This arch is so named because it is supposed to look like a boot. Maybe the base looks a little like a boot, but I’m not quite seeing this strongly enough to have it so named.
I can partly see the naming of this arch, but I’m thinking another name like “Lobster” or “Crayfish” might be more suitable, especially when other view points are considered.
Upon arriving at the Mobius Arch, we began to work around it checking out various photographic compositions. I suspect every possible view point of this arch has been photographed many times in all sorts of weather conditions, so the prospect of achieving any unique photo here is remote at best.
Note: After migration of my blog site to another hosting provider, there are ongoing problems with the migration. I am finding (hopefully) temporary work arounds, so that I can resume posting, until a permanent fix for the website problems are found.
I began to realize early in this scouting outing that photographing the scenes here would be more challenging than I had anticipated. The scenery was spectacular, but the foreground tended to be so immense and dominant as to become a distraction for letting the eye get past it into the rest of the photo. And those mountains! The Sierra Nevada mountains were domineering as background, seemingly demanding to be included in every shot. As a result, I’m not overly pleased with many of my photos, even those that I choose to present here.
The images in this post have embedded links that will take the reader to that image in my WordPress Image Library. The photo captions are links that will take the reader to that photo on my Flickr page.
This spring’s photography trip was to Alabama Hills, California. This was a long trip and some thought was given to flying into Las Vegas, renting a 4 wheel drive vehicle and driving from there; but in the end, my oldest son and I, felt more comfortable with one of our own 4 WD vehicles, which meant a long road trip, especially for me since I first had to drive from Texas to Colorado by myself, then we would travel together to California.
March weather is always uncertain and can be a challenge for travel and planning. This year was no exception. Prior to my departure from Texas, a strong spring storm was forecast, so I left Texas a day earlier than planned to avoid the worst of the expected storm. Still, in portions of Colorado, I drove through intermittent rain, sleet and snow.
That first night in Colorado the storm dumped heavy snows across Colorado, especially in the mountains. I-70, our route over the mountains was closed and we were not at all sure that we would be able to keep our scheduled departure date; but we got lucky, I-70 opened to all but commercial truck traffic just in time. There was heavy, slow traffic along long sections of I-70 and slushy, snow packed intervals, sometimes with only one lane open.
The Western Slope of the Rockies was clear and we were able to drive much faster into Utah. Still we kept seeing warnings of an expected storm along our route and we did drive through some heavy snow before reaching our first stop over destination.
Even though, I’ve traveled portions of I-70 and I-15 west of Grand Junction, Colorado numerous times, I always seem to forget how beautiful and varied the scenery is along this route. This is another reason, I prefer highway travel to air travel. So much is missed in route, when in an airplane.
Our route to Alabama Hills took us through a portion of Death Valley, which is another of our favorite places. In one of the broad valleys between mountain ranges the land was covered in yellow flowers, no doubt due to the heavy rains in this area this year.
We had motel reservations in Lone Pine, California and would stay there for a number of days. Lone Pine sits between two portions of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. There was snow on the mountains and those mountains are beautiful.
We went into Alabama Hills, which is a few miles outside Lone Pine, and did mostly scouting the first morning here, since we did not know the area and had no fixed destination in mind for early morning photography.
Alabama Hills, California, March 17, 2024
The Sierra Nevada mountains dominate the background here and it seemed impelling to include those mountains in our photos.
Alabama Hills and Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, March 17, 2024
Perhaps, one of the most interesting and most photographed rock features here is the Mobius Arch. So we parked in the parking space at the loop trail to that arch and set out to explore the area.
Heart Arch, Alabama Hills, California, March 17, 2024
The Heart Arch is visible from some distance and the Mobius Arch Trail goes past it.
Alabama Hills, -Shadows, Light, Mountains and Clouds – California, March 17, 2024
For those of us old enough, these scenes might jar some early childhood memories of early western movies and TV series. Over 400 movies have been filmed in this area, beginning with the silent movie era and continuing into recent times. I well remember some of those early westerns, like Hop along Cassidy, The Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Gene Autry, Have Gun Will Travel, The Rifleman, Wanted – Dead or Alive and many others. More recent movies include Django Unchained and The Gladiator.
The movie museum in Lone Pine is well worth a visit for anyone passing through.
More information about Alabama Hills and how it became known as “Alabama Hills” is found here
With my DSLR in hand, I began a more extensive exploration around the summit of Mount Scott.
Branching Artist
Since I was passing this interesting tree again, I had to shoot it with my DSLR, trying to get variations on my initial iPhone scouting photos.
Reaching LimbsRolling HillsGranite AlleyMade in the ShadeForced Shade
I know these three photos are similar, but this unique tree shading the granite rock, inspired a number of thoughts and offered numerous compositional variations. I couldn’t decide which image I liked best, so here are several of my favorites.
Accommodating TreeDon’t do this.
Please do not deface nature’s beauty to express your primitive desires. There are many other ways to express your admiration of someone that will be much more meaningful, appreciated and will not be an assault upon others’ enjoyment of our natural environment.
We left Hotchkiss headed towards home, driving CO92 to US 50 on the first leg of this journey.
Don’t Fence Me In
This is a scenic drive following a creek and its canyon that feeds into the Gunnison River, then tracks near the Gunnison River as it flow towards the Blue Mesa Reservoir.
Canyon and SkyCanyon and WildflowersIndian Paint BrushWildflowers
At one of the large pull outs along this route, a group of motorcyclist pulled in. One of them asked me to take a group photo on one of their phones. Afterwards, I asked permission to get a group photo for my blog. I was assured that none of them were in a witness protection program or had ex-spouses searching for them.
Riders of the Western Range
It turned out that most of this group are from DFW, Texas and the young couple on the right are from Tupelo, Mississippi, with the female an alumni of my college (Ole Miss).
Their handles, from left to right, are: Jax, Bab, Blackout, Wheezy, Bronco, Sparky, Tinkle, Demon Dawg, and Helkat.
Thank you all for allowing me to include your group photo in my blog,
Dinner plans were complicated by a number of our choice restaurants being closed for various reasons, requiring some driving about looking for alternatives. As we drove between two local towns, I made mental notes of possible locations for sunset photography. After dinner in Hotchkiss, I returned to one of those location for sunset photography.
Mountains and CloudsClouds, Mountains and ValleyMountain Peaks at SunsetThe CloudColorado Sunset Clouds
As I returned to Hotchkiss, I noted an almost full, silvery moon rising above the clouds. The moonrise was hidden by the clouds, when I was shooting. It was too late to find a good vantage point from which to include the moon in my late day images. That was disappointing. If I had hung out at my sunset shooting location a few more minutes, maybe I would have had an opportunity to get the moon in my images. Never the less, I thought I had a good sunset photo session.
We spent a portion of our second day in the Ridgway area driving over Owl Creek Pass, making a loop over the pass from Ridgway, down to US 50, through Montrose and back to Ridgway for dinner.
I planned better today, going for an earlier dinner to allow time afterwards to drive along CO62 prior to sunset to shoot mountain scenes at sunset.
Serene EveningGolden MountainsDallas Divide Sunset Peaks
After a day of browsing and walking around in Ouray and Telluride, quaint, old Colorado tourist towns, we had dinner in Ridgway. I had hoped to be able to rush up the highway toward or over the Dallas Divide from Ridgway, after dinner for sunset photography, but we were a little late getting out and the service was slow at our restaurant. By the time we finished dinner, it was too late to go anywhere. Arriving back at our lodging and resigned to having lost my opportunity for sunset photography today, I hoisted my camera backpack, grabbed my tripod and camera and began to walk into the lodge. Then I noted golden sunset light on the nearest mountaintops. So I jogged down the road past the inn to get past other buildings, power lines and trees to try to get into a location to shoot the rapidly changing scene before the light faded away.
EventideEventide 2Day’s Final PerformanceFinaleMoon, Sunset Clouds and Fading Mountain LightDay’s End
As the sunset light faded away, I walked back towards the inn, stopping to photograph grass and wildflowers in the dim evening light.
Grass and WildflowersGrass 1Grass 2ProgressionFuzzy, old head
After a morning of browsing and shopping in Ouray, we traveled over the Dallas Divide to Telluride, another quaint, old Colorado town that is popular with summer tourist and winter skiers.
In route along Colorado 62, I kept an eye out for potential photography sites, hoping to return for sunset photos. I stopped at one location to get a few shots of the afternoon storm clouds building over the mountain tops.
In Telluride, I only used my iPhone to shoot a few images in the old town.
Holding it TogetherStorm Clouds, Telluride, CO 1Storm Clouds, Telluride, CO 2Watchful
There must be a story behind this mural painted on the side of a Telluride building, but I don’t know it.
Storm Clouds,Telluride, CO 3Building Plaque, Telluride, CO
Butch Cassidy reportedly took over $24,000 in the robbery of the San Miguel Valley Bank. That was quite a bit of money in those days, equivalent to about $857,000 in 2022 money. Butch should have retired after this haul.
