Desert Landscape

Mesa Arch

I had hoped to post some nice new landscape images from Central Oregon today, but when I got to the summit of the Cascade Mountains at Santiam Pass, the view eastward was of socked in smoke. Curse you forest fires!

I back-tracked to Detroit Lake and headed up to Breitenbush Lake. This is not a road for the timid. It involves crawling over basketball-sized rocks for about an hour. You can come in from Ollallie Lake, too, but that is equally, if not more, rough and is steep to boot.

Green River Overlook

I hiked the Pacific Crest Trail in to Jefferson Park and back just for a workout. Even high in the Cascades it was too smoky for landscapes and I was relegated to shooting wildflowers, which I would have photographed, anyway.

I hadn’t anticipated backpacking so didn’t bring any gear to camp over at Jefferson Park. There is a photograph up there of Mt. Jefferson at sunrise that has eluded me. Someday soon I’m going back to get it, sharp this time. Yesterday the mountain was socked in haze.

Shafer Canyon

All but one of these photos are all from Canyonlands National Park out of Moab, Utah. I was there in March and experienced a bit of everything – snow, heat, and wind so strong there was no way you could have gone out without goggles or glasses due to the flying pebbles. I never found the False Kiva (Well worth Googling to see a photo of it) on that trip so will have to go back. I was following a guidebook description and re-traced my steps a dozen times. Now the GPS coordinates are listed on-line and in guidebook updates.

Aztec Granary

I did find this Aztec granary on Aztec Butte. They must have had a heck of a rat problem.

Shafer Canyon

Another place I would like to explore if I go back to Canyonlands is Dead Horse State Park. As I recall there was some road work being done and it cost to get in and I had plenty of other things to do. Of course, then you come home and see all of the photos and realize it would have been killer. I didn’t pack a laptop on the road then like I do now.

Ghost Ranch

This one is not from anywhere near Canyonlands, but I worked on it today so threw it in. This is New Mexico. The artist Georgia O’Keeffe lived here on a ranch called Ghost Ranch. It is near Abiqu, which is north of Santa Fe and south of Taos. I happened to be there when storm clouds came through ad created some interesting light.

 

Defiance

Aztec Butte Granary

“Creativity is an act of defiance. You’re challenging the status quo. You’re questioning accepted truths and priniciples. You’re asking three universal questions that mock conventional wisdom:

Why do I have to obey the rules?

Why can’t I be different?

Why can’t I do it my way?

…Every act of creation is also an act of destruction or abandonment. Something has to be cast aside to make way for the new.

…So pick a fight – with the system, the rules, your rituals, even your everyday routines.”

Twyla Tharp in “The Creative Habit”

Food for thought. She may be right. Every time a country is conquered by a despot, it is the creatives and scholars that are rounded up and hung. They know where the defiance is apt to come from.

Fountain