible as it is nearly 100 miles (160 km) long.
Despite these geologic obstacles, Mormon pioneers began settling in the area in the late 1870’s. They established a community named Fruita along the Fremont River, planted fruit trees and raised animals. Fruita is now within the park boundaries and the Mormons have been bought out and moved away, but the orchards are still productive with about 3,000 trees. In season, visitors can pick and eat fruit for free, or pay a small fee if they take it home.
Mormon barn in Fruita, near the Visitor Center at Capitol Reef National Park.
The Gifford family was the last family to be bought out by the government in 1969. Their house now serves as a museum where souvenirs, fruit pies, and ice cream are sold!
My Fruita lunch: apple pie and strawberry ice cream.
The following morning, the sun put on a beautiful sunrise. I took these photos from the hotel which was only 2 miles from Capitol Reef.
Sunrise over Capitol Reef, as seen from hotel.
Sunrise over Capitol Reef National Park.
19 Monday Oct 2015
Posted in Photography, Road Trip
Going from Great Basin National Park to Capitol Reef National Park, I drove on Scenic Byway 12 (Highway 12) in Utah. It was one of the best drives I had ever experienced. It was 124 miles long, well paved, not too twisty, and goes through some of the most magnificent scenery in the world. We only stopped briefly at Red Canyon, Bryce Canyon National Park, and the Boynton Overlook which was about midway, and I really think we should have spent more time and made more stops.
View of Red Canyon as seen from Highway 12 on the way to Bryce Canyon.
Hoodoos named Salt and Pepper shakers at Red Canyon.
Bryce Canyon is one of the most photographed places on earth, and I’ve been there three times already. This fourth time, I went to Fairyland Point Overlook at the northern end of the park.
View of beginning of hiking trail from Fairyland Point Overlook at Bryce Canyon.
Hikers on trail, as seen from Fairyland Point Overlook at Bryce Canyon.
The views from Boynton Overlook on Highway 12 were simply spectacular, almost surreal.
View from Boynton Overlook on Highway 12.
Another view from Boynton Overlook on Highway 12.
17 Saturday Oct 2015
Posted in Photography, Road Trip
Tags
Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, bristlecone pine, Great Basin National Park, photography, postaday, road trip
Bristlecone Pines are trees that live at high elevations, as high as 11,200 ft (3,400 m), in extremely harsh conditions with little rainfall, and can be thousands of years old. The two oldest trees are 5,065 and 4,847 years old, and their exact locations in the White Mountains of California are kept secret to prevent damage from vandals.
We saw Bristlecone Pines at the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in Inyo county in California and at Great Basin National Park in Nevada. Both locations required arduous hikes, especially at Great Basin where the trail kept going up and up the slope of Mt Washington for 1.3 miles! However, it was all worth it.
Bristlecone Pine at Schulman Grove in the Ancient Bristlecone Pines Forest near Bishop, CA.
Bristlecone Pines at Schulman Grove.
While hiking the Discovery Trail at Schulman Grove, I saw a group of Japanese making a clothing commercial under a Bristlecone Pine.
Japanese crew after filming commercial under a Bristlecone Pine at Schulman Grove.
Bristlecone Pine at Schulman Grove used in Japanese commercial.
At Great Basin National Park the Interpretive Trail at Bristlecone Pine Grove had signs explaining how the trees grew and died.
Bristlecone Pines at grove on Mt Washington in Great Basin National Park.
Writing on sign: “Reluctance to Die: This 3000 year old remnant has been dead for 250 years. It has two buttresses. The one on the left died about 1100 A.D., the other continuing to grow for six more centuries. This great reluctance to die is common among bristlecone pines; they may cling to life for centuries after reaching old age. Born 1300 B.C. Died: 1700 A.D.”
Bristlecone Pine along Interpretive Trail at Great Basin.
Bristlecone Pines do not hold the record for the oldest living trees. That honor belongs to a group of aspen trees cloned from a single tree, known as Pando or The Trembling Giant near Fish Lake in Utah. The clonal colony covers 106 acres (43 hectares), contains 40,000 trunks, all cloned from the same original tree. Its roots are estimated to be 80,000 years old.
15 Thursday Oct 2015
Posted in Photography, Road Trip
Tags
mountain bluebells, mt rainier, photography, postaday, reflection lake, road trip, sagebrush, windmill
One of the nicest place I visited during this recent road trip was Kootenai Falls near Libby, MT. It was easily accessible, and the falls wild beauty was unmistakable. Parts of the movie The River Wild, a drama involving whitewater rafting, were filmed on the Kootenai River near the falls. Kootenai Falls drop 90 ft (27 m) in less than a mile, and their height is 30 ft (9 m), so rafting over the falls is not encouraged, but some kayakers have gone over them at their own peril.
Kootenai Falls.
As I walked along the falls, I saw something very appealing: Mountain Bluebells in a narrow crevice in the rocks.
Mountain Bluebells.
In all the Western states we traveled through, the ubiquitous sagebrush grew along highways and everywhere else where most plants would not survive. I had to capture this sturdy icon of the West in the following shots.
Sagebrush growing at an overlook near the Columbia River.
Flowering sagebrush at a rest area in Washington state.
Windmills too have sprouted in the wild, at places reputed to be windy, although I saw very few blades rotating when we passed by them.
Windmills in Washington state near Columbia River.
A friend asked me whether I saw Mt Rainier and I said yes. However, on second thought, I never actually saw Mt Rainier because it was always shrouded in clouds both days we were there. I drove up twice to Paradise which was a mere 5,000 ft (1,500 m) from the summit, but it did not make any difference. All I saw were clouds.
Mt Rainier from 20 miles away, hiding behind clouds.
However, the drive passed by Reflection Lakes, which made for wonderful photography. Here’s one of the lakes you can see from the road.
Reflection Lake with Mt Rainier behind clouds in the background.
Another look at Reflection Lake, from a different angle.
Another view of Reflection Lake.
14 Wednesday Oct 2015
Posted in Photography, Road Trip
We spent a total of a day and a half at Glacier National Park, not nearly enough, but we did manage to visit Two Medicine, Many Glacier, and drive along Going-to-the-Sun Road which roughly divides the park into northern and southern halves.
Our first afternoon was sunny but windy, with constantly shifting clouds. Aspens were near their fall colors peak.
Two Medicine Lake at Glacier National Park. The clouds were changing constantly due to high winds.
The following day started with thick fog and a colorful sunrise near the town of St Mary, the eastern entrance to Glacier National Park.
Sunrise near St Mary.
In the Many Glacier area, the only decent shot I got was one of Lake Sherburne.
View of Lake Sherburne in Many Glacier area of Glacier National Park. Water level in the lake was very low because of the drought.
Going-to-the-Sun Road was a nice drive, despite the overcast sky. The following two shots give you a taste of what the scenery looked like from the road.
View from Going-to-the-Sun Road.
Steep slopes and deep valleys as seen from Going-to-the-Sun Road.
There were many waterfalls along Going-to-the-Sun Road. Even though they did not have as much water as in the spring, they still provided interesting views more appealing than the gloomy sky.
Waterfall seen from Going-to-the-Sun Road.
Haystack Creek Falls flowing under a bridge on Going-to-the-Sun Road. It is much more impressive in the spring when lots of water cascade down the mountains.
Finally, the highest waterfall in Glacier National Park: Bird Woman Falls. It is named not for Sacajawea, but for the wife of either Old Sun or Lone Walker.
Bird Woman Falls seen from 2 miles away.
A sign said Bird Woman Falls was 492 ft (150 m) tall, but the World Waterfall Database puts its height at 960 ft (293 m). That height includes an upper drop of 175 ft (53 m) seen near the top of the above photo, a larger tier of 560 ft (171 m), and a number of cascades between the two.
12 Monday Oct 2015
Posted in Photography, Road Trip
From September 7 to October 10 of this year, a friend and I completed a road trip that some have qualified as “lifetime”.
Over 33 days, I drove 9,714 miles (15,633 km) through 21 states. We successively visited the following places, and I’ve added links to the posts related to each so that you can click on them to view the photos taken at each location.
I took 3,021 photos and my friend probably took about the same number. Now that we are safely back home, I will go back through my files and comb through them for the more interesting shots worthy of being posted on this blog.
On our last day at Great Sand Dunes, a Bluebird flew and perched on an electric wire near where I stood. I had never seen one before, either back in New Jersey or out West, so I promptly pulled out my camera and took the following shot.
Western Bluebird. It looked sad.
19 Saturday Sep 2015
Posted in Photography, Road Trip
Today we went to Crater Lake, a lake formed inside the collapsed top of Mt Mazama. The lake is the deepest (1,946 ft) in the United States, and its blue color is legendary.
Unfortunately, there was a bicycle event in the park which resulted in 3/4 of it being off limits to us. Very disappointing to say the least. The following photos were taken from a small part of the West Rim Drive.
Crater Lake with Wizard Island in the middle of the picture.
Wizard Island
A section of Crater Lake rim.
Looking down at the shoreline of Crater Lake.
Mt Thielson an extinct volcano near Crater Lake.
16 Wednesday Sep 2015
Posted in Photography, Road Trip
Tags
mt rainier, palisades, photography, postaday, road trip, windmill
We left Liberty Lake to go to Packwood at the south end of Glacier National Park. It was a relatively short drive (290 Miles), but it turned out to be longer than planned because we stopped at so many points. Here are the main ones.
Columbia River and Vantage Bridge as seen from a Scenic Overlook.
Windmills near Ryegrass rest area, after crossing Columbia River.
Raging Tieton River near White Pass Scenic Byway.
Mt Rainier as seen from a view point about 15 miles away, its top covered by clouds.
15 Tuesday Sep 2015
Posted in Photography
Tags
Yesterday, at Many Glacier in Glacier National Park, we, along with many others, saw a bear high up a mountain side. It was busy eating something and did not mind all the human gawkers with their cameras and binoculars.
Bear at Many Glacier
Today we were on the way to Mt Rainier National Park. We stopped at Kootenai Falls near Libby, MT. We hiked down and spent about two hours shooting pictures of the falls and the Swinging Bridge across the Kootenai River. Even though this is the low water season, the falls are absolutely worth it.
Kootenai Falls near Libby, MT.
Upper parts of Kootenai Falls
Water from Kootenai Falls flowing toward the Swinging Bridge.
I did not have a wide enough lens with me to capture the whole bridge, but I did venture out to its middle to shoot the following photo.
View from Swinging Bridge looking downstream from Kootenai Falls.
Distance travelled so far: 3,346 miles. Rest stop for the night: Liberty Lake, WA.
14 Monday Sep 2015
Posted in Photography, Road Trip
We arrived in East Glacier Park, MT in mid afternoon Sunday. The hotel had no wireless internet, so I’m a day late in my postings.
Along the drive we saw several herds of wild horses, lots of Angus cattle, and lots of hay bales, presumably to feed the cattle and maybe even the horses. I had to stop to take some pictures of the ubiquitous hay bales.
Hay bales on a Montana field.
After checking in, I drove right away to a part of Glacier National Park called Two Medicine for a lake of the same name. It was very windy but the sky was a brilliant blue with lots of white clouds of all sizes and shapes. The leaves had begun to turn yellow on the aspens along the road leading to the lake. It was an unforgettable landscape as you can see in the photos below.
Two Medicine lake in Glacier National Park.
Two Medicine lake in Glacier National Park.
Aspens at Two Medicine.
Aspens at Two Medicine.
Aspens at Two Medicine.
11 Friday Sep 2015
Posted in Photography, Road Trip
We left Fort Dodge, IA yesterday morning after admiring a glorious sunrise behind our motel.
Sunrise over Fort Dodge, IA.
Once we reached I-90, it was an easy drive from East to West, in a virtually straight line, bordered by immense fields of corn, soybean, sunflowers. We arrived in Wall, SD in early afternoon and went straight to nearby Badlands National Park to try to capture the sunset. This morning we woke up at 4 AM and went to wait for the sun to rise.
View from Pinnacles Overlook in late afternoon.
Badlands sunrise from Panorama Point.
Bighorn Ram at Badlands grazing a bare 15 ft from where I stood.
Near the town of Wall, SD. This is actually outside of Badlands .
Badlands is an underrated national park which is very accessible to everyone of all ages, from casual visitors to dedicated hikers. Its rugged pinnacles and canyons are made of layers of sediments and volcanic ashes which are constantly being eroded by the forces of nature. Thus the view will change from year to year, and you’ll need to be there to really appreciate its beauty.
Miles driven to date: 1,954 miles.
07 Monday Sep 2015
Posted in Photography, Road Trip
First stop on our road trip today was Mill Run, PA where, between 1936 and 1939, Frank Lloyd Wright built his famous Falling Water house for the Kaufmann family. I have wanted to visit this masterpiece for many years, and it did not disappoint even though temperatures were in the 90’s and the water falls did not have a lot of water.
Falling Water
Distance travelled today: 338 miles
