On my way home from my March road trip, a fierce storm was blowing in from the west. In the wide open space of the high plains, the distant storm front was visible for much of my journey. The storm front itself was interesting, but when I came upon an area with windmills, I had to stop to capture a few images.
This wide angle view captures the old ranch windmill and structure along with the modern, electric generating windmills in the distance and the massive storm clouds with rain in the distance.
I zoomed in to get more detail of the old windmill and its contrast with the modern windmills.
As I continued my journey to my overnight stop in Amarillo, Texas, the wind became more fierce, buffeting my vehicle all the way. The wind whipped up much dust north of Amarillo. The storm continued through out the night and I awoke to a dusting of snow and a light blowing snow, which continued for a short distance on the final day of my homeward bound journey.
I arrive home safely in the afternoon and now I have to look forward to another, as yet unplanned journey.
Since my arrival in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, I had seen numerous free roaming bison, but they were always too far away and/or laying about in grass, so that I could not get good photos. As I was leaving today, I hoped that I would spot more bison in situations where I could capture a few descent images. I already had my 80-400mm lens with a 1.4 extender mounted to my camera, just in case.
Indeed, I did begin to see bison as I drove along one of the refuge roadways on my way to the exit. However, these were again too far away to successfully photograph.
Finally, I came to a location where I could see bison behind a fenced off area. The bison were close enough to the fence line that I could photograph them, but I would have to hike across an open field to get to the fence. As I prepared to do that, I noted a group of bison on my side of the fence. Going to the fence line would put me too close to those bison, so I had to nix my plans.
Scanning the area, I noted a small herd of bison on the opposite side of the roadway that were far enough away that I could stand beside my van and photograph those. Initially, I tried handholding my big lens, but that proved difficult and awkward, so I mounted it on my tripod. I began to shoot that small herd and watched as they slowly walked in my direction.
Grazing
I soon realized they were heading directly towards me and were soon going to be too close for comfort. I quickly retreated into my van, dragging my tripod and camera behind me.
By the time I was safely inside my van, there were bison crossing the roadway just in front of and just behind my vehicle. I began to photograph the bison from inside my vehicle.
Crossing Guard
The bison did not seem to be concerned about my presence, but the one above stopped to stare at me or my vehicle.
Follow MeResoluteWatchfulBison FamilySecurityGot a Tissue?Got Insect Repellent?Walking in Tall GrassBleh
After the bison had wandered away a safe distance, I started my van and continued on my way.
As I headed back into the heart of the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, I spotted a massive granite outcrop with large boulders strewn around on it. I stopped to investigate. My initial impression was that the slope up the slick rock granite was too steep to safely navigate. Yet, I decided to cautiously proceed.
Wichita Mountains Granite and Long Boulder, iPhone Scouting Photo
I went up a portion of the slope that was the easiest to climb. Looking down I saw a heart shaped rock on a pedestal that was not visible from below, since it was behind brushy growth at the edge of the roadway.
After some initial exploration along the lower, less steep slope, I back tracked and went through the brush to the portion of the slope where the heart shaped stone is located. The incline beyond was very steep and I had to consider how best to attack it. I decided that a switch back climb would be the safest approach and proceeded upward.
The contours in the massive granite seemed to be enticing me to come on to see what was above.
About this time, an official park vehicle came by on the roadway below. The driver yelled at me to warn me that I would fall. I waved an acknowledgement of the message. The vehicle continued on its way, as did I.
I think this could be a good place for sunrise photography and maybe I will get back here at another time; but now it is time to end this and find my way down,
I drove to the western portion of the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge to scout the Charon’s Garden Wilderness area. In route I stopped at a small reservoir, Post Oak Lake.
Post Oak Lake, iPhone Scouting Photo
Post Oak Lake is a small reservoir formed by a small dam across a tributary of Post Oak Creek.
There is a nearby military base and there were a couple of jet fighter aircrafts, practicing maneuvers, that periodically screamed overhead, breaking up the silence in this area.
Post Oak Lake from the dam, iPhone Scouting Photo
I walked across the small dam, shooting the shot above from the dam. I believe the dam is leaking. A small stream of water was emanating from one side of the dam a few feet below the top of the dam. That stream was not from the dam overflow or controlled flow. I photographed the leak area, but the image detail is insufficient to illustrate the leakage. The leak does not appear to be sufficient to indicate an eminent dam failure.
Post Oak Lake, iPhone Scouting Photo
From the lake area, I could see geological features in the distance that looked interesting and might be good subject matter for sunset photography.
I continued a short distance down the roadway, past Post Oak Lake, to the end of the road and the trailhead into Charon’s Garden Wilderness. It was a moderately hot afternoon and I wanted to travel lightly on this scouting expedition, so I did not take my heavy DSLR, but I did take a bottle of cold water, enough for a short hike in and out.
Blending In, Lizard in Charon’s Wilderness, iPhone Photo
I did not spot much wildlife in this area. Other than a few lizards scampering around, I saw one or two squirrels or chipmunks, a few birds and a jackrabbit.
The most interesting wildlife that I spotted is the Eastern Collared Lizard, the Oklahoma State Lizard. It is fairly large and colorful.
Protesting my presence, Mountain Boomer, Charon’s Wilderness, iPhone PhotoCan you see me now? Mountain Boomer, Charon’s Wilderness, iPhone Photo
I had to follow this one around to get close enough to shoot it with my iPhone. It hid beneath a rock overhang and peeked out just long enough for me to get the shot above.
Charon’s Garden Wilderness Trail, iPhone Photo
Those vertical looking rocks, ahead on the trail, were my primary interest. I continued hiking in that direction, looking for potential places for sunset photography.
I hiked leisurely for about a half an hour, stopping to shoot iPhone shots to document my progress. Most of those shots were of little interest and are not included here.
The trail is not always as apparent as that in the photo above. It crosses solid rock areas and goes through some intermittent wooded areas.
I soon came to Post Oak Creek and Treasure Lake. I eventually gave up my hike, after determining that the substantial creek would probably block my access to those interesting feature in the background. In any case, hiking in for sunset photography would require hiking out along a not always easy to follow route in the dark, so I ruled out this area for sunset photos today. I later learned from my campsite host, that the rangers did not like for hikers to be in this area in the dark, presumably due to the increased danger of night time hiking and the potential of becoming disoriented in darkness. I carry a GPS device that allows me to mark my route, still there are dangers of tripping and falling along portions of a trail at anytime and especially in the dark of night.
On my way to Mount Scott, I had passed a couple of old homes that I planned to try to shoot as I backtracked from Mount Scott. The first old home sat far back from the roadway and looked like an interesting photographic subject. I would have to walk to it to get shots. As I prepared to walk towards the run down old home, I noted a number of free roaming bison and long horn cattle in the vicinity, making approaching that house too risky. So I drove on to the next place.
Ferguson House
Well, this house does not look old, does it? It was built in 1927, but has been reconstructed. Follow the links for more information. The little rounded building behind the house covers a water storage tank. I attempted to get close up photos of the tank and its covering structure, but none of those photos were good enough to share.
The little house in the right background is a mystery. It is just an empty shell, built on a concrete foundation and does not look very old.
There is a covered pavilion on the property with posters giving information about the early history of this area.
I shot the house from numerous view points, but the one in this post is the best image.
Ferguson House Marker
This marker is near the front of the home lot.
Other than the historical significance of the early homesteaders in this area, I found little of real photographic interest here.
The heart shaped rock perched at the top of Little Baldy caught my eye. I positioned myself to shoot up the rock fracture towards that rock. Working my way around this area, I discovered that the large, curved rock in the bottom right of this image forms a bridge over the rock below it. I tried to get very low and shoot through the bridge, but I was not successful getting photos that adequately revealed what I was trying to capture.
After scouting the area near my campsite, I decided to return to Little Baldy for sunset photography. I arrive on the upper slope of Little Baldy early, as is my usual practice, to look around again and pick compositions prior to sunset. As I was looking over the area, a herd of people from a parking lot visible in the distance, came up the eastern slope. They were all heading for the summit to watch the sunset. It was a Sunday evening and this is apparently a weekend favorite sunset viewing site for visitors. I had not anticipated this, since I had seen so few people in this area earlier in the day. We landscape photographers usually prefer no people in our photos.
After the crowd ascended to the crest of Little Baldy, I worked my way to the western slope, rather than going to the highest point, where I knew the crowd would congregate.
Little Baldy 1
Fortunately, most of those on the summit stayed below the peak on the eastern side and were not visible most of the time I was shooting.
Little Baldy 2Wichita MountainsCacti RidgeRed Grass, Red Rocks and CactiRed Rocks DelightWichita Mountains Sunset
As I was shooting the final images of this shoot, one couple did appear near the top of Little Baldy and I included them in some shots, but they were moving too much for me to get non-blurry images. So I have no images of the actual peak of Little Baldy with the best of golden hour light to share.
With a final destination of Badlands National Park, South Dakota, I needed stops in route to break up the long road trip. I searched the maps of the states I would travel through to get to the Badlands for possibilities. The first place that I noted in Oklahoma was the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, which is only a few hours drive from my home base. I searched online for information about the refuge and looked for photos taken in the refuge. The results of that research convinced me that I should spend a couple of nights in the refuge RV campground.
Prior to this visit, I had no idea that such a place was so close by and that there were actually old granite mountains in the southwestern part of Oklahoma. Since I was traveling just after the busy summer season, there were plenty of RV sites from which to choose. After consulting the online campground map, I chose a site that looked like it was conveniently located near the restroom facility and near hiking trails from the campground.
It turned out that my campsite was just across a campground road from the campground hosts. I stopped by to chat with the hosts, let them know that I had arrived, get updates on the campground rules and conditions and get their advice on locations for sunset and sunrise photography.
I find that most non-photographers have completely different concepts about sunset/sunrise photography than do photographers. Still it is good to get local knowledge, especially for first visits to a location. After checking out the locations on the refuge map of the hosts’ suggestions, I decided that I should check out the area around the campground first and scout the suggested areas the following day.
I walked around the campground to get my bearings, find the trails originating in the campground and check out those trails. The refuge map is sketchy. Others that I encountered during my exploration of the large refuge area, expressed the same frustration with the refuge map.
Hole In One, Wildflowers, iPhone Photo
There were pretty wildflowers growing in the campground area.
Spider Like Wildflowers, iPhone Photo
After some effort and hiking much farther around the campground, than should have been necessary, I found the trail that I wanted to explore. The trailhead was visible from my campsite, but the trailhead was not marked! There were also branches along the trail, some branches clearly traveled trails, some branches not so clearly used and it was not even clear that those branches were actually trails and there were no markings along the trails.
It was not an area that one could get lost in, during daylight at least, so I did not mind exploring and I eventually found my way to my chosen destination.
One branch of the trail went around nearby Quanah Parker Lake. After hiking portions of that trail, I could see no good views for sunset photography, so I chose a branch that went away from the lake. That branch took me through woods to the other side of the lake, which looked more promising for photography.
Quanah Parker Lake, iPhone Scouting Photo
There were plentiful Prickly Pear Cacti in this area.
Prickly Pear Spikes, iPhone PhotoLooking towards Little Baldy, iPhone Scouting Photo
In addition to checking out the lake, I was interested in the map feature referred to as Little Baldy. I was not really sure what to expect of Little Baldy nor where exactly it was, given the sketchy map, but I figured I would know it when I saw it.
On the way to Little Baldy, iPhone Scouting Photo
There were many granite rocks and boulders scattered around, so I experimented with using those as foreground objects and tried to visualize how the scenes would look at sunset and sunrise.
Little Baldy, iPhone Scouting Photo
When I spotted Little Baldy, I explored around and up its slope, trying to pick vantage points from which to shoot at sunset today and for sunrise the following morning.
Little Baldy, iPhone Scouting PhotoView from Little Baldy, iPhone Scouting Photo
Shooting with the sun low in the sky, one’s shadow often becomes a problem to deal with. Sometimes a desired composition just can’t be obtained without one’s shadow and compositional adjustments have to be made.
View from Little Baldy, iPhone Scouting Photo
Now that I know where I want to be at sunset, I just have to figure out the timing for departing my campsite and getting into place prior to sunset. I’ve now got a good idea of the most direct path from my campsite to my intended location, so all I have to do is time the hike. Doing so as I returned to my campsite, it turned out that the hike is only about 10-15 minutes. That is really convenient and means that I can return to camp after sunset shooting without hiking in the dark and I can even hike back for sunrise photos and not have to hike in morning darkness, either.
