kenkemp650.substack.com – Page 2 – Ken's Photography and Travel Blog

White House Campground and Trailhead

Base camp for my spring 2025 photo outing was White House Trailhead and Campground. This site is on BLM land south of Highway 89, near Big Water, Utah, west of Page, Arizona.

I don’t know why the name “White House”. Maybe it is because of the white rocks at the campsite and all around this area.

When choosing a campsite, I use online apps and websites with reviews and photos from the campsites. I’m nearly always disappointed in the photos. It seems most campers and RVers mostly like to photograph their tents and RVs in a campsite, maybe the facilities and signs, but often don’t photograph much of the area around the campsite.

The White House Campground is not a large one, with only a few sites suitable for RVs; but it is in a beautiful location with massive rock features. There are more walk in tent sites past the end of the road at the campground. The pit toilets are well maintained, too. The campsites are on a first come, first serve basis, but there were plenty of open sites, when I arrived. Payment for the campsites is via an automated kiosk at the site. No need for a check or cash, as in the old days. Now a credit card is all that is accepted and discount cards such as Senior Passes for the National Parks and Public Lands are honored.

After setting up in my chosen site, I walked around with my iPhone to capture a few images of the area.

Desert Vegetation and Rock Back Drop, White House Campground Area

Tree and Dimpled Rock, White House Campground Area

Rock Curves and Layers, White House Campground Area

Boulders from Above?, White House Campground Area

White House Campground Area, Day Use Parking Area in Background

Sand Dune at Base of Cliff, White House Campground Area

Rock Wall at White House Trail Head and Campground

As one can see this is a scenic area, especially for those with an interest in geology.

This site is a trailhead for a hike to and into Buckskin Gulch, the longest slot canyon in the world.

Stay tuned for more Utah landscape photos,

Ken

March 2025 Road Trip

It seems that my March road trips always involve some sort of drama. This year was no different. The first day of my trip was extremely windy. Driving through the Texas Panhandle towards Amarillo, I held my speed down to 55-65mph due to the strong, steady and gusting winds. In spite of my reduced speed, the headwinds resulted in the lowest fuel economy that I have experienced in my Sportsmobile, which does not get very good mileage to begin with. I saw 4 eighteen wheelers laying on their sides along the way and one other sizeable trailer of some sort on its side. The crosswind assist software in my vehicle kicked in at least once.

I made it to Amarillo, safely, where I stayed overnight.

The second day of my journey was better. It was still windy, but not so much as the day before. Although, I did drive through intermittent rain, sleet and snow.

The snow was heavy enough at times to reduce the visibility, but not to such an extent as to inhibit travel.

I-40 East of Albuquerque, NM, iPhone Photo

One of my favorite portions of I-40 west of Amarillo is that approaching Albuquerque, NM, with its gently rolling hills and scenic views. West of Albuquerque, near Grants and Gallup are attractive red rock outcrops which are another portion of this drive that I like.

I spent my second night in Gallup, NM, where the temperature got down to about 17 degrees overnight.

Travel the third day was much more pleasant, mostly sunny and clear. Although, from my overnight location, my directions took me along many miles of rough back roads on Native American lands, where the speed limit was 25mph for miles, before finally getting up to 35mph for many more miles. I felt like I was speeding, when I finally got into a 55mph zone.

Much of my travel on this third travel day in New Mexico and Arizona was through Native American lands, where the speed limits are often quite lower than elsewhere, but the scenery is often beautiful for mile after mile.

I know that I’ve driven this route previously, but maybe it has been so many years that I don’t recall the scenes. For many miles, I could see a big rock feature far in the distance. Sometimes as the road changed directions, I lost sight of it for miles; but eventually my route took me right past it. So of course, I had to stop, hike up a hillside to photograph it. I later learned that this feature is called “Church Rock” and the creek just west of it is “Church Creek”.

Sometimes the sky puts on a show with a display that has to be captured.

There are always so many sight in route that I would like to photograph, but if I stopped for everything I want to photograph, I would never make my destination in the time interval alloted for travel.

So this is it for my few photos in route.

Stay tuned for more landscape photos,

Ken

Road Trip Diversion

My wife and I made a road trip from our Indiana cabin lodging to Madison, Indiana, during our traditional fall stay in Indiana.

Madison is a picturesque, small city in Southern Indiana. There are a number of enticing antique and craft venues, favorite shopping for my wife, in Madison. A river runs through the area and one of the larger antique markets is located within sight of the river, maybe a block or two away, with open areas between that venue and the river and the park along the river. This provides me with an opportunity to walk around by the riverside, while my wife shops.

There were many of these trees with their red/yellow fall foliage along the streets and in the yards of homes in Madison and many fallen leaves beneath the trees and in the streets. This is probably a mundane fall event for those in this part of the country, but rare for one from Texas.

We were here a couple of days before Halloween. I noted natural features in the trees along the riverside that would make good Halloween photos. I captured images of a number of these features, but did not get the images processed in time for a Halloween post.

Thanks for following,

Ken

Indiana Fall 2024 – Leaf Clusters on Trees

I published a two part series on this topic on Substack, kenkemp650.substack.com. This post contains selected photos from the Substack series.

Thanks for following,

Ken

Hanging Leaves Part 2

This is a continuation of my photography of 2024 fall leaves that have been arrested on their way to the ground, hanging tenuously onto some natural object.

Thanks for following,

Ken

Special Edition – Defending our National Parks and Public Lands

Trump and Musk Take Aim at the National Parks and Public Lands

Is indiscriminate firing of park service employees, forest service employees, and others that manage our public lands a first step at destroying our public parks and public lands?

It sure looks that way. Trump and the far right have made no secret of wanting to scale back our public lands and fully open them to commercial development.

There are many U.S. citizens, regardless of their politics, that love our public lands and great National Parks. Many spend much time camping, hiking and exploring the wilderness areas that this nation has protected and conserved. These lands and parks are national treasures set aside for a reason. But Trump and his people only think in terms of how much money they can make by exploiting those lands.

Here are a few examples of the current chaos being created by Musk’s unwarranted, indiscriminate firing of the people that manage our precious public lands:

The only locksmith at Yosemite NP fired. He is the only one available to rescue a visitor that gets locked in a public restroom in the park or let people get back into their rental room in the park, if they lock themselves out. The only one with keys to all of the secure places (federal court, administrative buildings, toilets, closets, gun safes, …) in this very large (about the size of Rhode Island) park and the knowledge to maintain the many locks and the keys in the park facilities.

The wait time at the Grand Canyon NP entrance doubled over a weekend, due to the firing of four employees that worked the entrance gate. The gate where 90% of the 5 million annual visitors enter the park.

Reservations were canceled for stays in historic farmhouses in Gettysburg National Military Park, after the staff there was gutted.

Employees working to replace a pipeline, built in the 1960s and subject to frequent failures, in Grand Canyon NP were fired. This pipeline supplies water for shower and laundry facilities.

A ranger at Effigy Mounds National Park, who helped teach elementary and middle school science students about our public lands and the natural world, was fired.

The Park Service was already understaffed before these Trump/Musk firings. The Park Service workforce had already declined by 15% since 2010, while park visitation has increased by 16% over that same time period. I have noted the effects of the understaffing and undermaintained facilities in some of my visits to a number of National Parks over the past few years. The effects of the current firings of critical staff are already evident and the peak season for visitors is not here yet.

Glacier NP can have 30,000 visitors in one day. That is about half the size of a typical Taylor Swift concert. There is no way to handle that many visitors each day with a greatly reduced staff.

We cannot allow our public parks and lands to be trashed.

Please protest these unwarranted moves toward destruction of our most precious lands with your congressional representative and Senators.

Ken

Indiana Fall 2024 – Hanging Leaves – Part 1

I’m always amazed at how falling fall leaves are caught, often in a tenuous manner, by something on their way to the ground. This series of posts is dedicated to images of such hanging leaves.

Stay tuned for Hanging Leaves Part 2,

Ken

Indiana Fall 2024 – Grounded Leaves

I published a number of Substack posts (kenkemp650.substack.com) with images of fall leaves. This post contains a subset of images from my Substack series “Grounded Leaves”.

These photos depict ordinary scenes one can see in the fall, especially on a forest floor. Which means these are not unique artistic creations and are only a capture of the ordinary, natural beauty we often take for granted, while we trample these fallen leaves beneath our feet.