As I traveled towards my second overnight destination in route to the Grand Canyon North Rim in July 2021, I spotted an abandoned church about a block north of the highway at the edge of a small New Mexico town. I had to stop to check out this old church.
The roadway from the highway to the church was gravel, but in good condition. There were other homes or building visible from the church site, but none were very close to the church, making it stand out from its surroundings.
I walked around the exterior photographing the church from various angles and capturing some of the exterior details, before I ventured through the front doorway.
This post is dedicated to the exterior views. It was afternoon and the lighting was not great for capturing this weathered old church, but I knew I might not pass by again for a long time, if ever, so I had to make the best of the photographic conditions.
As I approached the previously mentioned ranch fence line that was decorated with boots and bicycles, I noted a police officer’s vehicle with the police officer chatting with someone in another vehicle. It appeared to be a friendly meeting and not a traffic stop. I pulled over onto the broad shoulder of the roadway near the corner of the fence line, maybe twenty yards or so, from the two. As I got out of my vehicle, and noted the police officer watching me, I waved and he began walking towards me, so I approached him. My friendly wave had apparently made the police officer think I needed to speak to him or had a problem. I explained that I wanted to photograph the fence line, but did not want to do anything forbidden. He assured me it was ok to photograph the fence decor and told me a little about the local ranch and their penchant for the fence decor.
So I retrieved my camera from my vehicle and began to walk along the fence shooting photos.
I wanted to show the fence in its entirety with its allure, but I found it impossible to get a good overall view with my camera. So I began to isolate smaller aspects of the decor.
I was soon joined at the fence by a ranch dog that vociferously objected to my presence.
This dog followed me along the fence line, maybe to make sure I did not cross over into his territory.
Soon a second ranch dog showed up.
The second dog did not bark and seemed to have a calming effect upon the first. Thereafter, they seemed friendlier and just curious about me.
Satisfied that I had sufficient photographs to illustrate this uniquely decorated fence line, I bade farewell to the ranch dogs and continued on my way.
Before continuing my journey towards the Grand Canyon North Rim, I took time to drive to the end of the road in Caprock Canyon State Park, stopping at a few locations to get iPhone shots.
The fine, red clay soil seems to permeate everything here.
There were gypsum crystals frequently exposed on the surface of this mostly desert like environment.
The effect of the recent rains were clearly visible in the greenness of the scrubby vegetation.
At the end of the park road was a tent campground and a trailhead into the canyon. I’m thinking this might be the most interesting hike in this park. If I stop here again and have time, I will plan to hike this trail.
After encountering a rattlesnake on my previous days hike, I was much more wary while strolling about today. I did not see another rattlesnake while walking about, but I did see a small one crossing the paved roadway as I arrived back at the camping area. There was also a bison standing at the trailhead of the hike I had taken the previous day.
I do not know why this big fella was hanging out by the sign, but it was still here, after I made a loop through the campground, before heading out on the next leg of my journey. Maybe it was waiting for a hiking companion.
I’ve driven past a sign for Caprock Canyon State Park on US 287 in northwestern Texas numerous times on my way to some western destination. So when planning my July, 2021 trip to the Grand Canyon North Rim, I decided to make this my first stop over along a different route than I would normally take.
I departed US 287 in the tiny town of Estelline, Texas heading west on Texas Route 86, traveling through an unfamiliar part of rural Texas. I noted that the countryside looked exceptionally green with lots of thick, green grass along the edge of the roadway, green pastures and farm fields with water filled low areas. Evidently, there had been more than the normal rainfall in this area recently.
Even though I had mapped out my route, the drive on this narrow, backroad route was slower and seemed longer than I had anticipated. There was little traffic, but the speed limit was much lower than the 75mph on the more substantial routes.
I passed through a number of very small towns and/or rural communities, stopping in Turkey, Texas to top off my tank at the only filling station in town, since I did not know when I would see another convenient filling station.
As I came into Turkey, I noted a prominent sign proclaiming Turkey to be the birthplace of Bob Wills, a famous and early Country and Western performer, with the group “Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys”. Bob Wills was one of the featured performers in the Ken Burn’s “Country Music” documentary on PBS. I had heard some of his music on radio in my early childhood.
Continuing on my way, I soon came into Quitaque, Texas. I had to look up the proper way to pronounce the name of this town. The locals pronounce it “Kitty Quay” and there is even this pronunciation indicated on signs on either side of the route through the town. The name reportedly comes from a Native American word meaning “end of the trail”, which is fitting for this portion of my journey.
Quitaque is a picturesque little Texas town and I noted several items of interest on my way through town and on the short stretch of roadway from town to the entrance to Caprock Canyon State Park. I did not take time to stop on my way to the park, but I was determined to take time for photographs the next day, before I continued my journey. More on this in the next post, but here are teasers:
I had checked into my campsite online, but I stopped in the park headquarters on my way in just to be sure I did not need to do anything else. The park ranger, warned me to keep my distance from the Bison and that they were free roaming and might wander into my campsite.
As I left the headquarters on my way to my campsite, I noted quite a few bison, but I did not stop to photograph them, thinking I would have plenty of opportunity for that later and I’ve seen plenty of bison previously. There are even bison ranches in this part of Texas, but the herd here is the only free roaming herd in Texas.
In the campground there is a prairie dog town near the restroom facility. The prairie dogs would bark a warning, whenever anyone walked along the walkway towards the restroom, most would scamper into their underground dens, while one seemed to keep watch.
The restroom facilities here are old and in great need of updating. This seems to be a popular park, as there were many RVs in the campground. So it seems to me that upgrading the park facilities would be a priority. I’ve since written e-mails to the Texas State Representative and Senator for this area, pointing out the need to put forth a better image for such a popular state park.
A recent Texas state ballot issue was approved to address the lack of funding for state parks. A previously targeted method for funding Texas Parks and Wildlife existed, but the state found other ways to use that money, rather than use it for its intended purpose. It remains to be seen, if the recent effort will result in much needed maintenance and updating of Texas State Park facilities or if our elected state officials will divert those funds, maybe to use in totally useless audits of the previous federal election in some districts or to sue school districts that want to require students and employees to wear masks during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
There is a hiking trail originating from my campground, so I decided to head out late in the day, hoping to find some photographic opportunities. I hiked for some distance along the trail, eventually going down a steep slope into a canyon, but I did not find anything I considered photo worthy. I did not even see a bison, although there were plenty of indications that they had been in this area. There were also many irritating flying insects, mostly large biting flies and I had not even thought to put on insect repellant or bring any in my day pack, since there were few insects buzzing around the campground and mosquitoes are seldom a problem in this part of Texas.
I eventually decided there was no compelling reason to hike any further along this trail, so I turned back, taking a different branch back towards the campground.
There were some wildflowers scattered around and as I walked along scanning the area, often looking at the near trail wildflowers, I heard a very distinct sound that immediately increased my heart rate.
I stopped in my tracks and looked up. A few feet in front of me a rattlesnake was stretched across the trail issuing a warning. For all the times that I’ve hiked in wild areas, this is the first time I’ve encountered a rattlesnake. My camera was strapped to my backpack, so I tried to pull my iPhone from my pocket to get a shot, as the snake moved to the side of the trail and kept an eye on me for a few moments. By the time I got my phone out, it had already begun to disappear into the vegetation along the trail. So the image above is all I managed to get.
After this encounter, I was much more vigilant for the rest of my hike.
There is a small Texas town that I drive by on my trips westward and each time I go through it, I think I should someday take time to get off the highway and see what is in this old Texas town. Finally, on one of my homeward bound trips, I did just that.
This is not a ghost town, there are still residents, businesses, a post office, city hall, and some modern improvements, but I found numerous abandoned businesses in and around the downtown area and even an older, abandoned city hall.
I shot numerous photos, but many of the settings and the mid-day light were not conducive to getting interesting shots, so I’ve greatly culled the images to present in this post and I had to do some creative editing to add interest to these images.
There is a crumbling building that was an auto sales business long ago.
Given the smallness of this Texas town, I was surprised to find the remnants of an auto sales place here. This one appears to have been abandoned many years ago.
The back side of one of the downtown area’s abandoned business had a couple of windows, one of which had concrete rebar installed for security.
The adjacent window had no bars and the lower glass pane was missing.
A street corner building had an interesting looking backside. The image above is cropped from a wider view to remove distracting items. The monochrome conversion seems more fitting for this subject than the original color version.
This large hoodoo seems to be standing guard for those in the valley below it, ready to alert of approaching photographers.
I spotted the hoodoo above from a far distance as it stands out very distinctly in this broad valley in the Bisti Wilderness of New Mexico. I had scouted around it looking for ways to photograph it and found what I thought were promising compositions, only to discover that many of those compositions did not work out well.
It was a cloudy afternoon, but some rays of golden hour sunset light broke through.
I was in a dead end spur off of a big valley and went into this small nook, where I noted interesting rock features and hoodoos with the golden hour light on the top of the background hills and blue sky with fluffy clouds above. My son was calling for me to come out into the main valley, where the day’s final rays of light was peaking, so I hastened to get this shot, not at all sure it would be worthwhile; but I think it turned out well.
So there you have it, the final part of this visit to Bisti. I do not usually include so many photos in one post, but since this is part 13 and I had exactly 13 photos to wrap up this Bisti visit, it seems fitting to end it so.
If you can, please look at these images on my Flickr page and on a big screen, where the details are much better viewed.
Revisiting these images has put me in the mood for another visit to Bisti, but it might be some time before I can get back, so readers will not have to suffer through more Bisti any time soon.
Stay safe and thanks for following,
Ken
P.S. Actually, I just remembered that there is one remaining item for this visit: Night photography with stars and maybe the Milky Way, if I ever get around to finishing the editing, which is always a pain for such images, so I tend to procrastinate with that task. There will probably only be one or two or three photos, so that post will be short.
I shot these same small hoodoos early one morning. This late day composition captures their long shadows across the desert valley floor.
This tall hoodoo with a very small cap seems to cast an unusually thin shadow, given the apparent thickness of the structure as seen from this angle.
I photographed this alien looking hoodoo from various viewpoints (it was in an awkward place for getting a good shot) and under various light conditions. The photo just above may be the best image that I got.
Late day shadows are encroaching on this feature just as the light gets best. At least I got its shadow on the hillside behind it.
Readers may recall seeing a monochrome version of this last photo in an earlier post. While not a compelling image, I liked the shadow of the central feature on the hillside behind it. The shadow is more distinct in this color version than in the monochrome version.
After the best early morning light, I continued to move around the valley in the vicinity of Nefertiti’s Crown looking for more composition with the great variety of rock shapes and hoodoos nearby.
The same features can be photographed from various angles and distances, yielding completely different looking shapes, shadows, highlights and textures.
I tried various points of view and compositions for the scene above, but keeping my shadow out of the shots eliminated the best composition, so I settled for this view and it is not very satisfying.
Actually, I’m not really happy with most of these shots after the golden hour, but I do like the next to last image, with its wide angle view of the area from an elevated perspective and Greeting The Sun.
My son and I were out early again in Bisti waiting for sunrise. We had to hike about 2 miles to get to our destinations each day of our visit, so for sunrise we were initially hiking in the dark on the way out. After sunset photos, we could sometime hike all the way back to the parking lot without light, but sometimes we needed our headlamps for at least a portion of the hike back.
We were back in the area of the “Michelin Tire/Nefertiti Crown” and “Shark or “Surfboard” (our nicknames) hoodoos and I managed to get a few decent compositions here, while waiting for sunrise.
I usually try to compose photos with multiple objects, such as those in the above photo, so that there is separation between all the objects, but sometime I could find no way to completely separate them.
I shot the Nefertiti Crown hoodoo again in sunrise light, but with a wider angle view this time. Nefertiti’s shadow is still falling on the “Shark”.
From the point of view in the above photo, I got the shadow from the low, tilted hoodoo in the foreground that it cast upon the base of the Shark Hoodoo. Note that Nefertiti’s Crown Hoodoo looks completely different from this point of view, hence my initial nickname of “Lumpy Hoodoo”.
“Morning Breaks” is my favorite from this batch and I had to use multiple exposures blended via HDR software to get this one. Although, “Behind the Shark” is a close second and “Bisti Jumble” comes in close behind that.