Canyon Walls

Neon Canyon.  Grand Staircase - Escalante. 

(Click images to view larger--best viewed large)

There’s an appeal in the relentless march of entropy—objects in nature decay and fall into patterns that are random and beautiful.  To me, this is especially apparent in arid places, because with more water comes a tangle of plants that is too complicated for me to sort into compositions after 30+ years of squinting through a viewfinder at the arid West.  

Eliot Porter, who masterfully photographed desert landscapes and wetter places, said:

 “Much is missed if we have eyes only for the bright colors. Nature should be viewed without distinction… She makes no choice herself; everything that happens has equal significance. Nothing can be dispensed with. This is a common mistake that many people make: They think that half of nature can be destroyed — the uncomfortable half — while still retaining the acceptable and the pleasing side.” (Eliot Porter) 

I think that part of what he is saying is that patterns in nature are perfect because they are both random and inevitable (and stop screwing them up!). 

Over the years I've tried, and often failed, to capture the perfect random patterns in sandstone walls while wandering in Utah canyons.  My mind is on the desert this week as I prepare to head to the Grand Canyon on Friday for my spring canyoneering trip, so I’m resurrecting my woefully inactive blog with images of canyon walls.

Natural Bridges National Monument.

The Golden Cathedral.  Neon Canyon.  Grand Staircase - Escalante.

Harris Wash.  Grand Staircase - Escalante.

West Fork Big Spring Canyon.  High Roost.

High Spur Canyon.  High Roost.

Hurricane Wash.  Grand Staircase - Escalante.

Coyote Gulch.  Grand Staircase - Escalante.

Coyote Gulch.

Coyote Gulch.

Silver Falls Creek.  Grand Staircase - Escalante.

Harris Wash.

Echo Canyon.  Zion National Park.

Echo Canyon.

Echo Canyon.

Pine Creek.  Zion National Park.

The Golden Cathedral -- Ceiling.

Along Escalante River near Choprock Canyon.  Grand Staircase - Escalante.

Kane Gulch.  Cedar Mesa.

Peek-a-boo Canyon. Grand Staircase - Escalante.

Neon Canyon.

Willow Gulch.  Grand Staircase - Escalante.

Willow Gulch.

The Atlantic City Iron Mine

Old trees in the tailings at the Atlantic City iron mine (Fall 2014).

(Click images to view larger)

Atlantic City, on South Pass at the southern end of the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming, is well known for historic gold mines, but there is also a huge abandoned iron mine there called the Atlantic City Iron Mine that was owned by U.S. Steel.  Iron pellets were shipped to Utah for processing while the mine was active.  It operated from 1962 until 1983 and left behind a pit filled with water and huge piles of taconite tailings that have been the target of reclamation efforts under the Abandoned Mine Land (AML) reclamation program.  WyDOT still uses waste rock from the site for roads and rip rap, but mostly the site sits empty.  

I've driven past the mine many times and even stopped to look over the barbed-wire fence at it, but had never walked around in there until last fall (2014), when I jumped the fence to shoot some photographs of the black tailing piles, now partly covered with sparse plants that are hearty enough to grow on taconite at 8,000 feet above sea level. 

A 2012 article in County10.com gave the mine a “5 to 10 percent chance” of reopening to extract substantial iron that is still in the pit, but when I was there in the Fall of 2014, there was no activity.

Reference:  Gusek, James J. and Timothy C. Richmond.  1998.  Mining Engineering 50(4):33-38. 

The view into the pit from atop one of the tailing piles.

A brave lodgepole.

Rabbitbrush and tailings.

Dead lodgepoles and live rabbitbrush.

Plants in the tailings.

Inadvertent sculpture.

Please DO.

Tires.

Tailings and blue water.

Tailings with piles of tailings.

Tailings with piles of salt.

Salt with piles of tailings.

Abandoned equipment.

Empty Space

An abandoned ranch cabin on the Bar X Road, deep in the Red Desert.  

(Click images to view larger)

Many of us who have lived in Wyoming for a long time but weren’t born  here (and some that were) notice from time to time how lucky we are.  Imagine how many people can’t imagine living in the mountains, or driving 15 minutes to go skiing or mountain biking, or that the Red Desert exists.   Imagine antelope being exotic or not seeing storms or the lights of home fifty miles away.

Earlier this fall, I camped one weekend with Ed Sherline (another photographer) near the Oregon Buttes, a landmark on the Oregon Trail.  Migrants traveling west along what now are just wagon ruts through the sagebrush were probably less romantic about all of the open space and the badlands, but Ed and I both grew up “out east” and noted after we left our camp and were driving home that we had traversed more than fifty miles of territory without seeing another car or an occupied dwelling. 

Remnants of an old mind near South Pass, near the Sweetwater River.

Antelope.

Sandstone on the southern flanks of the Oregon Buttes.

The Oregon Buttes, viewed from the south.  On the Oregon Trail, these marked the passage into Oregon territory.

Badlands south of the Oregon Buttes.  

Badland erosion.

The view southwest from atop badlands south of the Oregon Buttes.

Wild horses south of the Oregon Buttes.

Coyote taken at the same cabin as in the lead photo.  

The Bar X road with typical traffic.

A very long, but not very watery watering trough.

Red Desert highway.

Desert elk, south of the Bar X Ranch, heading for the sand dune in the distance.