08-05-2010

  • Return to the Painted Desert: PART II

    The Painted Desert is an area rich in color and texture. Over the eons layers with different minerals built up one after the other. Geological movement churned and mixed layers which eroded at different rates, all working together to produce the landscapes  that I believe to be unparalleled anywhere. It would be excellent if you would disagree with me because that would give me an excuse to disappear on another photo expedition...


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    Celebrating the Light fantastic...

07-05-2010

  • Return to the Painted Desert: PART I

    I started my vacation by flying to Las Vegas, rented a car there and took a flight over the Painted Desert, then we traveled to Death Valley, Yosemite, San Francisco, Big Sur, Majave Desert and then returned to the Painted Desert. If you did not see the Painted Desert from the air please follow this link:
    http://maartenventer.xanga.com/tags/thepainteddesert/


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    Las Vegas - a view of the Strip as Las Vegas Boulevard is known


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    Colors abound in the Painted Desert


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    It all depends on the light


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    Celebrating the Light Fantastic...

06-05-2010

  • Calico, CA.: PART V

    ...Continued...


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    Skeeter brought the buggy you requested, Denise


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    As I walked back to the car...


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    ...again I looked at the rocks and again realized the wonder of our world
     
    Celebrating the Light Fantastic...

05-05-2010

  • Calico, CA.: PART IV

    When you get to the last photo, spare a thought for the husbands who "... blow the budget on lavish un-necessities"


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    Don't forget to go before you go...


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    Celebrating the Light Fantastic...

04-05-2010

  • Calico, CA.: PART III

    We were lucky to have visited Calico on that day because the dust storm created some mood in the landscape pictures that would have been missing on an ordinary day.


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    Celebrating the Light Fantastic...

03-05-2010

  • Calico, CA.: PART II

    The town had a colorful past. The rich lived on the outskirts of town so their children would not mingle with the lower class miners and the ladies of the night. 


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    I have no idea why that building is falling over


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    Uptown was on the other side of this creek bed


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    Celebrating the Light Fantastic...

02-05-2010

  • Calico, CA.: PART I

    Once upon a time there was, no there is, no no, there was a town called Calico, CA. High in a mountain they discovered Silver and the rest is history because people flocked to the Mojave Desert to cash in on the new found promise of riches. Shortly after the town was founded in 1881 it had 1200 residents and more than 500 mines. The price of Silver dropped in the early 1900's and by 1907 the town was completely abandoned. It was a colorful era for the area because the town was one of the richest in California.

    On the day of our visit a dust storm was raging in the Mojave Desert which cast an eerie light on the town which today is a County Park. Mrs. Lucy Bell Lane, the last inhabitant of Calico before it was abandoned died in the 1960's. Her house is on of the main attractions in the park.

    Any Silver left in the mountains near Calico? Yes, about $6,000,000 worth. However, nobody is concerned that you would go there for the taking because processing costs would leave you about $4,000,000 in the hole.

     
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    The first thing I noticed was the tortured rock. What forces were at play here?

     
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    Inscription on grave:
    Here lies Harry Drinkwater
    which he never did
    Born: 1850
    Pickled:1885
    Have a drink on me, folks.


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    Celebrating the Light Fantastic...

01-05-2010

  • Mojave Desert: PART VI

    ...continued...


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    The view from Kelso Railway Station


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    Celebrating the Light Fantastic...

30-04-2010

  • Mojave Desert: PART V

    The Kelso sand dunes are huge, mountainous, beautiful and did I mention beautiful. I did not have the time or equipment to stay over but that would be the ideal thing to do.


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    Celebrating the Light Fantastic...

29-04-2010