Painted Rock Petroglyph Site, Arizona

This site protects a variety of cultural and natural resources including volcanoes, archeological sites and an estimated 20,000 carved images. Many of the images are recognizable as animals, people, brands and crosses; others are more complex. These images are inseparable from the cultural landscape, the spirits of the people who created, and whom appreciate them, but whose culture has since vanished.

I anticipated it would be a short visit, however, I spend most of 4 hours at the site. The petroglyphs are located on volcanic rocks deposited by ancient volcanic flows which rise above the desert floor. There are many petroglyph sites in New Mexico and nearly all volcanic flows have glyphs etched out of the rock.

There are two styles of glyphs; etched using a rock as a etching tool, or scraped using a rock. Motifs vary depending upon the ancient tribe that produced the artwork, however, most relate to the cosmos and local animals. Circles, squares, lizards, nets, faces, and bighorn sheep are all represented at this site.

If visiting the site, it must be remembered that this site is protected and collecting any material from the area is strictly enforced by a resident ranger on-site.

Zimbreski Point & Badwater, Death Valley

An early wake up this morning to drive to Zimbreski Point to capture some additional images of the sunrise from slightly different locations to yesterday. The point was better today than yesterday as there were less people about – no doubt because of the cool conditions and chilly wind. The purples and pinks of sunrise were spectacular over the point with the moon going down behind the snow capped mountains. As the sun peaked over the horizon the morning light bathed the craggy peaks and gullies creating ideal contrast and colour.

From Zimbreski Point a short drive was made to Badwater with a stop to photograph a pair of desert ravens which were hanging just off the road on the salt pan. Initially the ravens were careful not to approach too close, but after some time getting used to me they became quite interactive. One fellow actually posed several times on a rock with a clear background. I could
have spent longer with these two birds as it was obvious they were intelligent and social animals, however, I wanted to reach Badwater while the light was still relatively low on the horizon to capture the texture and delicate and patterns of the salt crystals in the area.

There are several textual styles produced by salt in the Death Valley region depending upon wind movement, local temperatures, and water/alt content. The salt can form trails that mimic strand lines produced as flood waters recede and evaporate. The colour of the salt can alter dramatically depending upon the mineral and biological content. Often the white salt is tinged with pink indicating that algae was once present when the water was shallow. By the way, I did taste the salt; the taste was very strong; much stronger than usual table salt.

After catching a quick bite to eat (dehydrated food) which was not exactly tasty I headed out of Death Valley traveling south east toward Trona Pinnacles via an old ghost town that was signposted. Unfortunately the ghost town was nothing more than a few jumbled buildings from yesterday year and not really worth capturing on film, but as it was just off the road not much time was wasted making the detour.

Bodie Ghost Town, California

After an early departure to capture images at Lake Tahoe, Bodie Ghost Town was next on the list. Bodie was a thriving gold producing town during the 1850's. At one stage the population of the small town exceeded 8000 people as miners, pastors, gunslingers, barbers, bar tenders, and prostitutes plied their trade in the hope of striking it rich. A large commercial gold mine was sunk at Bodie and produced gold for many years before leads ran dry.

Bodie Town eventually became derelict and deserted with only a few residents attempting to eek out a living searching for gold. Because of its relative isolation, the town was forgotten by the mainstream community until the mid 1960's when it was passed to the Parks Service to administer.

 

Today the town is more or less as it was left. The temperate and dry conditions of the high Sierras have protected the wood from decay and minimized decay of many implements left around and within the "city" limits. The condition of the buildings must be seen to be believed and in some buildings their contents were still present. The store contained various bottles of whatever, saws, picks, miners lamps and wooden containers. The saloon still had a piano, snooker table, chairs, table and eating utensils - waiting for the next guest. The local church still had its bell. Littering the streets of Bodie were old vehicles, the remains of horse driven equipment and two early 1920's petrol bowsers complete with "Shell Petroleum" signs.

Visitors maybe tempted to collects omething here or there and take home, but the collecting of artifacts is impossible as parks personnel monitor visitors and for those attempting to try a hefty fine and possible jail term await.

Access is via a dirt road which in this instance was covered with winter snow. The scenery along the rack leading to the ghost town is well worth the visit by itself; towering mountains, large volcanic rocks and stunted high desert alpine vegetation.

Following Bodie we traveled south to Lone Pine (Alabama Hills) stopping at Bishop along Highway 395 to photograph the moon rising through sunset tinted clouds above snow capped, precipitous peaks of the Sierra Mountains. Reaching Lone Pine relatively late in the evening, a quick survey was made of the town to determine what food was available before cleaning cameras, lenses and downloading and key wording images for another early morning starts at 0500 the coming day