Showing posts with label arizona. Show all posts
Showing posts with label arizona. Show all posts

Sunday, October 05, 2014

Black Canyon, Colorado River


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Here are a couple of old photos from the Colorado River's Black Canyon, downstream of Hoover Dam and a short drive from Las Vegas. I was on a group tour bus at the time and we had stopped at the Willow Beach marina (on the Arizona side of the river), where we rented motorboats and headed up the river toward the dam. In the photos of the canyon walls, I was actually trying to photograph some bighorn sheep high up in the canyon, despite only having a cheap point-n-shoot camera at my disposal. At one point I thought I could pick them out as tiny specks in the photos, but now I'm not so sure.

Friday, December 28, 2012

Little Colorado River Gorge


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Some photos of the Little Colorado River Gorge, which the Little Colorado River flows through on its way to the Grand Canyon. As you've probably gathered already from the photos, "little" is a relative term in this part of Arizona.

Little Colorado River Gorge Little Colorado River Gorge Little Colorado River Gorge Little Colorado River Gorge Little Colorado River Gorge Little Colorado River Gorge

Sunset Crater


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A few photos of Sunset Crater National Monument, between Flagstaff, Arizona and the Grand Canyon. I stopped here sort of briefly after visiting the Wupatki ruins; I can see how it would be fascinating to visitors from a less volcanic part of the country, who may have never seen a cinder cone before. I took a few photos of it, and a few of the snowy San Francisco Peaks in the distance, before moving on to the next adventure.

Sunset Crater Sunset Crater Sunset Crater Sunset Crater Sunset Crater

Cochise Stronghold


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Here are some old scanned photos from the Cochise Stronghold area of southern Arizona's Coronado National Forest. Spent an afternoon here back in summer 1993, scrambling around on rocks and trying, unsuccessfully, to take photos of the local fast-moving lizards. So here are some photos of the area's rugged hills instead; they aren't cute like lizards are, but at least they generally hold still for the camera.

Cochise Stronghold Cochise Stronghold Cochise Stronghold Cochise Stronghold Cochise Stronghold Cochise Stronghold Cochise Stronghold Cochise Stronghold Cochise Stronghold

Hoover Dam


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Photos of Hoover Dam, taken several years ago before the new bridge opened. I took these earlier on the same day I went to Red Rock Canyon, over on the other side of Vegas, and failed to take any photos of the city itself. In any case, the dam looks kind of cool in an Art Deco sort of way, and the hydropower keeps the lights on in Vegas, although the dam's turned out to be not so fabulous from an environmental standpoint.

As with Red Rocks, I'm pretty sure I need to go back and take some photos with a Real Camera, and in this case I also need photos of the bridge. And by "need", I mean it would be a logical extension of this weird ongoing photoblog hobby I've ended up with.

Hoover Dam Hoover Dam Hoover Dam

Wupatki


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A few old photos from Wupatki National Monument, which protects a number of pueblo ruins just south of the Grand Canyon. When I visited, I was amazed by how well-preserved the ruins were; only later did I find out that some parts really were intact, and others had been reconstructed in the early 20th century. So I'm not entirely sure what we're looking at here.

Wupatki

There weren't a lot of other visitors while I was there; at one point, it was just myself and an older lady of a New Agey sort of persuasion. We chatted briefly, but it was obvious we were each getting something entirely different from being here. She said the ruins were a "power center", or something along those lines. I recall saying something inarticulate about the incredible age of the buildings and how well they were constructed. Which is pretty much what I'd say now, come to think of it. I mean, most of these ruins were houses, and a 700 year old house is exactly as mystical (or non-mystical) as a year old house is. Pretty sure that building here didn't require any help from crystal aliens or psychic dolphins or anything.

Wupatki

The archaeology of the desert Southwest is not really my forte, so rather than trying to explain the history of the place, let me just pass along a few links if you'd like to learn more about it. Several of these pages are hosted at Northern Arizona University, which is just down the road in Flagstaff.

Wupatki Wupatki