Tag Archives: Needles Overlook

More Clouds

Last week when I was writing the article about my salad days and Joni Mitchell, I looked at some cloud photos I’ve taken. Below are several of my favorites.

*Front Range late afternoon, Denver, Colorado, April 2012*

*Kolob Canyons, Zion National Park, Utah, February 2013*

*The Needles Overlook*, *Canyonlands*, *Utah, March 2013*

*Sunset, Antelope Island State Park, Great Salt Lake, April 2013*

*Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado, April 2013*

*Pawnee Buttes, Pawnee National Grassland, Colorado, August 2015*

*Union Bay, Lake Superior, Ontonagon, Michigan, September 2018*

*Mathews Arm Campground, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, September 2020*

*Bartholdi Fountain, Bartholdi Garden, Washington, DC, August 2021*

*Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore, September 2021*

*dawn Upper Mississippi River, Pikes Peak State Park, Iowa*, *September 2021*

*from the grounds of the Netherlands Carillon, Arlington, Virginia, May 5, 2022*

Staircase to Heaven, Part 4: More Photos

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When we were hiking back in Zion in 1970, my friend Pat noted that–even with the technicolor, in-your-face canyon vistas surrounding us–I spent a certain amount of time looking down at the ground. I still do that. Below are some plant photos from the Grand Staircase and environs.

cyanobacteria with flowers, Canyonlands National Park

columbine, Cedar Canyon Campground, Dixie National Forest

bluebell, Red Canyon, Dixie National Forest

roundleaf buffaloberry, Natural Bridges National Monument

Indian paintbrush, Kolob, Zion National Park

cliff rose, Cape Royal, North Rim, Grand Canyon National Park

cactus, Pine Valley, Dixie National Forest

juniper, Needles Overlook

pine cones, Red Canyon, Dixie National Forest

pinyon pine, Canyonlands National Park

cottonwood near Canyonlands National Park

Note: My next post will be mostly words, not photos. I wonder if I can help convince Secretary Zinke, Senator Hatch, Congressman Bishop, and others to preserve our beautiful land.

I Need to Stay Close to the Ground

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Some days, weeks, years, and decades seem difficult.

I think, at heart, I am a simple person. I believe what Scout told Jem in To Kill a Mockingbird, ” I think there is just one kind of folks. Folks.” I am having a hard time holding to that ideal, or, more precisely, getting the world to accept it. So what I do is cling to the ground to help preserve my sanity (or at least a bit of equilibrium). My ground includes the bugs, the bindweed, and the first tomatoes in my garden. More fundamentally, though, I am thinking about the wild (more or less) places I have been lucky enough to hike in.

I had been planning to write a post about the hundredth anniversary of the National Park Service. For a few minutes earlier today, I thought the topic was too light for this day, week, month, and year of violence, ethnocentrism, demagoguery, and hatred. I dropped that thought almost immediately. I believe also what Thoreau said, “In wildness is the preservation of the world.”

Enough words. Below are a few photos of some of my favorite places within the National Parks system. May we have peace (I still believe in that ideal, too).