On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
We start out close to home, and then we are world travelers!
Albatrossity
A couple of weeks ago this space featured some landscapes from various foreign lands. Today we will follow that up with some from destinations within the USA. Some of these are popular and well-known; most of them are off the beaten track. All of them are worth visiting, and should be even less crowded now that foreign tourists are shunning this country. Enjoy!
First up is a sunrise acene from a National Park, albeit one that is tucked into a corner of the country that is hard to get to. Winter dawn in the Chisos Mountains of Big Bend National Park. The spiky seed stalk backlit by the sunrise is a plant named sotol (Dasylirion leiophyllum). Fibers from the sharp-toothed leaves were used to make baskets by the indigenous folks who lived in this harsh environment, and the sap was used to make a tequila-like alcoholic beverage that was, surprise, named sotol. As far as I know, there is no drink called Sotol Sunrise, but there needs to be. Click here for larger image.
One of my favorite places on the planet, and it is usually uncrowded because 1) it is reachable via a 15-mile dirt road, and 2) there are no hotels or lodges nearby, only a campground near the park HQ. Chaco Culture National Historical Park, on the Colorado Plateau of northwestern new Mexico, is simply magical, and that is not a word that this scientist uses often. High, dry, blessed with petroglyphs, archeoastronomy sites, incredible New Mexico light, and stunning ruins of ancient “Great Houses”, it needs to be seen to be appreciated. This is a wall of one of the great houses, built about 1200 years ago, with a snowy Fajada Butte in the distance. Click here for larger image.
Another vista on the Colorado Plateau, and another ancient Chacoan site, this is Chimney Rock National Monument on the evening of a full moon rising during the last major lunar standstill. The Chacoans built an observatory here that was situated to observe the full moon rise directly between these two rock monoliths, which only happens during a major lunar standstill. In other words, it only happens every 19 years. And they did a good job, because we watched that happen, on schedule. This photo was taken later, as we silently trooped back to our vehicles. A Prairie Falcon (Falco mexicanus) perched atop one of the monoliths that evening as well. Click here for larger image.
I like to look at this Hallmark Christmas card image in the heat of summer, to remind myself of the possibilities of winter to come. This photo was taken along the road to Mesa Verde National Park In southwestern Colorado. Hoarfrost and fresh snow on juniper relics at 8500 ft altitude. Some days that sounds pretty good! Click here for larger image.
Not exactly a landscape, since this vista is looking out to sea from Bald Head Island near Wilmington NC. Bald Head is one of the ritzier of the many islands along this part of the coast, hurricane bait built for the golfing and vacation-home-owning folks of the Carolinas. So that is not the point of this photo. Nor is it an attempt to compete with Bill’s excellent photos of celestial objects. But it shows the elusive Green Flash, that sliver of emerald light at the top of the sun’s disk as it slips below the horizon. It may not look like much unless you know that the atmospheric conditions have to be just right, and that you can spend many hours attempting to photograph this without much to show for it. Click here for larger image.
One last image from the Southwestern US, but this one is at a state park. This is Palo Duro Canyon State Park, on the afternoon of a day when it snowed in the morning. West Texas is, by and large, a miserable place (climatologically, politically, culturally, etc.) and I have vowed not to visit anywhere in Texas again unless the state government figures out that this is the 21st century and not the 19th. But this gorgeous canyon, an early inspiration for the landscapes of Georgia O’Keeffe when she taught art in the nearby town of Canyon, is one of their better state parks! Click here for larger image.
Closer to home, the Konza Prairie Biological Station is a Nature Conservancy property managed by Kansas State University, and it hosts a Long-Term Ecological Research enterprise that attracts students and scientists from around the world. Tallgrass prairie sunrise with faint rainbow. If you ever find yourself in Manhattan KS and want to see this place, I’d be happy to show you around. Click here for larger image.
The mountains of Wyoming have some stunning locations as well, and many of them are well off the beaten path. Lower Paintrock Lake is reachable via an actual (albeit unpaved) road, but we reached it the hard way, mistaking an abandoned Forest Service Road for an actual road. It looked like a road on the map we had, and we did get there eventually, but there were admittedly some fairly hairy moments along the way. The joy is in the journey, right? Click here for larger image.
Another landscape that is vastly underappreciated and unvisited would be the prairie pothole region of the Dakotas. This is Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge, near Kenmare ND. Almost Canada, home to ducks and shorebirds and pelicans and terns, but also in proximity to missile silos and the ecological disaster known as the Bakken Oil Field. Back in the first term of mad King Donald I wrote about another prairie pothole visit in an essay published as one of the Letters to America series at Terrain.org. Click here for larger image.
The final image is a sunset, fittingly enough, taken on the Platte River in Nebraska during the spring Sandhill Crane extravaganza. Hopefully it will appeal to WaterGirl! This image actually graced the cover of a (now defunct) literary journal once upon a time. Click here for larger image.
eclare
Wow. I had never heard of a Green Flash before this.
Paul in Jacksonville
I’m confused as to how you can catch the sunset on Bald Head Island that shows the sun setting into water?
Trivia Man
I have tried several times to see the green flash, this is one of the vest pictures of it i have ever seen.
Wanderer
Love the green flash photo. Only a little disappointed it’s not a flying saucer.
Albatrossity
@Paul in Jacksonville: Check the map. The coast of NC runs basically east-west once you get a bit south of Wilmington. Bald Head is at the eastern end of that stretch, and sticks out into the ocean in a southerly direction. So in winter, when the sunrise and sunset are in the southeast and southwest, respectively, both will be out over the ocean.
SteveinPHX
Thank you. I camped at Chaco with one of my sons several years ago. One of the most amazing experiences I have had.
p.a.
Wonderful shots.
Green Flash, environmental superhero.
MikeInOly
So nice to start the day with these beautiful vistas!
stinger
Gorgeous photos all.
After they retired, every year after Christmas at home, my parents drove their RV from the Midwest to Big Bend and hiked; my mother was a birder and kept a big wall chart of the birds she saw. I’m not a snow person but that Mesa Verde shot is very nice to gaze at. Also love the two prairie shots and of course the green flash — amazing!
Interesting how ancient and widespread is the human fascination with sun- and moon-rise and -set, from Neolithic stone circles and passage graves to Albatrossity’s camera work!
Bulgakov
We were lucky to see the green flash twice when we were at Grand Turk at a hilltop restaurant called Ridge Cafe. Somehow we planned our evening dinners at just the right time and the weather conditions were just right and the green flash punctuated our dinners. The restaurant sits on a high ridge with a clear view to the sun setting on the western horizon.
Great shot of it, David. It is a very elusive beast.
MCat
Thank you for these exquisite pictures. Just amazing. I don’t know if I could ease into Mondays without your marvelous posts. Sincerely.
Tenar Arha
Wow. Thank you!
frosty
I’ve read about the green flash, have never seen it, assumed it was very minor or fictional (John D. MacDonald comes to mind.) I’m really impressed that you captured it.
As an aside, we’ve been to six of these places on our Road Trips. I’ll vouch for Palo Duro Canyon Konza Prairie, and Big Bend. I’ll also vouch that they’re off the beaten path.
pieceofpeace
This post might be my favorite. I’m saving it in my ‘Travel” file for ideas. Although the birds, bees and other living critters are bigly inspiring, particularly with the early morning first coffee…
Thank you!
Dmkingto
Beautiful photos! I’m particularly drawn to the subtle pinks in the first picture
Torrey
Everybody else has already said all the things, so I’m just going to add a thank you and appreciation for the amazing pictures and the trip to places I’ll probably never actually get to in person. The snow picture is probably my favorite, but it’s a tough call.
there go two miscreants
Wonderful pictures! I was at Palo Duro Canyon over 55 years ago, and haven’t been back since, but at that time (and apparently still) it was great. The campsites were isolated from each other by the many small trees. Great fun for a bunch of kids!
Thanks for these; good to see in the morning!
munira
Truly amazing photos, Albatrossity. In my teen-age years, I lived in Amarillo, Texas, and when I went down many years later to help my parents sell their house and move to Seattle, I vowed never to go to Texas again. I do have good memories of Palo Duro Canyon though. Thanks for the reminder.
opiejeanne
@eclare: It was part of a plot point in one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. I wasn’t entirely sure they didn’t just make it up.
opiejeanne
@Albatrossity: Wonderful photos. Thanks for sharing.
The Green Flash!
Tehanu
I’ve seen the green flash once but never so clear and bright as your photo. Wow!!! And the other pix are great too.
StringOnAStick
I had begun to think the Green Flash was a tourist jape, but you proved its real! Lovely photos, as always.
Winter Wren
Wonderful photos – so many places to put on the list to see. That Mesa Verde shot is definitely Christmas Card worthy – stunning!
mvr
These are great! Thank you.
Madeleine
Breathtaking