The Road Otter

Madness In Macadam

I already know.

Pictures on this website have been taken from moving cars, in the rain, the snow, the bright shiny day with harsh glare, all sorts of adverse conditions. If you don't have a better picture you're willing to share, don't tell me how bad the pictures are. I already know.
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Archives for April 2015

Long Road Home

April 16, 2015 by Road Otter

Road Home

  • Long and not so winding road
  • Mr. Spock, set the landscape on stun
  • Long Road Home

  • Road To Denver
  • Denver & Denvention

First published 13 August, 2008

Headin’ out of Flagstaff early in the morning, the San Francisco Peaks stand behind the trees and meadows. The grass alongside the road was bright with sunflowers and indian paintbrush.SanFranciscoPeaks

 

 

 

 
ViewOfTheRoad

 

The day is clear, the road not so much. It’s not as bad as LA during rush hour, but I’ve got a lot of pictures with the butt end of a truck in them.

RoadAndSunflowers

Do click on the images
to get the larger view.
I'm biased but I
think they're awesome.

The road starts down the long slope to Seligman, with enthusiastic sunflowers to wave as we go by.

 

GoldAhead

I took this picture to capture the winding road. I didn’t realize until later, I had a picture that showed the blaze of vivid mustard on both sides of the road.

 

Imagine both sides of the road awash in golden blooms. The Yellow Brick Road was never so golden. And edged in ever present sunflowers.

MustardBlooms

MustardAndSunflowers

Six percent grade, headed down out of the mountains. Road is steep, the view is magnificent. I remember driving this grade last week, tucked in behind a trucker, strobe flashes of lightning showing the mountains around me, the downpour trying to wash us all off the road. This is easier, but… that was exciting!

SixPercentGrade

SteepRoadAwesomeView

MaybeRoute66
West of Flagstaff, long sections of Route 66 no longer exist as a separate road. Segments may exist as dirt roads on private property, or simply a wide stripe through the trees. The bare green stripes to the right of the road may be all that’s left of Route 66 in this place.

TheRoadThru

 

Sometimes, road crews just cut on through, adapting the land to our needs.

 

TheRoadAround
 

And sometimes, we gotta go around.
Or both at once.

 

AndAnotherVista
I’ve taken a lot of pictures of mountains, clouds, sky, but I never get over my delight and joy at the layers of colors and textures each vista presents.

 

PaintedBackdrop

 

Sometimes looking like cardboard cutouts or painted backdrops for a play.

 

AcrossTheColorado

Crossing the Colorado in to California, the pictures are full of railing and railroad bridge.

 

ColoradoBackView
The view back across the valley shows the Colorado River and the green of the agriculture that its water generates.

 

CasualtiesOfTheRoad

Stopping in Needles for gas, a stack of casualties of the road. And stacked neatly behind, their ever ready replacements.

 

JoshuaTreesInBloom

 

Heading into the Mojave, the joshua trees are in bloom.

 

DoubleRibbonWithTown

Driving thru the Mojave, sometimes the only sign of man’s impact is the double ribbon of the interstate sliding into the hazy distance, punctuated by signs, rest stops, and very small towns.

 

DryLake

This dry lake brings to mind the words of the song “Horse With No Name” about a river that’s dead. Rivers in deserts are never dead, only dormant. If you can see the riverbed, it’s been scoured clean by flashflood, and kept alive by the sporadic rainfall. This lakebed still lives, probably flourishing when the snow melts.

When you think of desert, often low rolling sand dunes come to mind. The Mojave has long rolling hills of rock and sparse scrub. The Mojave has some fascinating geology: lava flows, and mountains with a split personality. Some of the mountains look like they’re shadowed. They’re not. And, of course, the many layers of landscape I love, with the mountains seemingly floating in the distance.

Mojave LavaMojave Lava
Mojave Lava
Mojave LavaMojave Lava
Mojave Lava
Mojave LavaMojave Lava
Mojave Lava
Not A ShadowNot A Shadow
Not A Shadow
Mojave VistaMojave Vista
Mojave Vista
Mojave VistaMojave Vista
Mojave Vista
Mojave VistaMojave Vista
Mojave Vista
Mojave VistaMojave Vista
Mojave Vista
Floating MountainsFloating Mountains
Floating Mountains

TrucksAhead
Sometimes the road gets a bit crowded. I have more faith in the common sense of long haul truckers than I do many others on the road, but even so…

 

AndTrucksBehind

 

It’s a leetle tight in here.

 

HighPowerLines

 

These power transmission lines look like they bring power in from Hoover Dam. They’re coming from the right direction.

Coming to the end of Interstate 40, at Interstate 15, into Barstow, and then back into LA.
EndOfTheRoadEndOfTheRoad2

Heading south in I-15, these are the backsides of the mountains that ring the LA basin. LAMountainsI suppose I should have taken more pics as we went thru LA. Maybe the mountains from the other side. But I’ve seen the mountains, and the traffic. If you want to come visit, I’ll give you a tour. Right now, I’m taking a nap. It’s been a long trip.

Filed Under: Road Goes Ever On

Mr. Spock, set the landscape on stun

April 9, 2015 by Road Otter

Road Home

  • Long and not so winding road
  • Mr. Spock, set the landscape on stun
  • Long Road Home

  • Road To Denver
  • Denver & Denvention

First published August 12, 2008

The day started in Santa Fe, with one lone cloud hanging out over the mountains on the east. OneLoneCloud

 

 

 

I25Rail

Do click on the images
to get the larger view.
I'm biased but I
think they're awesome.

There was a great deal of construction down the center of I-25.

I25RailConstructionHaving gone thru far too much road construction everywhere, it took a while to realize it wasn’t road improvement, they were building rail down the center. And of course, the one lone cloud.

I25-I40InterchangeComing back into Albuquerque, early in the day, I couldn’t get any decent shots of the color of the land. But Albuquerque itself believes in color,
(junction of I-25 and I-40, every piece had this brilliant blue stripe)

 
and shapes.

Overpass Art1

Overpass Art2

 
TheMotherRoadSometimes Route 66 would be parallel to I-40, sometimes wandering off over the landscape to pop up somewhere else.
 

OldRoute66BridgeThis old steel-truss bridge was in unbelievably good shape. Unfortunately, it was not wide enough for more than one car to cross at a time.

NewOldRoadAnd was replaced with a wider, but boring new section, before being completely replaced by Interstate 40 over there.

 

 

New Mexico-Arizona Border: In sunshine this time

TrainAcrossNewMexico

Coming up on the amazing border geology again, this time with the company of a freight train.

ViewDownTheTracks
Looking down tracks has as compelling a view as highways stretching into the distance. “Follow…follow…”

 
Viewing the cliffs in the sun this time, with all their glorious colors on display. And some of the lava fields.

RedCliffs2RedCliffs2
RedCliffs3RedCliffs3
RedCliffs4RedCliffs4
RedCliffs1RedCliffs1
Lava RidgeLava Ridge
Lava Ridge
Lava FieldsLava Fields
Lava Fields

Being the one driving while crossing out of New Mexico, I had this… This amazing piece of landscape in the rear view mirror.

New Mexico Border
New Mexico Border
Every time I looked back, I felt my brain stop working, just wanting to stare at the cliffs. This is not a good thing to do while driving, and I felt very relieved when I finally crossed over a hill and could no longer see it.

However, somebody was determined to stun my brain.

PetrifiedForestOfficialSign
Having missed the Painted Desert on the way out, we picked it up on the way back.

Nothing prepared me for the problem of running out of adjectives.

Arizona SurpriseI had an idea what was coming. But can you imaging the expressions on the faces of the first explorers who had never seen this land before, traveling across country that looked like this:

 

And getting this!
How do you prepare for running out of adjectives? Glorious. Awesome. Unbelievable. Stunning. I think I was seriously stuck on stunned.
Followed closely by *gasp*
A lot of rock formations show their layers on a slant, as the earth twists and deforms to create mountains. The amazing Chinle Formation runs the gamut from reds to grays, all in relatively horizontal stripes.

Painted DesertPainted Desert
Painted Desert
Painted DesertPainted Desert
Painted Desert
Painted DesertPainted Desert
Painted Desert
Painted DesertPainted Desert
Painted Desert
Painted DesertPainted Desert
Painted Desert
Painted DesertPainted Desert
Painted Desert
Painted DesertPainted Desert
Painted Desert
Painted DesertPainted Desert
Painted Desert
Painted DesertPainted Desert
Painted Desert
Painted DesertPainted Desert
Painted Desert
Blue MesaBlue Mesa
Blue Mesa
Blue MesaBlue Mesa
Blue Mesa
Blue MesaBlue Mesa
Blue Mesa
Blue MesaBlue Mesa
Blue Mesa

 
When I got to the “Blue Mesa,” I realized my adjective generator had completely broken down. I was pretty much left with stunned.

PaintedDesertWater

 

There is water in this desert.

 

NewspaperRock
Newspaper Rock: Petroglyphs. They show up better if you click the image to get the larger version.

 

When this wash was first discovered, it full of petrified wood. It was carried away by the truck-load, blasted for the amethysts and quartz within, vanished to be used for doorstops. MissingWoodIt is estimated that one ton of petrified wood is stolen from the Petrified Forest every year, even though there are legitimate places to buy it outside the National Park. At one time, this was was full. Now, this is all that remains here.

 
There are still scattered pockets of petrified wood throughout the park and around the museum. On some pieces, you can still see the grain of the wood. And life will find toe-holds in any pocket that will hold dirt.

Petrified LogsPetrified Logs
Petrified Logs
PetrifiedWood1PetrifiedWood1
PetrifiedWood2PetrifiedWood2
PetrifiedWood3PetrifiedWood3
PetrifiedWood4PetrifiedWood4
PetrifiedWood5PetrifiedWood5
PetrifiedWood6PetrifiedWood6
PetrifiedWood7PetrifiedWood7
Petrified Wood And GrassPetrified Wood And Grass
Petrified Wood And Grass

 
ArizonaDuskAnd after that, all that’s left is dusk over the Colorado Plateau, and on into Flagstaff for the night.

Filed Under: Road Goes Ever On

Long and not so winding road

April 2, 2015 by Road Otter

Road Home

  • Long and not so winding road
  • Mr. Spock, set the landscape on stun
  • Long Road Home

  • Road To Denver
  • Denver & Denvention

First published August 11, 2008

Leaving Denver, headed back to LA. The clouds play with light and shadow on the mountains, sometimes making a grass covered mountain side shine like green velvet. The green of the trees, the blues of the mountains, the light and shadow of the clouds, almost looks unreal. I told myself I wouldn’t take so many pictures on the way home, as the road was the same road, the grass the same grass. Except this grass looks like velvet. And some of the vistas just takes my breath away. In Colorado, the green trees along a river stand out much more against the yellows of the prairie grasses.

Road SouthRoad South
Road South
Light And ShadowLight And Shadow
Light And Shadow
Green VelvetGreen Velvet
Green Velvet
Clouds And MountainsClouds And Mountains
Clouds And Mountains
OneMoreVelvetyMeadowOneMoreVelvetyMeadow
OneMoreVelvetyMeadow
Long Breathless VistaLong Breathless Vista
Long Breathless Vista
Where The River RunsWhere The River Runs
Where The River Runs

AirForcePlane

Do click on the images
to get the larger view.
I'm biased but I
think they're awesome.

One of the more interesting sites is the plane on the ground, on or near the Air Force Academy.

 

GardenOfTheGods

I now have a reason to go back to Colorado. A place now on my to-see list, “Garden Of The Gods”.

 

BoxcarsAllAloneA siding of box cars. They were there on our way to Denver. They were there on our way back. Just sittin’ there, waiting for someone to need them.

 

Trinidad

Lovely old building in Trinidad, Colorado. I couldn’t get a good shot of anything else, as there were signs, trees, trucks, the usual interference. There also weren’t any convenient parking spots to pull over and snap pics. Ah well.

RoadSouthFromTheBorder
Construction on every road, everywhere we went. I stopped avoiding taking pictures of it, because I would miss taking shots like this. Do click on it and see the larger shot.
 

RoadToLoseYourselfOn

 

The road ahead, winding or straight, calls us on.

 

CloudsMountainsSunDogs
As the day got later, it became more difficult to take pictures into the west. The clouds, mountains and green green grass delight the eye, even with the sundogs.

 

Antelope

 

And I finally got some antelope!
 

 

VelvetSlopes
As night falls, the rolling hills turn to dark green velvet slopes.

 

SunsetCloudsAndHills
Clouds still lit by the sun over shadowed hills.

 

PerfectSunset

 

And a sunset Hollywood couldn’t have done better.

Filed Under: Road Goes Ever On

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