Summer blues
The summer blues of Crater Lake and Wizard Island
Hart Mountain – spring delights
For too many years Hart Mountain was out of my line of travel and added just enough extra time and miles to the trip at hand that I by-passed it. This spring I made the effort to go there, just there, and was well rewarded. It is a long slog from anywhere, the roads can be quagmires, the dust invasive, the heat crushing, and the mosquitoes draining. May it always remain this way.
Swallowtail and balsamroot
Sky drama
Looked down upon by a northern harrier
Subtle layers of color and texture
Sagebrush landscape
Bumblebee with balsamroot
The commercial strip v. the National Monuments – a request for stay of execution
On the executioner’s block: Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah
It is already true that one can be dropped on any commercial strip in the USA and have no idea where they are. Each is so much the same, so not unique, that Chattanooga and Bakersfield look much the same. We have eradicated the prairies, slaughtered the forests, and filled the wetlands, must we also quash the individuality of the national monuments and make them conform to the ideals of capitalism, consumerism, and corporate expansion? What of calm, contentment, and courage to step outside of the box, to appreciate the subtle realm of time, space, and light that is not under our control? Where will we go for peace when we have used up all that is wild?
You have seen my photos over the last year. Many of those photos were taken in national monuments (including the two on this page). If you enjoyed my meager attempts at conveying the intensity of these landscapes, you will enjoy this (free ebook) photographic journey through the national monuments by exquisite landscape photographers
And, I hope you will send comments in support of retaining the national monuments.
https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=DOI-2017-0002-0001
Stay the executions.
Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument
Mid-Summer’s morning among the Painted Hills
At the edge of the Painted Hills, Red Hill sits among spring grasses.
Three landscapes and a soaking shed
A wild winter ride to iconic Central Oregon hot springs offered these landscapes. The road to Summer Lake is a beautiful stretch of little-used highway along the western edge of the Great Basin. Sagebrush gives way to alkali lakes, winds rip across the open flat, and clouds create another dimension of life above the high desert.
An unsettled day in the high desert.
Silver Lake, Oregon, snow from the west meets billowing clouds from the east.
Snow seems to be falling from Summer Lake up to the clouds.
Between the land and sky of Central Oregon lies Silver Lake.
Summer Lake Hot Springs soaking shed