9 posts tagged “nature”
The final installment of photos I took at Mesa Verde last fall.
I just like using the word "penultimate".
Yesterday: Crystal Forest
This continues the documentation of our recent trip to the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona.
Probably the most beautiful area of the park that we saw was the Blue Mesa area, which is a looped drive that you have to leave the main road for, and has a couple of trails in it. Of course, all this beautiful scenary around us, and I decided to take a picture of my shadow first.
Much cooler than my shadow, admittedly.
In this area, erosion has created badland-like features, but at the same time it has uncovered large pieces of petrified wood. The petrified wood is harder than the sedimentary rock beneath it, so it remains even as the mountain is washed away beneath it. Eventually, this petrified logs will roll down the side of the formations and crash into pieces at the bottom.
Just in case you were thinking of taking a step off a five hundred foot drop.
There are signs in the area commanding visitors not to feed the wildlife, but it I think it's clear that someone has been feeding these birds. Two ravens adopted us and followed us from pull-off to pull-off, showing very little fear of humans. Of course, they looked about thirty pounds and had little cause to fear anything. Or maybe they just liked the PT Cruiser.
I ignored the warning sign and walked out onto a sheer ledge to take these shots, much to Strix's dismay, but I got some great pics. If I had fallen to my death, the camera may still have been salvagable, so it would have been worth it.
Strix getting up close and personal to get a picture of one of the ravens. She's about two feet from it here.
Tomorrow: Tepees and Puerco Pueblo
Originally posted on my old blog on February 23rd, 2006:
We started the day at White Sands National Monument, south of Alamogordo. If you're not familiar this White Sands, its the world's largest gypsum dune field, encompassing 275 miles of land, some of which extends into the White Sands Missile Testing grounds.
The edge of the dunes.
Images from one of the trails. It looks just like snow, and this morning it felt like it could have been. It was just a little over freezing, not that there was any moisture to freeze.
The sand is very fine and captures perfect tracks of whatever walks through it. These appear to be the tracks of a kangaroo rat.
These tracks look like they were also made by a hopping animal of some sort, but I couldn't tell you what. No thumbnail of this one, since a smaller version of it would just look white.
These are bird tracks, which were all over the place. In a few places, the prints were much larger and there was a lot more space between them. Those prints I imagine to be from a roadrunner.
A number of plants grow in the dunes. Some of the larger ones, like this one, have extensive root systems that anchor the sand. The dunes move slowly over time, being shifted by the wind, but when a plant's root system anchor the sand a pillar is left behind.
Certain trees could also live in the dunes. In the interdunal areas, the water table is only 18 inches below the surface, but on the top of the dunes, like here, the trees have to extend their roots as far as 25 feet to find water. [Edit: I since had this photo blown up to poster size, had it framed, and gave it as a gift to my brother at Christmas. It's probably my favorite from this trip.]
Here and there, you can find dunes that are sprinkled with small particles that are actually crumbled particles of fossilized plant root systems. In some cases, the particles are actual fossils, which no longer have any wood fiber in them. In other cases, the fossilization process is incomplete and the particles still have wood fibers in them. The center of this shot shows a larger piece of a root that is still being fossilized by exposure to the sand. Some of the smaller particles around it are fully fossilized.
It was still early in the day, but one of our goals for the day was to go to Mexico, so we left the park with the idea that we would return the next day for the Sunset Stroll, which is a ranger-guided tour.
Yesterday: Holbrook's Petroglyph Park
This continues the documentation of our recent trip to the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona.
This was our second day at the Petrified Forest National Park, and we came at it from the other direction, going in the South entrance. The first thing you come to is a very touristy place that is officially outside the park where you can buy petrified wood from private land, as well as other tourist kitsch. Sadly, they don't sell gasoline, and at this point I was starting to be a little concerned about our fuel levels, but Strix assured me that her Cruiser could handle it.
Inside the park from the South entrance, the first thing you come come to is the Rainbow Forest Museum.
The dinosaur exibits in the small museum are few, but impressive.
Rainbow Forest, behind the museum, is a windy trail strewn with petrified wood pieces.
Click on this one for a larger view. Some of the pieces of petrified wood, like this one, completely crystalized on the inside, and are exceptionally beautiful.
A memorial plaque, honoring Stephen Tyng Mather, the first director of the National Park Service,
Two of the more interesting pieces of petrified wood, and another scenary shot, showing how much is on the ground here.
Tomorrow: Agate House
Yesterday: Newspaper Rock and Agate Bridge
This continues the documentation of our recent trip to the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona.
When you get to the Petrified Forest part of the park, you begin to see the pieces of mineralized tree trunks everywhere. These are ancient trees, about 225 million years old, that were flooded with silicate-laden water which seeped into the wood and turned them into fossiles. The petrified wood here is reddish due to the presence of iron oxide.
Here you can see petrified logs strewn all about. There used to be a lot more, I understand, but much of it got carted away before the area was declared a national park and it was made illegal to take the specimens.
Examples of petrified wood. The fourth pic shows Strix taking a picture of me taking a picture of her. The fifth pic shows some of the amazing colors that can be found in the wood.
This being a park, there is a lot of wildlife. Other than the enormous ravens you'll see later, we didn't actually see any of it, but there were signs. Here are some tracks, possibly from a rabbit.
More examples of some of the more interesting pieces we saw. Honestly, though, how many pictures can you take of fossilized tree stumps?
Tomorrow: The Wigwam Motel
Yesterday: The Painted Desert
This continues the documentation of our recent trip to the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona.
Newspaper Rock is a petroglyph site in the PFNP, not to be confused with other petroglyph sites with the same name, such as the one at the Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument in Utah.
It's hard to tell from the picture, but there was quite a drop-off here on the other side of this rickety wooden fence.
An historic marker at the site.
Pics of the actual petroglyphs. You'll want to click on the images to see them in more detail. Petroglyphs are sometimes hard to see, but these are densely populated and in stark contrast with the natural color of the stone.
After leaving Newspaper Rock, our next stop was Agate Bridge. Agate Bridge is a long petrified log spanning a crevasse. Unfortunately, at some point in the past, conservationists decided that in order to preserve the natural bridge they would put an artificial, concrete bridge underneith it to support the log. Sure, that preserves it, but at what cost? It doesn't look the same now, to be sure.
Tomorrow: The Petrified Forest
Yesterday: Window Rock
This continues the documentation of our recent trip to the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona.
The troubling thing about landscape shots, is that the photographs never look as amazing as the actual scenary did. Never. The closest you can come to capturing the grandeur of it is if you have camera that will do panorama shots. Strix's camera does, so check out her panoramas. Even though mine aren't as good, I think I still got some decent shots.
When you enter the Petrified Forest National Park from I-40, the first thing you see are pull-offs where you can view (and photograph, of course) the Painted Desert, which is a badlands area of striking beauty and color.
Views from the first pull-off.
Strix beginning her panorama shot. Yes, she does it without a tripod. She's good that way.
Various shots from different pull-off areas.
A geologic survey marker from 1934, documenting our altitude (5,826 ft).
A couple more shots. These were from behind the Painted Desert Inn, an historic building in the middle of the park, overlooking some of the best views of the Painted Desert.
Some images from the Painted Desert Inn. The left shows a native rug with one of the neater looking petroglyphs behind it that I've ever seen. The center image shows the glass skylight that according to the U.S. Park Service employee there was added by Civilian Conservation Corps workers when they refurbished the building in the 1930's. The image on the right is a view of the badlands from under the rustic awning behind the Inn.
And, you guessed it, more pictures of the Painted Desert. The center shot was of an interesting formation at full zoom.
There are informational kiosks at most of the pull-off points. This one was at Pintado Point, and was part of a virtual geocache, so we had to take a picture of it.
From here, we continued south through the park, crossing I-40 approaching the Petrified Forest.
Tomorrow: Newspaper Rock and Agate Bridge
Originally posted on my old blog on February 14th, 2006:
Despite living in the city, we live in a fairly well-wooded area, and there are numerous deer that co-habitate our neighborhood. They also have very little fear of humans. Here's one I saw this morning. There were three, but they were all leaving by the time I had my camera out and ready.
