Light of the Ancients
This image was taken after a hike over ice and snow. The trail would probably not be all that hard in the summer, but in the winter there are steep parts that are iced over. One specific part was crazy, you have to slide down a rock face, and land on a pile of rocks underneath, but in this case, the loose rocks had ice on them too! Shortly after you make it down the ice rock face, you see that Moon House is actually across a ravine. You have go down the ravine face, and back up the other side. It looks impossible, but as you get to each challenge, you see that its not all that tough, shy of sliding down the rock face.
Moon House is a unique puebloan/anasazi ruin in Bears Ears National Monument because many rooms were built behind a wall, deep in a recess of the canyon face. Because they were protected, these rooms are quite in tact, down to the sticks and paint they used to build them almost 900 years ago. Here BLM says its ok to enter, but you need to touch nothing and they have signs inside explaining that you cannot enter the rooms. I was hoping to get there at at time of day to catch some lightbeams entering this fairly dark area. I was glad to see we made it. The road out here was all 4 wheeling and hard to predict how long it would take, so I think there is more luck here than skill as far as getting the light was concerned.
Let me know what you think!
OH, thank you Bill- yes, you should know that you need a permit to visit, at least in the warm months. They limit the permits to only 20 a day, issued from a nearby BLM office, so you have to get there early! In the winter they are administered from a kiosk onsite.
I should also mention, please use the utmost respect when you visit, these places have been here for 900 years and should be for 900 more. That;s not to say you should not go see it. Its important to learn about these places in order to foster respect for them. Nothing will teach you like seeing them first hand. Read the book Last Child in the Woods. It basically says that if you lock out the world, no one will experience these places, and therefore, no one will love them. With no love, there is no one to fight for their survival. So I will not condone the idea that places like these should not be visited. They absolutely should be, to raise a future generation of people who will fight for their survival. Just do it with extreme respect, and with long term preservation in mind.newmoonhousemoon houseancientlightpueblonasaziruinsouthwestnational monumentbears ears
House on Fire
Cutthroat Castle 1
Painted Hand 3
Faced again with the challenge of shooting something that has been photographed so many times. How to make it original?
I tried an original composition. I had done a lot of reaserch on this place, and had it on my list of must shoot places on our recent trip to Utah/ Colorado to look at Anasazi/Puebloian ruins. We started as we always do with a trip to the visitors center. However, because we were there around Thanksgiving, the center was apparently closed all week!
No biggie, the visitors center is actually quite far from the sites, so we just set out for the sites. Lowery Pueblo was first, Painted Hand second. The weather was the issue.,
We made a home base at a hotel in Montechello Utah. There was nothing that we wanted to see there, per se, but it was about an hour from everyplace we did want to see. The thing is, micro climates out there are AMAZING. Just about every day of this one week trip, we woke to snow outside the hotel. And not just light, cute snow, but crazy wind with white out conditions. It was bad. But every day we laced up the snow boots, added 5 layers each, and set out into the cold to brave the day.
On this day we thought for sure we would not be able to see any of the locations I had picked out because the snow was horrible. However, the further we drove, the better the weather got. When we got to The Canyon of the Ancients on Colorado the weather was great! Still a bit chilly, but not bad, and the sun was out between dynamic sky's. For photography, you can't ask for anything more! There was even snow here and there, though I could not use any to frame the ruin here. I was thrilled to get some color though, thanks to the sun and the fact that the desert always seems to be more colorful than most imagine.
Let me know what you think.
Cutthroat Castle 2
This fascinating ruin is built into a hillside, the bulk of the castle sits on top of a rock outcropping, then some additional graineries are located beneath the rock. There is so much color in the desert that I had to put this yellow flowering bush in the foreground. The trail is fun because you cross over a state line while on the trail.
For those of you who are not familiar with this location, this is an ancient pebloian/Anasazi structure this in a 'unit' of the Hovenweep National Monument. This group of structures is unique amongst other local ruins because the Kiva, an area used for ceremonies, is located on top of the rock, as where most are located in the ground. Also, the group of structures features a rather unique entrance. It was accessed through a split in the rock, where they would climb up into the structure complex.
Mesa Verde National Park
Fire in the Pueblo
Continuing our tour of the ancient ruins in southern Utah and Colorado. One cannot visit the area without a visit to this classic. This is the Ruin commonly called House on Fire in the heart of Bears Ears National Monument. I am not sure why they call it House on Fire though. I could see nothing on fire, but the rocks...ohhhh...I get it now. Right, fire. Ok, cool. Makes sense.
This structure is in Mule Canyon, the trailhead is impossible to find unless you know where it is. We pulled up to it, more like over to it (its on the side of a dirt road, down a bank) and they were like "This is it? There is no trail here." And I just chortled. Oh silly young ones, trust the daddy. And trust they did.
The trail was great because it had snowed the night before. The trail was white. We did see in the snow that one had come before us, a deer. Oddly, he stuck right o the trail most of the way, judging by the tracks.
When you get to the building, I have to say, its a bit of a let down. Wait, that little thing is the great House on Fire? Where is its mommy? This ruin is not big. And there are not that many structures here. The real attraction is the rocks above. You have to get the timing right. If you are not there at 10-ish, you don't get the reflection. Also, no one else will tell you this important bit, you shoot it in the shade. That's right. The light does not beam directly onto the rocks below, or above, rather the light comes almost to the structure which lights up enough of the rocks below to fill the rocks above, but they are in the shade the whole time. We actually thought we had to wait for the light to be more direct. And we waited, but the scene just got more muddy because the sun was so bright. Luckily I shot about 1000 frames before the house was out of the shade. Those were the keepers.
Also, I have to comment again, when we left the hotel in Monticello it was blustery, with a snow white out that made you want to crawl back into the bed. It was bad. But we get here and the sun was out, the snow was fresh (you can see a little in the image) and the trail was empty. We did pass like three other groups of people on our way out, but when the light was sweet, we were alone. Perfect in every way, except that fact that it was still about 12 degrees. Yikes.
