I shot these same small hoodoos early one morning. This late day composition captures their long shadows across the desert valley floor.
Creature Face Hoodoo, Bisti, June 8, 2021, PMSmall Hoodoo – Long Shadow, Bisti, June 8, 2021, PMShadow Thin, Bisti, June 8, 2021, PM
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.
Small Alien Hoodoo, Bisti, June 8, 2021, PMSmall Alien Hoodoo and Triplets, Bisti, June 8, 2021, PM
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.
Natural Bridge Hoodoo and Shadow, Bisti, June 8, 2021, PM
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.
Bisti, June 8, 2021, PM
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.
Bisti, June 8, 2021, AMGreeting The Sun, Bisti, June 8, 2021, AM
The same features can be photographed from various angles and distances, yielding completely different looking shapes, shadows, highlights and textures.
Bisti, June 8, 2021, AMBisti, June 8, 2021, AM
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.
The drainage pattern in the foreground is in an heart like shape, hence the title for this photo.
Bisti, June 7, 2021, AM
A row of small hoodoos along a thin wall in a Bisti valley. Getting low isolates two of the hoodoos against the sky.
Bisti, June 7, 2021, AM
A little different view of the same row of hoodoos. Shooting from a higher angle shows the early morning shadows of small foreground hoodoos.
Bisti, June 7, 2021, AM
Looking skyward up a steep slope of loose clay towards features on the top of the slope.
Bisti, June 7, 2021, AMDesert Ship, Bisti, June 7, 2021, AM
The feature on top of the hill above, looks like an old ship’s hull to me.
Skinny Hoodoo, Bisti, June 7, 2021, AM
We first spotted the tall, skinny looking hoodoo in the photo above from a far distance and initially thought it too far away and inaccessible, but we later found a way to get to it. This feature is actually visible in the far background of at least two other images in this post. I will leave it to readers to find it in those images.
Once we got to the base of this ‘Skinny” hoodoo, we realized that it was only skinny looking from one angle.
Skinny Hoodoo Side View, Bisti, June 7, 2021, AM
A view from another side looking along the hilltop where this hoodoo resides, shows that it is not really skinny at all.
Skinny Hoodoo, Bisti, June 7, 2021, AM
Another view of the “Skinny” hoodoo (left side).
After getting to the Skinny Hoodoo, we also found a shorter route into the area where we had been shooting by walking through valleys and washes back towards the west.
Even though I much prefer golden hour color in my landscape photography, I find that there are light conditions and/or scenes that work better in monochrome.
Sometimes it is just the textures, patterns or shadows that make an image look better in monochrome. In the case of the photo above, the early morning colors were so intensely saturated that I thought those colors looked unreal, so I converted the image to black and white and I much prefer this look in this particular case. (Best viewed on Flickr and on a large screen).
Bisti, June 6, 2021, AM
Usually, I like monochrome for those images that I capture a little after the sunrise golden hour or a little before sunset golden hour.
Pre-Sunrise, Bisti, June 7, 2021, AM
In the image above, the sun had not yet come up, but shooting towards the early morning sky made this a better situation for monochrome.
Bisti, June 7, 2021, AM
The same is true for the image above. I have mixed feelings about this composition, not about the monochrome. I liked the look of the heavily textured, clay soil in the foreground and the gullies seemed to make good leading lines into the background, but is this a compelling photo? Opinions are welcomed, but please view on Flickr and on a large screen.
Bisti, June 8, 2021, PM
The readers can tell by the dates on the photos that I visited this area on separate dates and different times of the day, hoping to get different photographic conditions and/or to shoot from different view points. In the image above I wanted to show context for the natural bridge in the center, but I also wanted its shadow against the background features.
Bisti, June 8, 2021, PM
I wanted a wide angle view here and the light and shadows were best for a monochrome image. This is a result of focus stacking multiple images. A careful inspection of the clouds in the sky makes it apparent that there were multiple images used here. I could have easily replaced the sky with that from a single image, but I liked the indicated movement of the clouds, so I left this feature.
Bisti, June 8, 2021, PMBisti, June 8, 2021, PM
These last two images are not great, but I still like them, particularly the bottom one, with the subtle shadow of the most prominent feature on the background. I suppose I could have enhanced this image to make the shadow less subtle.
I hope readers are not getting bored with Bisti, because there are more post on the way,
Most of the rocks and geological features in the Bisti Wilderness are dull under bright sunlight, but in the early morning and late day light these features seem to come alive with color. At these times one can get landscape photographs with soft pastels or bright, golden hues.
Golden Hour Begins, Bisti, June 4, 2021, AMGolden Hour, Bisti, June 4, 2021, AMSunrise Light, Bisti, June 4, 2021, AMSunrise Light, Bisti, June 4, 2021, AMSunrise Light, Bisti, June 4, 2021, AMSunrise Light, Bisti, June 4, 2021, AM
A popular area for visitors to Bisti is called “The Nursery”, where there are unique rock shapes that are referred to as “Cracked Eggs”.
The Nursery, Bisti, June 3, 2021, PM
It was very overcast this evening in The Nursery, so there was very little golden hour light; but the heavy clouds were great for creating dramatic photographs.
Cracked Eggs, Bisti, June 3, 2021, PMThe Nursery, Bisti, June 3, 2021, PMThe Nursery, Bisti, June 3, 2021, PMThe Nursery, Bisti, June 3, 2021, PM
It was frequently cloudy during the days spent at Bisti in early June of 2021, which is good for dramatic sky backgrounds, but it can be bad for golden hour photography.
I thought the rock (photo above) with the pointy feature looked like some sort of weird creature guarding an egg, others have suggested it looks like a baby elephant. I can see that, too.
Petrified log sections, Bisti, June 3, 2021, PM
There are many pieces of petrified wood, logs and trees scattered around in this area. The mineralization of these objects is not as colorful as that in the Petrified Forest National Park, but it is amazing how much of the original tree detail is retained in these rocks. Most of the petrified log sections are horizontal, but occasionally there are vertical ones, which I suppose tumbled into this position somewhere in the distant past.
Petrified Log Sections and Hoodoos, Bisti, June 3, 2021, PMSky watcher. Bisti, June 3, 2021, PM
The cap on the hoodoo in the photo above, looked like a turtle soaking up some sun, but there was no sun.
Ancient Sediments Exposed, Bisti, June 3, 2021, PM
I made some photos just to capture geological features, even if the photos are not highly interesting in an artistic manner. Having worked with many geologists and as a petrophysicist, might make me more prone to see and marvel at the layering in rocks.
Hoodoos, Bisti, June 3, 2021, PMHoodoo, Bisti, June 3, 2021, PM
Weathering and erosion continue to create and modify the features found here. Some features might linger for many years and some might be changed quickly by a heavy rainfall.
Hoodoos, Bisti, June 3, 2021, PMPetrified Log, Bisti, June 3, 2021, PM
The petrified log in the photo above, may be the longest exposed one that I’ve seen here. It was difficult to capture in a single photograph, so I shot it from multiple view points and on multiple occasions under different light conditions.
I know I’ve multiple posts from my visits to Bisti and I hope that readers do not get bored with these. The Bisti Wilderness, in a desert area of New Mexico, is a marvelous place and one of my favorite places for photography. Each visit reveals new areas and new features to photograph. Even revisiting the same areas within the wilderness can result in different photographs, since it is never possible to photograph everything within even a confined area during one visit and the scenes will continue to evolve with time, weather and lighting.
In early June, 2021, I met my oldest son here for several days of exploration and photography. We chose to visit the area known as The Nursery the evening of our arrival, since we knew we could get there easily before sunset.
Cracked Eggs in The Nursery, June 2, 2021, PM
This is a popular area with photographers, requiring working around each other and proper etiquette to avoid getting in each others way.
Cracked Eggs in The Nursery, Bisti, June 2, 2021 PM
The photo above is an example with my son in a shot I wanted to set up. Of course, I made this shot just to capture him, but since we landscape purist try to avoid people in our shots, we sometimes have to modify our point of view. So I just turned a little to get this image:
Cracked Eggs, The Nursery, Bisti, June 2, 2021, PM
This is a much better composition, anyway. Although, I regret clipping a little off the front and right edges of the foreground rock.
Cracked Eggs in The Nursery, Bisti, June 2, 2021, PM
There are so many objects, arranged haphazardly by nature, that it is virtually impossible with a wide angle lens to avoid clipping some object at the edges of a shot.
As the light began to fade on the Cracked Eggs, I began to explore the nooks in the hillside area to the east, where I found this tall hoodoo with a pointy top and small cap that I could set against the sunset clouds.
Sunset Clouds and Hoodoo, Bisti, June 2, 2021, PMBisti Sunset Clouds and Hoodoo, June 2, 2021, PM
Preparing to hike back to the parking lot, I got one last shot at the edge of the hillside with the sunset light fading from the clouds.
I left Teal Campground, heading towards Del Norte, Colorado, expecting to meet up with my son somewhere in that area, after he drove down from Denver to spend a few more days with me in the southeastern portion of Colorado.
When I got back into a cell phone coverage area, I got a message from my son suggesting that we meet at Cathedral Campground north of US 160 between South Fork and Del Norte.
After driving miles on narrow, rough forest service roads, I arrived at Cathedral Campground, found a suitable campsite with an open site, which I claimed for my son, across the campground loop from my site. It would be several hours before my son arrived, so I decided to hike a portion of a trail that went up the mountainside along Cathedral Creek to scout for possible sunset and/or sunrise photography locations.
Embargo Creek Crossing at Cathedral Campground. iPhone photograph, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
I immediately had to cross Embargo Creek, which ran along the east side of the camping area. A short distance along the trail, it intersected Cathedral Creek and continued to follow the creek uphill.
Cliffside alone Cathedral Creek Trail. iPhone photograph, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
After hiking a fair distance, there were views of cliffs along each side of the trail. So I began to look for good, unobstructed views of the rock outcrops and estimate the potential for getting late day or early morning light on those cliff sides.
A cliff along Cathedral Creek Trail. iPhone photograph, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
All of the views from the trail were obstructed to some extent by trees.
A cliff along Cathedral Creek Trail. iPhone photograph, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
I could see the possibility of hiking through woods to maybe get beyond some of the near trail obstructions, usually requiring a creek crossing and/or new route finding off of the official trail.
Cliff view, Cathedral Creek Trail. iPhone photograph, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
Cliffside, Cathedral Creek Trail. iPhone photograph, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
The views to the west, like that above, might be good for sunrise photography.
An obscured view of a cliffside along Cathedral Creek Trail. iPhone photograph, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
There were many beetle killed trees, which spoiled the views, along the trail.
Cliffside, Cathedral Creek Trail. iPhone photograph, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
It was a partly cloudy afternoon with more clouds building up, as is normal in the late afternoons in the mountains. A late afternoon thunderstorm would not be good to be out in here.
Cathedral Creek, Colorado. iPhone photograph, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
There were a number of creek crossings along the trail. This one was the prettiest. I took the above photo, while standing on rocks in the creek and the one below after crossing the creek.
Cathedral Creek, Colorado. iPhone photograph, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
I made an iPhone video of the creek at this crossing and it can be viewed here.
I failed to bring along my hiking stick, so I had to balance on logs and/or rocks at a number of creek crossings. At one such crossing, I had to stoop over, putting my left hand on a small log for balance as I crossed. After getting across, I noticed a young couple watching from just up the trail. They congratulated me upon my safe crossing. I decided that I needed to find a suitable stick along the trail to use as a hiking stick to balance myself at the crossings on the way back down the trail.
The couple told me there were views of cliffs a little further up the trail, but the views were from just below the cliffs and the views were all obstructed by dead trees.
I continued up the trail for a while longer, before deciding to turn back.
An obscured vies of a cliffside along Cathedral Creek Trail. iPhone photograph, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.An obscured view of a cliffside along Cathedral Creek Trail. iPhone photograph, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.A cliff along Cathedral Creek Trail. iPhone photograph, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
I can see that one might cross the creek, hike to the west through brushy areas and maybe get beyond the major obstructions. But these views were a long way up the trail from the campground. The best views were to the west, which meant hiking up the trail in the early morning dark to be at one of these locations for sunrise. The trail ran between two mountain ridges, so it was likely that the rock outcrops to the west might not get the golden hour sunlight.
The views to the east of the trail were not as good and the golden hour sunset light would be limited, at best, and one would have to hike back down the trail in the dark after a sunset shoot.
Wildflowers along Cathedral Creek Trail. iPhone photograph, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
There were a few scattered wildflowers near the creek.
An unidentified moth, iPhone photograph, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
I spotted this colorful moth spreading its wings on a plant beside the trail. I tried to identify it, but I could find none that looked like this on a number of websites. I submitted this photo to one site that supposedly would help identify moths and butterflies, but it has been weeks since posting and I’ve gotten no response.
As usual, the hike down took much less time than the hike up the trail and this time I used a stick that I picked up along the trail as an aid in balancing at the creek crossings, making those crossings much easier and faster.
I checked my GPS device upon arriving back at my campsite to get an estimate of the change in elevation from my campsite to the highest point I hiked to on the trail. The elevation of my campsite was 9400 feet and the highest elevation I had recorded on the trail was 10,114 feet. So I had climbed up at least 714 feet in elevation.
My son arrived soon after I returned to my campsite and after a short discussion about the photographic possibilities here, we decided to move on to another area north of Del Norte that my son had explored during an earlier visit to southeastern Colorado.
During my second day at Teal, after reserving my site for another night, I drove further up the road to Cimarrona Campground.
Just past Teal Campground, I stopped to photograph an old ranch building in a valley below the mountain side to the east.
Scene adjacent to Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/320s, f/11, ISO 1250, 80-400mm @ 80mm. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Modules.
Continuing to Cimarrona, I found this campground is significantly different than Teal. Here there were Aspen trees, rather than Ponderosa Pines, the campsites seemed to be closer together and the campground more confined by the Aspens. There were no good views from this campground, but I expect it would be quite nice in the fall, when the Aspens turn their golden yellow.
I continued on to Palisades (the horse campground) Campground at the end of forest service road 640. There is a parking area in this campground for Williams Creek Trailhead. Williams Creek trail goes far up into the mountains, eventually connecting to the Continental Divide Trail.
During my trip planning, I had noted the possibility of finding waterfalls along Williams Creek, which feeds into the Williams Creek Reservoir. In viewing the trail via Google Earth, I could see that, while I might see falls or cascades from the trail, the view would probably be from so far away, that it would be impossible to get good photos of falls or the creek from the trail. There appeared to be some possibility of walking along the creek for some distance; but eventually it looked impossible or difficult to follow the creek to the possible falls.
I decided to hike up the trail to check it out. I could tell from the map that the trail was fairly steep in some places and I did not want to carry a heavy load, so I did not take my DSLR and heavy camera gear. I did wear my Camelbak with a full water reservoir, a few snacks and items that would be useful in case of inclement weather or an unexpected event.
Gnarly Fallen Tree Trunk. iPhone Photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
This fallen tree trunk was so twisted that I had to take time to photograph it along the way up the trail.
A typical view along Williams Creek Trail. iPhone Photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
This is a typical view of the trail. It was much steeper in some places and flatter or downhill in others; but the trail was mostly uphill. I could hear the creek flowing in the distance much of the time, but not see it very often.
A view from Williams Creek Trail, Palisades Campground, Colorado. iPhone Photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
I finally got to a place where I could see one of the features that I had spotted via Google Earth. I was correct in surmising that the trail was so far above the creek that it would be impossible to get a good photo of the falls or cascades from the trail. In the photo above the little white areas in the lower left are cascades or small falls in the creek.
While at this point another hiker came down the trail and said this was the best view point for this feature. He said there was another view a short distance up the trail, but it was not as good. I hiked up to check out that view and found that he was correct. So I came back here and zoomed in on the creek with my iPhone.
Williams Creek as seen from far above on Williams Creek Trail. iPhone Photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
This is the result and not very satisfying. I cannot even judge the scale of these water features from this distance or this photo. This feature on the creek is not the best one that I spotted on Google Earth, but it was evident that it would not be possible to get to the better possible falls or even get a good view from this trail.
It had been cloudy all the time I was hiking and I could hear thunder far in the distance. The thunder finally got loud enough that I knew it was time to head back down the trail. Since it was mostly downhill on the way back, it took much less time to hike back to the parking lot in Palisades Campground than it did to hike up.
Approaching Storm. iPhone Photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
One can see the heavy clouds of the coming storm in the photo above. I made it back down to my vehicle and back to my campsite just before it began to rain lightly. I’m sure it was raining heavier in the higher elevations.
I’m still hoping to get good sunset light this evening at Teal Campground.
