Light Snowfall

Snowfall here along the Wasatch Front is highly correlated to altitude. When the snow is just beginning to fall, before Winter really begins, you can often see the snow line distinctively as an almost straight line between the snow and no snow. I most cases, like the snowstorm that just went through, here at the edge of the mountains, the snow begins to melt almost immediately.  This photo is a moderate to light snowfall. If the weather warms up above freezing, the snow will mostly disappear in a day or two.

Snow Crystals

Winter came in with a major snowstorm. One day it was in the 60s and then two days later we had six inches of snow. Today, the sun came out and I am out to shovel the snow and ice off the driveway. I like to be out there in the snow and cold. It is a dramatic change for us but we enjoy the quiet and beauty of the snow. I suppose you can expect a few more photos of snow over the next few months.

First Heavy Snow

The snow was still falling and there are streaks in the image from the snowflakes in front of the camera. The accumulation isn't much yet but if it keeps falling we could have the first one or two inches here on the ground in Provo, Utah. The snow is piling up rather rapidly and I suspect that I will be out shoveling some driveways pretty soon. People ask me how I like the cold weather compared to our home in Mesa. The hot lower desert has some different challenges but I like the snow just fine and don't mind the cold all that much.

Desert Plants

During an early morning walk in the sand dunes of the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park in southern Utah the form, texture, and color of these plants caught my eye. There is always something beautiful to look at in the world if you take the time and focus your attention on your surroundings.

Mountain Fastness

The prominent rock formations on the ridge in this photo are "horns," that is formations caused by the glaciers cutting away all the rocks surrounding the harder, more resilient ones on the ridge. There are some very famous horns around the world, such as the Matterhorn in Switzerland, but these are unnamed and uncelebrated. About this time of year, this pleasant summer view has been entirely covered with deep snow and ice. But I am sure we will be back again to see the flowers next summer.

Rocky Coast

We are rapidly getting into the snowy winter season here along the Wasatch Front, but I still think back to my previous trips to other lovely places. Here along the Atlantic Coast, the beaches are rocky and the forest comes right down to the water. This scene seems almost unreal as I look out the window onto my yard filled with snow.

Thanksgiving Day 2016

This was the view in our front yard this lovely Thanksgiving Day, 2016. We live next to a steep hill covered with a thick stand of trees and bushes. A snowstorm the night before has coated the branches with snow and the in the shadow of the everlasting hills, the light gives an idea of how cold it is outside. Couldn't be a better day.

Painted Desert Panorama

You will have to click on this image to see the detail. This is an overlook of the Painted Desert in the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. It is an extraordinary place. This is very near where I spent much of my earlier life and this type of country seems like home to me. I love the mountains and I love beautiful forests. But there is one area that is home and that is the Colorado Plateau.

Joseph Smith House, Nauvoo, Illinois

Joseph Smith, the Prophet, moved into this log house in Nauvoo, Illinois in April of 1839. The house was enlarged in 1840. The Prophet and his family moved across the street to the Mansion House in August of 1843. We have visited Nauvoo several times and it is easily one of my favorite places in the entire United States.

Sunset over the Pacific Ocean

This is an old photograph I took back in 1968.  I thought I would look back at some of my older photos once and awhile. The camera at the time was not nearly as good as any of my present ones and this photo is likely a scan from a printed photo, but it has nice composition and showed some promise of things to come. It was taken along the coast of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state.

A Remnant of the Past

The natural alcoves in sandstone were inviting places to build houses. They were cool in the summer and warmer in the winter although water and food supply were major considerations. In the SouthWest, especially on the Colorado Plateau, there are scatterings of the remnants of the now vanished ancient inhabitants. In most cases, you have to look carefully to really see the extent of the construction in this particular alcove.

Salt Lake City LDS Temple and Fountain

Temple have supernal importance to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the temple in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah is one of the most recognizable structures in the entire western part of the United States. Around 5 million people visit Temple Square each year, but any number has to be an estimate because many people cross Temple Square while walking to other destinations in the city. Temple Square has also ranked as one of the top tourist destinations in the country.

Goblins and the Henry Mountains

The Henry Mountains of Southern Utah are remote and largely inaccessible except on foot or 4-wheel drive vehicles. But they are like and ever-present backdrop to views in the surrounding area. Goblin Valley is not nearly as remote as it was more than fifty years ago when I first traveled there. That long ago, it was still mostly unknown and when we went there to explore, we found it entirely deserted, Today, it would be a rare day when the campground was not full and the parking lot filled with cars.

Verging on the Surreal

Photos of Goblin Valley in Utah have a tendency to verge on the surreal. In fact, this location has been used in major motion pictures such as Galaxy Quest (1999) to represent another world. Goblin Valley has also been the scene of a recent controversy regarding some vandalism when a visitor pushed over one of the formations and documented the destruction on YouTube. Fortunately, the perpetrator was arrested and later convicted. The incident highlights the delicate balance between allowing free access to such natural wonders and the damage done by that access.

Bridging the River

You will have to look very carefully at this image to see what appears to be a tiny bridge over the water. The comparative size of this bridge, which is full-size highway bridge illustrates the vastness of this Southern Utah world of sandstone. The river is the Colorado and Dirty Devil rivers in the very upper reaches of Lake Powell. This is the area near the now nearly abandoned town of Hite, Utah where a ferry across the river was in operation until 1964.

Stone Bridge

The Bridge in this image is not particularly obvious. Bridges are stone arches that cross a watercourse. Arches, on the other hand, are freestanding and not associated with a wash or stream. This particular bridge is located in Bridges National Monument in southern Utah. Bridges National Monument was Utah's first national monument declared in 1908. This particular bridge is called Kachina Bridge.

Salt Flat Desert

In the western deserts of Utah, there are places where the salt deposits are so prevalent that there is nothing but salt. These are the famous "Salt Flats" used for racing cars. But south of the Salt Flats there are huge flat valleys of land that grows some vegetation but is still saturated with salt. Here is one of those valleys. It may look like snow on the ground, but it is salt. These valleys are impressive in the silence and solitude. They are obviously not a prime place for future development and they are not scenic enough to ever be considered to be a national park or monument. Subsequently, they are a nice place to visit.

Photographer in the Western Desert

Sometimes we find ourselves standing right out in the open taking photos of the sky and the horizon. This is an area in the western desert of Utah, just south of the Salt Flats. I thought it was appropriate to have a photo of someone taking a photograph. There isn't much else to look at except the sun and the dust and the clouds and the mountains and the sky and flat playa and the rest of the world.

Clouds over the Desert

The desert has its own beauty. If you are strictly a tree and grass person, you will feel like you are in a foreign country. But if you have the desert in your blood then you are in tune with the subtle changes and colors of the desert. This photo was taken in the early morning, just as the shadows of the night were disappearing and the hot sun was coming over the hills behind me.

Cholla Cactus

This is a cholla cactus (said choy-ya in English). There are actually two or three different cholla cactus in the photo. The large one is a Cylindropuntia fulgida the long strands hanging down are the fruit. Just to the right in the photo is a Staghorn Cholla or Cylindropuntia versicolor. There are also some Cylindropuntia bigelovii or teddy bear cholla in the background. In some place in the Arizona Sonora Desert you can hardly walk without being in danger of spines from these lovely plants. The spines are barbed and in some cases, if you get stuck, it will take a strong pull with a pair of pliers to get the spines out. That is not a pleasant experience.

Weaver's Needle

In the vast wilderness of the Superstition Mountains, Weaver's Needle is surrounded by superstition and controversy. The is rock monolith, called El Sombrero in Spanish, is the quintessential icon of the Southwest. My own climb to the top of this prominent rock was an amazing and influential episode in my early development. This view of the rock is only visible from the Fremont Saddle at the end of a relatively short, but steep, trail into the rugged interior of the Superstition Mountain Wilderness Area. Paradoxically, this bastion of the wilderness is visible from parts of Phoenix, Arizona, currently the sixth largest city in the United States.

Summer Flowers for the Fall

I have thousands and thousands of photographs many of which are of flowers. The usual flower photo is iconic. It shows the lovely flowers with perfect lighting and most frequently a single bloom unless it is a bouquet. But flowers are living plants and not all plants are studio ready. My flowers are not always sitting in a studio or available under optimal lighting conditions. Sometimes the days are cloudy or the lighting may not be optimal. Here I like the color and the mass of flowers. I see the beauty regardless of the conditions of the photo. I also see the form and texture which changes every minute as the light changes. Computer assisted digital photography has almost completely eliminated reality from photos and movies.

Patterns

Sometimes the details of the photo are not as important as the patterns shown in the final image. This metal sculpture was outlined against the clouds and all detail was lost in the contrasting image. I find the pattern more interesting that enhancing the image to show the detail of the column. I usually see these patterns in rocks and landscapes, but here I found this one in Toronto, Canada.

The CN Tower, Toronto, Canada

The CN Tower (French: Tour CN) is a 553.33 m-high (1,815.4 ft) concrete communications and observation tower in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. See Wikipedia: CN Tower. You might wonder how WalkingArizona is the name of a blog that posts photos from around North America. Well, I do a considerable amount of walking (and riding and flying). This next year, I hope to broaden my photos to a couple of countries not featured previously. But I might just have to spend a bit more time in Arizona and Utah also which are obviously my favorite places to really walk.

Bicycle Signal

Driving into Toronto was a nightmare of traffic, even on the freeways. Had I not gone downtown, I would have left and never felt the need to return. But there were some interesting things and some beauty in the downtown area of the city. Yesterday, in driving around Utah Valley, the polar opposite of Toronto, I saw two bicycle riders stopped by the police for some reason or another. I was reminded of this when I saw this bicycle signal in Toronto. I think of all the years I rode a bike and it never occurred to me that anyone was interested in how or where I rode.

Windows

This image of a large apartment building in Toronto, Canada is the antithesis of my landscape photos of the vast distances on the Colorado Plateau. I can't really imagine what it would be like to live in an apartment in a building like this. The view from these windows must be impressive, but the idea of living in a huge pile of boxes does not impress me at all. I was attracted by the nearly abstract pattern made by the blocks of red and black. If you forget that it is a building and simply look at the design, it is interesting in that way.

The Bow Hunter

Scattered around the canyons of Utah and Arizona, petroglyphs are fairly common. Occasionally, you see them on isolated rocks. In some areas, such as Nine Mile Canyon in Utah, they are found all along the canyon walls for many miles. This hunting scene includes a rather thin hunter with a large bow hunting big horn sheep and what is probably a buffalo. Although we associate the herds of buffalo with the Great Plains, it is obvious from this petroglyph that Utah had herds of buffalo in prehistoric times. Today, there are two rather substantial herds of buffalo in Utah; Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake and the Henry Mountains in southcentral Utah.

Viewed through the trees

Almost all of the commercial photography we see today has been carefully selected for a uniformly bright and clear view of the subject. In real life, as opposed to the fantasy world of commercial photography, or views are usually not so clear and unrestricted. From the standpoint of publication, this photo would be uniformly rejected by anyone trying to "sell" a photograph. But I find this type of image more interesting than the usual promotional landscape. I was standing next to this roaring stream, but due to the thickness of the vegetation, I was extremely limited in my ability to get a "clear shot" of the water. In addition to the obstruction of the trees, I was standing quite a distance from the water with a steep, very muddy bank between me and the open edge of the stream. It was also a completely overcast day with threatening rain. All of that, unfortunately, does not come through the photo, but nevertheless, the texture and color of the water and the contrasting color and texture of the trees is what this image is all about.

Graceful Moss

The graceful curves of these moss covered branches caught my eye. I also like the contrast of the bark and the moss. I don't really see this kind of image too often since this was taken in a Canadian rain forest, but we do have moss on our trees in Utah, just not quite so much.

The Lilies of the Field

Here in Utah we are having very mild Fall weather, so before the snow starts falling, I thought I would post a few flowers from past summers. Every season has its highlights and attractions. We have enjoyed seeing the changing seasons when for so many years our seasons were much more subtle and were mainly concerned with the daytime temperatures rather than colored leaves and flowers.

The Space Needle

I have probably written about the Space Needle before, but when I was in my teens, I went to the Seattle World's Fair and went up in the Space Needle. It took me about 54 years to get back and visit the Space Needle again. It is still impressive.

Mormon Tea

This distinctively looking shrub is commonly called, "Mormon Tea." It was used by the early pioneers to brew a strong concoction used for medicinal purposes. This and similar plants are all part of the genus of Ephedra and is found around the world. There are several different species that are common in the Arizona and Utah. The plants have been used for thousands of years to treat asthma, hay fever, and congestion from colds. The alkaloids ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are active constituents of the plant's chemical makeup. I have never tasted a "tea" made from the plant, but I understand that it is very bitter.