Home from Great Basin National Park...

It is always great to get home from a successful adventure. The Great Basin formation inclides most of Nevada, and the national park is the jewel in the crown. In the Basin, water running off the mountains doesn't run to the ocean, but instead remains in the unique Basin ecosystem.

Sitting above the 10,000-foot level on Wheeler Peak is a delight, one I savored for four hard-working days.

Yes, a lot of jets go overhead! A main skyway from Vegas and L.A. must pass right over this landmark.

One pleasure in being home is that I can do computer processing I couldn't get to in the evenings in the motel. One picture I particularly wanted to have time to work out was the panoramas of Wheeler Peak with the Fall colors erupting on its flanks:

I got the color right at home, which I hadn't succeeded in doing in an earlier post of a quick 'motel-room' version.

The other wondrous scene that cried out for a panorama was what I thought of as the 'Color Corner,' a bend in the winding road where the Fall colors exploded over the four days:

I still haven't had time to process many of the Lehman Caves images, but I confess that it is a real challenge to shoot good images in the !#!$!%!^! dark with only small accent lights placed to illuminate the formations! Thank goodness for Photoshop...

It is satisfying when you get them to render so others can share how you experienced them. Just think of wandering in 50 degree darkness through a corridor, and then to turn a corner and see this::

And so, farewell to Great Basin!

Until the next adventure!!

Another perfect weather day...

The locals say that this is very unusual, and that a change is coming soon. So, I spent the day near the summit, reveling in the spreading color. I took a hike to Teresa Lake, one of the Alpine lakes here.
The good news is that I made it at that altitude, the bad news is that in the Fall the snowmelt water has mostly dried up:

This is a place in which to deeply relax, knowing that it is like this only a few days of the year:

It will take getting home and spending time, but I know already that the Lehman Caves pictures are the  antithesis and perfect counterpoint to the scenes at the sun-drenched surface. The narrow, serpentine tunnels connect chambers of astonishing complexity formed over millennia by rises and falls in water levels.

There are formations that look like popcorn, others that look like bacon strips, others like hanging drapes and even some shields that look like parachutes:

Did I mention the icicles?

Just kidding. Everything down here grew in silence and darkness for countless centuries. The stories of how Ab Lehman found the caves are doubtless embroidered in the century since he found them. No matter. It is a thrill and a privilege to see this shrine to Nature's infinite creativity.

On to more adventures!

An ultimate in contrasts

I made it through a long day, and I'm off again shortly.  Just to show the extremes from yesterday, here are the hillsides exploding with Fall colors which are spreading all over the flanks of the mountains.

And then, last evening, I enjoyed a tour through the amazing Lehman Caves, labyrinthine chambers and passageways decorated like this Gothic Palace:

No time to work on pictures now--I have to go out and get them!

Great Basin National Park

It was a long day and it's time to sleep but Great Basin is a small but beautiful park. The main attraction that towers over the landscape is Wheeler Peak, 13,000 feet high.

I was thrilled to discover that my estimate of when the Fall colors would begin was accurate. My guardian angels did it again. All during the day the colors seemed to be changing before my eyes,

This weather is supposed to hold for several days, and the colors, now above the 10,000 foot level, should spread across the high slopes.  It is gorgeous up there:

I'll be watching the colors spread and going into the Lehman Caverns tomorrow afternoon. Now, i'd better get some sleep! This day started at 3:00 A.M.!

The personalized Cavern trip will be late tomorrow, so I may not get online until Thursday...

Among the joys of being home...

While I obviously love being on the road shooting pictures, it is nice to get home to a big, powerful computer which handles my panoramas. Some scenes are simply too big for a single shot, no matter how wide the lens. Instead, I shoot several vertical shots which Photoshop then stitches together.

I also have time when at home to look at the videos I never have the time or energy to watch when traveling. This is the view from Dead Horse Point:

Last year when I went to Moab the mountains had their first snow. This year I went a month earlier, and the view was sublime. This is a horseshoe bend in the road that climbs the mountain group.

.
Then there were the immense vistas one sees from atop the Island in the Sky, the plateau that makes up the northern sector of Canyonlands. This is the view eastward from Grand View: toward the Manti-LaSal mountains:

And only a couple of miles away on the West side of Grand View is the Green River overlook:

Until the next adventure!...

Bidding a fond farewell to Moab

I have done a lot of traveling in Utah, and Moab seems to have the greatest concentration of different subjects to photograph.

And--that is not even to mention all the varied hardbodies one sees each day--river rafters, mountain bikers, rock climbers, hikers. Mix those with all the white-haired park visitors and it is a rich brew.

Alas, it's time to hit the road. Yesterday ended it with a another triumph of sunshine. First I went up in the mountains to take a last look out over Canyonlands:

A quick stop at Park Avenue in Arches was next, to see the tiny people in the vast scene:

Then a quick run up the road to visit Sandstone Arch, framing more tiny people:

On the way back to the motel, I had to take a quick drive out on Route 128, the route of the Colorado as it flows through the town:

Following the river to the East one revels in the long series deep canyons we also see from atop Grand View when we are in Canyonlands:

Let me leave you as I head for the highway with a calm moment from yesterday afternoon. A fitting finale to a superb week.

I'm outta here!

What a difference a day makes...

The old song had it just right. I try to schedule enough days on these trips to ride out a period of iffy weather, and it paid off yesterday!
The day began with beautiful skies, so I raced out to the
Red Canyon portion of the Colorado River.There are miles of scenes like these!:

Then it was on into Canyonlands and the overlook above the Schafer Trail. This road drops an initial 1,400 feet, then goes out to the river canyon and descends another 700 feet.

As I was taking still photos, a park worker pointed out that a car was coming up the trail, adding motion to the scene.

Out on the promontory overlooking the long trail, the view was heavenly in the sunshine:

I shot nearly 600 frames this day, so I can only give a slight taste of the wonder of the day. This is a high cliff at Dead Horse State Park overlooking the pans where they dry potash (fertilizer) in the sun, much like harvesting sea salt on Bonaire:

Today's sky shows promise, but I won't know til I get out there...