Zion 30 September 2014 : Caspar Institute

Zion Rocks!

I'm foolin' with scale here – some of these are huge, and some small. The interesting thing to me is how the agents of sculpting – wind, water – are fractal in nature: as above, so below. I intend to show you more of this as the trip goes on.

On our way east out of Zion, we were honored with a close-up sighting of one of the southwest's rarest: Bighorn Sheep. Generally fearful and reclusive (they were a staple on the pioneer diet), here was a group who had apparently gotten the memo: in a National Park, they're safe as houses, indeed, treasured. Still, even a few meters away, it was amazing to me how private they are. The big ram (left) flirted, but never gave me a good view.

Onward to Kanab and the North Rim

Kanab fulfilled its promise of a wonderful lunch, cold brews, and the gracious Lara to wait on us like family.

On southward, and on the lookout for the superb Kaibab Squirrel (black with a white tail), we passed through an enormous reminder that the climate is fast changing in places where the climate is extreme. The drought here is as intense, and of much longer standing, than the one that afflicts California. As always, life's regenerative power reminds us that Nature bats last.

"Polygamy Porter ... when one is not enough"

Autumn in the air. In the forest leading up to the Grand Canyon's North Rim, the aspen were in the fall plumage. As I review my pictures, I note that many, many of my images are light-struck: an apt commentary on this southwestern land.

The North Rim is a full thousand feet higher than the much more visited and accessible South Rim (and in my view much more impressive), and the long climb out of the Northern Arizona desert, through a succession of life zones – Pinyon and Bristlecone, Conifer, Mixed Alpine Conifer and Aspen – makes a wonderful prelude to the sudden opening at one's feet of the Greatest Hole in the Ground in the World.