At the end of each year I review all of the year's posts and select a limited number of pictures that I consider worth sharing again. For display purposes, I have grouped them into 12 basic categories: 01-Desert Landscapes/Panoramas, 02-Desert Foliage, 03-Desert Wildlife, 04-Rock Art, 05-Trees & Wood Textures, 06-Desert Fossils Remains, 07-Rocks & Formations, 08-Desert Water, 09-Mountain Landscapes/Panoramas, 10-People & Faces, 11-Black & White & Other Effects, 12-Locations, Places & Structures.
Due to a fall and some other medical issues, I have hiked a lot less this year, resulting in less pictures than in previous years. Hopefully the 135 pictures here are still enough to provide you with some pleasurable viewing. Even though this year I have taken the time to provide the locations and or pages that these pictures were culled from, visiting my site and selecting the "DayTrips/RoadTrips" tab (DayTrips/RoadTrips) or "Pics by Subject" tab (Pics by Subject) at the top of the home page will provide you with links to all hikes where these pictures were taken.
01-Desert Landscapes/Panoramas: I often stand in awe of the many diverse landscapes and geological formations that can be found throughout the state of Nevada. It seems that every area I visit has its own unique characteristics that make it special. Trying to capture the essence of an area in a landscape photo can often be quite challenging, however, when successful, also quite rewarding. The pictures in this category have been gathered from locations ranging from Utah to California's Death Valley.
02-Desert Foliage: Though it's not always easy, and not always successful, I always make an effort on each of my hikes to find something, whether it be in the form of rock formations, trees, cactus, plants or flowers to “spruce up” the photo essays that I create and post for each hike/location. In the harsh environment of the dry and arid Nevada desert, especially after a prolonged drought, it is a wonder one can even find anything growing at all, let alone things that offer such a variety of beautiful color. This being the 16th year of a prolonged drought, I found that it is getting much harder to find many of the plants and wildflowers that I used to be able to capture in previous years, including many cacti. Each year I encounter drought tolerant cacti showing the last signs of holding on. However, when found, these flowering plants are a thing to behold. Hopefully, we will get a season of some much needed rain soon and bring the desert back to what is once was.
03-Desert Wildlife: Over the course of the year, my hikes take me anywhere from the low desert and its alluvial plains to high mountain ridges and plateaus. Each of these areas provides its own unique opportunities to spot wildlife indigenous to the area. The problem is trying to capture some of them. First, there is the fact that because most of my hikes are with a group, there is often more noise than I would like. Next there is the matter of having the camera ready when an opportunity presents itself. Finally there is the subject itself. Many of these animals and insects are quite skittish when it comes to humans, and quite speedy. Over the course of the year I've spotted many forms of wildlife, such as foxes, coyotes, long-eared jackrabbits, numerous birds, etc., that are just “gone” before I even get the chance to focus on them. Because my pictures are "on the fly" while hiking, there are the typical problems of not having enough lighting, too slow of a lens, lack of a tripod, etc. all which often lead to poor photo quality. Even when I am lucky enough to get off a shot, it is often too blurry or out of focus. So, when I do get pictures, such as the those in this section, I consider myself quite lucky.
04-Desert Rock Art: Many of the sights that I have visited are actually noted for providing the opportunity to view desert rock art, in the form of petroglyphs and pictographs, that have been left behind by native inhabitant's hundreds if not thousands of years ago. Quite often many of these ancient etchings have been worn or deteriorated due to the natural weathering and aging processes, and sometimes even defaced by persons who have no idea of their historical significance. Though most of the ancient etchings appear cryptic and quite confusing; there are also many times when they offer recognizable figures that appear to be trying to tell a story. I find them all quite fascinating. In addition to finding new sites each year, the revisiting of previous sites almost always produce new pictures of symbols that may have be missed on a previous. Because I usually have so many pictures for each of these visited sites, I have chosen only a few selected pictures to be representative for each of the sites I visited this year.
05-Trees and Wood Textures: For some reason I just love trying to capture the shapes, textures and patterns found in trees, bark, roots, stumps and wood. Not only do their unique textures and patterns offer interesting and visually pleasing subjects, they cause one to relieve their history by letting your mind travel back in time to their origin, which in the case of some bristlecone pines, can be more than 3,000 years old.
06-Desert Fossil Remains: In addition to my main interest of taking landscape photographs, I also enjoy trying to find evidence of history through the surrounding rocks and geologic formations. I especially get excited when I come across rocks that contain evidence of seabed fossils. It amazes that I am able to come across fossils out here in the desert, sometime at elevations that are locations as high as 10,000 feet or more. It seems that each year I seem find several rocks containing fossil specimens of shells and other evidence of the ancient seabed that once covered this entire area.
07-Rocks & Geologic Formations: The desert features a wide variety of rocky outcrops and bedrock that provide a puzzle maze of unique rock formations, colors and shapes that can be amazing. The desert or semi-desert regions have unique geologic features not found in more humid environments. These features are most often caused by wind and water erosion in the stark desert environment. Laypeople as myself refer informally to outcroppings of rock or interesting geological features as geological formations, even though this is not technically correct. Arches are arch-shaped land-forms produced by weathering and differential erosion. Natural bridges are a naturally created arch formations resembling a bridge. Most occur in massive, horizontally bedded sandstone or limestone. Geologically, a formation is a natural body of earth, such as an outcrop or deposit with distinctive and characteristic properties. I am always looking for rock formations, created by the natural erosion, that represent recognizable shapes. I am constantly amazed at the many unique geological rock formations that I come across during my hikes. The palette of colors that the desert geology provides can be stunning.
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Click here to view 02 pictures of Rocks & Geologic Formations ...
07-2017 Rocks & Geologic Formations
07-2017 Rocks & Geologic Formations
08-Desert Water: As I’m sure many of you are aware, we are entering our 16th year of a long-term drought, making it harder and harder to find evidence of water in the lower desert and plateau areas. This has also had a devastating effect on animal and plant life. The Las Vegas area only receives an average of 4.19 inches per year, which is 89% less than the average nationwide, and 54% less than the average in Nevada. This year we actually went 101 days straigh without any rain. Even though the late summer/early fall monsoons can bring up to nearly three inches of rain, because everything is so hard and dry, it quickly runs off, having very little long term effect. To give you a better idea of how severe this drought has been, the water level at Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the country, is the lowest it’s ever been. It is now only about 38 percent full, down 140.72 feet below full pool, and the water level is expected to keep dropping over the next month or so. One of my hiking partners jokes about the fact that, if there is water to be found on a hike, I can find it. Though some of the places we visit are known for their “natural springs”, there seems to be less and less water visible each time we visit. Many of the washes we hike that used to provide signs of water almost year-round are now dry most of the year, only showing signs of water in the early spring months or the day after a heavy rainfall.
9-Mountain Landscapes/Panoramas: Most people don’t realize that Nevada is the most mountainous state in the U.S., with over 150 (named) individual mountain ranges. Over 30 of Nevada's mountain peaks exceed 11,000 ft., with the highest point (Boundary Peak), reaching 13,140 ft. The Great Basin - a series of depressions, flats, dry lakes, marshy salt pans and sinks, all scattered between ribbons of mountain ranges - stretches across much of the state. Low mountain desert areas (formerly prehistoric lakes) are situated northeast of Carson City. The Mojave Desert spills across the California border into southern Nevada, where conditions here are dry, hot and windy, especially in summer. The desert floor areas surrounding the Las Vegas valley are bordered by dozens of volcanic, granite, and Aztec sandstone, copper-colored mountains and ranges, highlighted by Red Rock Canyon's bluffs, cliffs and petrified sandstone boulders. These many mountains and canyons provide some of the best hiking and rock climbing areas in the entire United States. For visitors that have not experienced the Red Rock National Conservation Area and the Mount Charleston Wilderness Areas, they don't know what they are missing.
Click here to view 12 Mountain Views and Landscape pictures ...
09-2017 Mountain Landscapes/Panoramas
09-2017 Mountain Landscapes/Panoramas
10-People and Faces: Over the past few years I have concentrated on taking nature photos of plants and animals as well as landscapes. After reading an article on portrait photography, I decided to make a conscious effort to capture more pictures that included people to see if they might somehow make some of my pictures more interesting. Because I most often hike with the same people, or alone, my opportunities are still somewhat limited. Here are a few that I managed to capture that have encouraged me to continue trying.
Click here to view 13 pictures of some people I have hiked with this year ...
11-B&W and Other Effects: Sometimes while making picture adjustments during the post editing processes that I employ, it appears to me that an image might look better if it were converted to a Black and White image. I find that this effect can often add more mood and feeling into an image. Sometime I get the urge to make manipulations that create and entirely different artistic vision as seen in (Fig. 16) below.
Click here to view 14 pictures of some people I have hiked with this year ...
12-Locations, Places & Structures: As I travel and hike around the state, I am always looking for historic buildings that are indicative of the area. Many of the places where I hike even have visitor centers containing interpretative displays and gift shops. Sometimes, places such as the Hoover Dam or museums can be a destination all by themselves. Note: This is a new category that I have not had in previous "Year in Review" pages. Even though I have visited many of these locations, places and structures in 2016, some more than once, I have also included visits from previous years in order to be more inclusive. When looking for something to do, any of the places noted below are worthy of a daytrip visit.
Click here to view 10 pictures of places I have visited this year ...
12-2017 Locations, Places and Structures
12-2017 Locations, Places and Structures