Fringe | Photograffy » snow

Welcome, Elk

david — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 14:58:13 +0000

Welcome, Elk. We’re glad you’re here.

Springtime in Yellowstone National Park is a wonderful, wonderful time of the year, for not only is the long winter heading out, but green is beginning to show everywhere. Sure, there is a bit of snow here and there (especially at the higher elevations), but there are also fields of green grass, too. Oh, and it just happens to be the time of the year that so many newborn come into the world.

It is hard to saw how long this baby calf elk has been in the world… hours, certainly, but days? No, not really. It is a newborn, fresh to this world, and it is beginning to look around at its surroundings for the very first time (Mom is away at the moment foraging a bit; baby calves are actually very safe when they are newborn, for they give off no scent for a predator to find them by, and remarkably, they stay where they were placed by Mom) and beginning to look out upon its new world. There is nothing so precious as when a newborn stands for the first time, takes it first steps, and fully enters the world.

Welcome, Elk.

Alpine Quietude

david — Thu, 19 May 2011 15:25:37 +0000

Alpine Quietude

The waves stretch to infinity and beyond in the high alpine lake–or at any rate, it certainly seems that way. The silence of the day is absolute, as well, with not a single human sound disturbing the waves as they reach for the edges of forever. Nothing save the gentle lapping of the waves upon the shore, beckoning it to follow them to everywhere, breaks the concentration of the perfect afternoon. A bird, high overhead, calls once, then falls silent, another victim of the siren call of the waves. The waves stretch ever onward and the quietude of the day continues on.

Truly, the magic of this particular lake (Lake San Cristobal near Lake City, Colorado) at this particular moment cannot be overstated. The gentle, rhythmic, waves were in no hurry to go anywhere in particular; the sun, shining so brightly and warm on this spring day, breathed hope and promise everywhere. The snow capped mountains were slowly giving up their white tops in favor of green ones, and the day… ah, the day was perfect.

The day sang out in quietness, the waves continued their march to infinity, and all was perfect.

Desert Snow

david — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 15:54:06 +0000

Desert Snow

Ah, spring in the desert. The desert begins to green up ever so nicely in the spring; lush and rich, and the travails of winter have been cast aside. The cactus begins to bloom, adding to the beauty. And the snow comes in, draping over the Four Peaks of the Superstition Mountains. Wait. What? Snow?

Yes, snow. Although it was mid April when this was taken, that didn’t matter to the cold rainy day which came around. Down low, it was just that–cold and rainy. But at the higher elevations, well, that was a different story entirely. There it was cold and snowy, and the upper reaches of the Superstitions had a wonderful blanket of snow.

As the clouds began to break up later in the day the Four Peaks were once again revealed; still wrapped in their blanket of clouds they slowly began to reemerge into the spring. Down below, the saguaros took it all in stride, reaching skyward and thankful for the brief rain; if anything the desert floor was even more lush and green than it had been earlier that morning.

Ah, spring in the desert. What a wonderful, wonderful time of magic.

Stormy Mission

david — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 14:45:15 +0000

Stormy Mission

Pecos National Historic Park in New Mexico is a place where cultures collided and time tried to stand still. Neither of these worked out too well.

Pecos “began” somewhere around 800 A.D. when the first settlers in the Rio Grande Valley area moved into this wonderful and almost perfect environment. By 1200 A.D. the first pueblo had been built and by 1300 A.D. the area was in full swing. It featured a fairly significant multi-level pueblo, with upwards of 700 rooms and the Tiwa Indians called it home. Situated in between the Rio Grande Valley and the plains, Pecos had an ideal location.

Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, when he rolled through the area in the early 1500s, thought so too, although the Europeans stayed away until 1590. By 1618 a mission had been built at Pecos and the cultures meshed and collided over the years.

Today the remains of a Great Kiva and the mission stand side by side. The stormy skies remind us that the past here was not always tranquil. Yet, today Pecos endures, despite the storms, just as it always has. May we always remember, respect and celebrate our past.

Ancient Alto

david — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 16:56:35 +0000

Ancient Alto

They’re gone. The Ancient Ones have been gone for more than 1,000 years. But the spirit and the essence of them remain, and one is reminded of that in so many ways.

This is approaching New Alto Pueblo in Chaco Canyon National Historic Park, New Mexico; it stands there, its ancient walls still struggling against time, and still, all in all, holding up quite well. All that remains above ground is the upper reaches of the second story of this structure; the rest buried, its secrets still intact.

This day a west wind was blowing, bringing in clouds with it. High above the plains the clouds moved, but one cloud took a slight detour in its journey to reach down toward New Alto. Perhaps it was saying hello to an old friend; perhaps it was merely curious as to how the ancient pueblo was doing.

In any event it quickly rejoined the rest and continued toward the east. New Alto was alone again. The walls remain braced for another 1,000, or more, years, until the Ancient Ones come again, visited only by the occasional visitor, and of course, the wind and clouds.