Arches On My Mind
Ran across a few more Arches photos (out of probably thousands of the region – of which 4 are worth showing).
Here are 5 of them:
Once upon a time, this lot would be mostly empty even in summer
Then Arches got discovered ….
but still no need to discuss the happenings under this arch in 1978
Been a while since I’ve visited … need to fix that.
Don’t worry – plenty more photos where this come from. Maybe I’ll find one of the 4 worth showing. 🙂
Arches definitely offers up many photographic vistas. Here’s another contribution.
Do you have any photos from what would be called “The Valley of the Spirits”?
Not heard of “The Valley of the Spirits” – are you thinking of “Valley of the Gods” near Mexican Hat? (the answer to that would be “Yes”
I forgot to say that these photos are beautiful.
Thanks
In previous decades, I went to the Colorado Plateau region often, at least yearly, sometimes 4/year for several reasons: rock-climbing, hiking, backpacking. Sometimes with girlfriends/wives. I too discovered Desert Solitaire and the MonkeyWrenching books. I was a reader of Colin Fletcher’s books. And Loren Eiseley. Later on we would go on hikes of discovery to find the hidden and forgotten comely dwellings of the Hisatsinom, take pictures, look at the potsherds, and to look for sources of perfect magic clay to be turned into earthenware. I’ve still got a few tupperware containers of red and grey clay back in a remote corner of the pantry, waiting for the day the wife restarts her love affair with ceramics. We stayed away from the big parks like Arches. “I ain’t heard that much worth listenin’ to. There’s a lot of guys layin’ down a lot of rules and regulations. The big parks and monuments weren’t the unspoiled natural world we were looking for, where we could go wherever we want and do whatever we felt like we were the Lords of Creation.
These days I’m not much for the deserts. Too many people and not enough water. The days of thirst will come again, and I don’t want to be there when it does.
I like living in the low deserts but places that seemed reasonable in the ’80s are now over-populated, under-watered wastelands. Vegas was actually a pretty nice town in the late 70s; don’t even want to pass through there anymore. When I lived in Tucson in the ’80s, water shortages were an issue. I don’t see how encouraging further development helped the situation. To say nothing of those with “green” disposition out there helping destroy the desert environment. (On the other hand, I’ll believe “water shortages” when the golf courses turn brown.
Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Sequoia, Glacier, sometimes Yellowstone are places I avoid. I don’t know about the eastern parks but I assume the same.
DT, were you shooting Kodachrome back in those days? My pictures from back in those days, the colors are still saturated and sharp like yours. It’s a darn shame that Kodachrome has passed into history. When all the photos captured in silicon and other kinds of memory are lost like tears in rain, Kodachrome slides will still be kicking it.
I used to shoot a lot of Kodachrome, mostly 64 and 25. Kodachrome was good for red and yellows but Fuji was better for blues and greens. I need to digitize some of them so I can post them … or at least get them into a database. The slides may hold their colors but the means to show them are fading away. Luckily, I have a couple of slide projectors laying around with spare bulbs.