hiking

lake manly's return

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I spent a weekend in my favourite national park recently, death valley, which is known for being the “hottest, driest, lowest” national park in the united states. right now though, thanks to our strange summer hurricane, pluvial lake manly (the ancient lake which once covered most of death valley) has made a reappearance at the lowest point in north america – badwater basin.

I had thought most of the water would be gone by the time of my january visit but it turns out lake manly decided to stick around a bit longer than expected. the cloud streaked blue skies & mountains reflected in the pristine surface of the ankle deep water made the whole experience feel otherworldly. like visiting the inside of a kaleidoscope.

rolling sands

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a bright afternoon on the mesquite flat dunes in death valley. I have been playing with photographing the desert in black & white recently. there is just something immortal about the way these came out.

narrows

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hiked the narrows in zion national park this past summer & did not enjoy it! the canyon is stunningly beautiful but hiking in water is not my cup of tea. twisted my ankle & fell in the water more than once.

“the narrows” are the narrowest section of zion canyon and the name refers to either the 3.6 mile bottom-up hike or the 16 miles top-down route. it is one of the most popular hikes in the national park.

digicams in the forest

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a walk through the mt. hood national forest with my digicam.

february in death valley

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a few half frame film shots from my day in death valley on a paleontology hike with the national park service (they do these once a year and I highly recommend it).

shot on kodak gold 200 with the kodak ektar h35 camera.

alien planet

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took a roll of lomochrome turquoise film to death valley a couple months ago. the results look like photographs from mars! the turquoise film is super fun even if I do have a hard time deciding when using it will create cool results or just weird ones.

shot on lomochrome turquoise 110 film with the pentax auto 110 camera.

death valley winter

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three iphone shots from my time in death valley on a full moon.

the winter light in death valley is like a caress. rose-hued & hugging the mountains – curling between scrub grass & salt flat. driving the long curving roads like a wave craving sand.

back at the rocks

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journal:

woke up at 3am & went to the desert. highway 14 served as a kind of line between the slowly spreading dawn & the thick close smoke of fires burning to the north.

the morning sun doesn’t so much rise here as it does spread out. the light fills the darkness like water saturating a cloth. it blooms. osmosis.

spent a morning a few weeks ago at my favourite state park – red rock canyon in cantil. I’ve taken a lot of photographs of this park over the years so I decided to bring my film cameras out to play.

edge of the world

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located on the southwestern edge of ireland’s burren region in county clare, the cliffs of moher run roughly 9 miles along the coast. at their highest they rise more than 700 feet from the atlantic ocean below.

camcorder video diary

the cliffs were formed between 313-326 million years ago as a result of a river dumping silt, sand, and clay along an ancient delta. this sediment was collected over millions of years & compacted & lithified into sedimentary strata now exposed as the cliff face. the punishing atlantic ocean waves are now eroding the cliffs, causing them to collapse under their own weight.

you may recognize the cliffs of moher from their supporting role as the “cliffs of insanity” in the 1987 epic the princess bride.

I arrived in the early afternoon to an otherworldly view of the atlantic & the infamous cliffs shrouded in sea mist & swept by gusts of cold salt air. the cattle and sheep of the surrounding countryside didn’t seem to notice the bluster, & continued their lunchtime grazing without incident.

the cliffs now see over 1.5 million visitors per year.

 
 

dreamworld

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I went to vasquez rocks a few weeks ago specifically to shoot my first ever roll of medium format film on a vintage lubitel 2 twin lens camera. using a camera without any electrical parts (or a light meter!) was a totally new experience for me, & I wasn’t sure if the images were even going to turn out.

but the lubitel is a sturdy camera which was made for the masses. even after all these years it still works! looking down into a viewfinder forced me to slow down & not snap haphazardly. it made the process almost meditative. excited to shoot more with this camera & see what turns up.

shot on a lubitel 2 with porta 400. see more medium format photos.

vasquez rocks

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just off highway 14 less than 45 mins from los angeles are vasquez rocks. you may recognise this formation from the movies, they have starred in everything from star trek to blazing saddles to the flintstones. the striking shapes were created by rapid erosion during uplift some 25 million years ago & later revealed by further uplift on the san andreas fault.

what’s uplift? known to geologists as orogeny, this is the primary way mountains are formed on earth. an orogeny occurs where two or more (lithospheric) plates converge when the plate’s motion compresses the margin between them. this pressure forces the earth’s crust to crumble & uplift into the formations you see here. these will eventually (millions of years from now) become mountains.

ongoing tectonic activity on the nearby san andreas fault and its offshoot, the elkhorn fault which runs through the vasquez rocks natural area park, continues to shape, uplift, & expose the buried sandstone.

the rocks were named for famous mexican california outlaw tiburcio vasquez who used them to evade law enforcement in 1874. tiburcio was & is a controversial figure, with some believing him a ruthless bandit & others seeing him as a revolutionary opposing the american expansion into present day california.

vasquez entered outlaw life in 1852 when he was witness to the killing of monterey constable william hardmount. though he denied any involvement in the death vasquez fled law enforcement, going on to become a star figure in the infamous decades long roach-belcher feud. after being caught horse rustling in 1856 he spent five years in san quentin before organizing a prison break. in 1866 he was imprisoned again, this time for three years after a burglary in petaluma.

after he was arrested for murder in may 1874 vasquez, who was a charming & handsome figure with many fans throughout the west, sold photographs with & of himself to support his legal defense. he was tried for a murder that occurred four years prior during a robbery in tres pinos (now called paicines) where $2,200 (more that $47,000 in today’s money) was stolen from a store & three were killed. vasquez maintained throughout his trial that though he was an outlaw, he was not the killer. despite his adoring public & a written confession from another member of the gang, he was convicted of the crime & executed by hanging on 19 march 1875 at just 39 years old.

there are numerous geologic formations throughout southern california named for vasquez, including these rocks & robbers roost in kern county. he is buried in the mission cemetery in santa clara where fans still leave him flowers.

because of his affluent background, good looks, education, & sense of style, vasquez is believed to be one of the inspirations for the bandit-hero character zorro.

wind & rocks

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a morning walking amongst the rocks & the high winds at red rock canyon state park, ricardo campground.

a little longer than expected

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spent some time yesterday lost in the mojave in red rock canyon state park. things could have gone very badly, but I had adequate supplies & the skills to navigate my way out & back to the highway. but it turned my 5ish mile morning hike turned into a 10+ mile trek.

I love the desert & a big part of that is the way it can be both dangerous & beautiful, as well as its unpredictability. the desert can be a hostile place but it’s also thriving & full of life. I still love the desert, but I’ll take a break from 10 mile hikes for a couple of weeks at least!

details

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fun facts:

red rock canyon state park is one of the darkest skies within a 2 hour drive of los angeles, making it an excellent place for amateur astronomy.

the tall thin spires of rock which rise from the desert badlands are called “hoodoos”.

the center of the park is an alluvial plain, caused by the depositing of sediment over millions of years by rivers flowing through the area from higher elevations.

valleys throughout the area were caused by simultaneous or concurrent uplift (due to fault-line activity) & erosion.

several films have been shot here, including many westerns & blockbusters like jurassic park.

old volcano friends

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amboy crater rises up almost 1000 feet above its surrounding lava field.

amboy crater is a cinder cone volcano located just off route 66 in california’s mojave desert. a cinder cone volcano is the simplest form or volcano, created when lava & particles are shot into the air during an eruption from a single vent. the cooling lava falls back to the earth creating a cone shape around the vent.

the amboy volcano is considered extinct & hasn’t erupted for at least 10,000 years. an easy 4.1 mile out & back hiking trail takes you through the surrounding lava field & into the crater. temperatures get very hot in the summer, above 100 degrees most days. bring extra water, sunscreen, & sun protective clothes.

view into the crater from the volcano’s rim.

Reds

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there are several “red rock” parks throughout the united states. one of the perhaps lesser known ones is red rock canyon state park in southern california just off state highway 14.

bisected by the road, the park is easy to find & provides gorgeous views from even a passing car window. located at the southern most tip of the sierra nevada mountains where they meet with the el paso range, driving through you can clearly see as the desert topography changes around you.

the distinctive red rocks once served as landmarks for passing mule freight teams in the 1870’s & the park land now protects several significant paleontology sites, as well as the remains of late 19th century mining operations.

I left los angeles at 4 am to catch the sunrise over these picturesque natural scupltures. the dawn light made the desert look like a painting. the only word that comes to mind to describe it is “majestic”. it was absolutely gorgeous.