Chaco Culture National Historical Park

Pueblo Bonito Ancient Ruins

The ancient ruins of Chaco Culture Historical Park are located in Northwestern New Mexico, southeast of Farmington.  The park is immediately adjacent to Bisti Wilderness Area, but access roads to the two areas are quite distant from each other.  The park is one of only a limited number of sites in the world which have been designated as a World Heritage Site.  Accessibility to the park is good, if you are willing to overlook the highly washboarded condition of the last four miles of gravel road leading into the park.  Although there are several separate ruins in the park, the largest of these is called Pueblo Bonito.  That is where I spent the majority of my visit to the park.

Nested Doorways in Pueblo Bonito

Visitors are able to walk through the ruins of Pueblo Bonito, which enables one to capture images like the one above.  This image reminds me of a toy I had as a small child, which consisted of a series of nested plastic barrels.  As you took apart the barrel on the outside, you found yet another smaller barrel inside it.

Flowering Cactus Among the Ruins

Courtyards of Pueblo Bonito

Bisti Wilderness Area

Egg Factory- Bisti Wilderness

Bisti Wilderness Area is located Southeast of Farmington, New Mexico on land administered by the Bureau of Land Management.  It is mostly undeveloped, devoid of trails or footpaths.  On the day of my visit, I was lucky that the temperature was relatively mild, despite the partly sunny skies.  The area known as the Egg Factory, shown above, represented the farthest extent of my hike into this wilderness.  I'm guessing that I hiked somewhere between five and ten miles round trip to find this area.  

Since the landscape in this spot seemed to be nearly monochromatic, I decided to process this image as a black and white.  I guess time will tell whether or not I will continue that approach.

Sandstone Sculptures- Bisti Wilderness

I understand that the Bisti Wilderness is believed to have once been under an ancient sea, and that the mixture of harder sandstone on top of softer layers of clay is considered to be responsible for the oddly shaped rock and hoodoos found here.  There is also an abandoned iridium mine in the Bisti Wilderness.

Hoodoos- Bisti Wilderness

No handout maps of Bisti Wilderness are available at the entrance to the site.  There is, however, a large posted map at the entrance.  As I wandered among the strange rock formations, my tired feet were wishing that I had taken a digital photograph of that map to help navigate the area.  I'd recommend doing so for anyone considering a visit.  

Grand Canyon Sunrise and Sunset

Sunset- Navajo Point

Recently my eldest daughter did her graduation walk for her PhD in Arizona.  After the ceremony, I took the opportunity to camp for a couple of days in the Grand Canyon.  Although this was not my first visit to the Grand Canyon, it was the first time that I camped inside the park, thereby allowing the possibility of being at the rim for sunrise and sunset.  For my first sunset location, I chose Navajo Point, which is located on the east end of the rim drive, near Desert View Point, and looks nearly due west down a long stretch of the canyon.  The wind was howling that evening, causing me to have to hang on to my tripod to keep it from blowing over.  I think some of the haze in the canyon during my visit may have been from some wildfires in the region.

The images that I came away with at sunrise and sunset are stylistically different from most of my previous work.  Rather than showing much detail, these are really studies in color and shape.  So I'll be interested in other's opinion as to whether these images work for you or not.  Feedback is welcomed.

Tech info- Canon 5D2, 24-105 L zoom.  Cropped to an 8:10 aspect ratio, and warmed in the raw file conversion plus a warming filter.

Sunrise- Yavapai Point

The next morning, I headed to Yavapai Point for sunrise.  There must have been fifty other photographers there with the same idea, so I didn't have a great choice of tripod locations left to pick from.  As the time for sunset approached that evening, I decided the atmospheric conditions were less than optimal, plus I was a bit tired and hungry, so I elected to go to sleep early and hope for a good sunrise the following morning.

Sunrise- Mather Point

On my final morning in the park, I decided to give Mather Point a try.  I have not yet decided which, if any, of these images to print for display.  Perhaps over time I can decide.  Or maybe the opinions of friends will help me decide.

Grandview Point panorama

I know I said this blog post was supposed to be about sunrise and sunset images, but I'm throwing this one in anyway.  On my way out of the park, I decided to stop at Grandview Point.  The image above was shot at 67mm focal length, with three exposures stitched together for a 2:1 aspect ratio.  While this blog may not be the best way to be able to see the detail in a panorama image, if nothing else, it serves to show a contrast of styles versus the first three images.