Photographs
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An arch in Canyonlands National Park's Needles
District called Druid Arch. I'm not aware of any source that tells the origin of the name, but I'm guessing that it reminded someone vaguely of Stonehenge, with the top looking like it's sitting
on three pillars, even if they look like they're three
sheets to the wind. To reach it, hike to the end of
Elephant Canyon and then up a short, steep climb
out of the canyon to the bench above, where you
get this view.
This looks like a creek but it's actually a section of the
drainage ditch along the levee on the east side of the
Rio Grande north of Alameda Road, in Los Ranchos de
Albuquerque on a winter afternoon. It looks like there
may be a submerged tree limb underwater that is
catching debris that floats down from the right. I like the
brilliant blue sky and other colors reflected in the water
and the graceful curve of the jam of debris.
Photograph of a small ruin in Kane Gulch, a tributary
of Grand Gulch in the Grand Gulch Primitive Area of
southeast Utah. I like the sweeping curve of the ledge
leading out to it. It could be just a granary, but there's
a remnant of a wall in front of it, and my guess is it
could have been a defensive structure for a family or
a very small band. Its position along a narrowing ledge
that ran out shortly behind the ruin would have made it
very easy to defend from behind the wall, which was probably higher and came out farther. Any attackers
would have been extremely vulnerable with no cover.
Corona arch west of Moab, Utah on the drive south
along UT 279 on the west side of the Colorado River.
The arch is 140 ft wide and 105 ft high. Bowtie Arch, a
pothole arch, stands about 100 ft to the left. The size
of the arch an be appreciated by noticing the human
figure standing between two juniper trees just down
from the far left side of the arch. Sometimes called
Little Rainbow Bridge because of its shape. it's about
a 1.5 mile hike over slickrock to get to it.
It's always nice to the Bosque turn green as Spring
arrives in full force. This is a photograph of the
Bosque north of Alameda on the west side of the
Rio Grande where the cottonwood forest is dense,
viewed from a meadow along a trail. A couple years
ago I went down to the Bosque south of Central expecting it to look like this and found all the trees
still bare. Two days later I went back to the same
area and every tree had a full crown of green.
