Filed under: photography, Travel | Tags: bear's tooth, bearcreek, beauty, bison, black, black and white, camping, cle elum, cloves, columbia river, cooke city, cowley, cross country, dark, deer, driving, elk, estes park, evergreen, forests, glaciers, google maps, gorge, grizzly, horror movies, hot tea, I-90, Idaho, meadows, mining, missoula, montana, mountains, national park, night, park, pass, petrified tree, photography, pines, pronghorn, red lodge, rivers, roadtrip, rock creek vista point, rosalyn, scenic byway, shoshone, spokane river, sunset, switchback, Travel, trees, valleys, WA, Washington, washington state, waterfalls, west, wildlife, winding, woods, WY, Wyoming, Yellowstone
sleeping under the milky way was nice … beautiful, for sure … but sleeping in a real bed was brilliant. being able to stretch out … being able to adjust the layers of blanket coverage. it was brilliant. after a good night’s sleep, Jeff and I were up and gathering everything in order to head out on our last long day on the road. there began growing in me at this point, a twinge of sadness, knowing the trip that had taken so much planning and so much effort to get going was coming to an end. these feelings were enough, at this time, to overpower my desire to be back in Seattle, something i wasn’t sure what to do with at the time … but, there were still many miles between us and our final destination.
while i’d rather not include this next part because it would spare me the embarrassment, Jeff would be upset if i didn’t include it … Jeff was up and showered first and had gone upstairs to gather some things and to hang with Mike and Carol for a bit … i got up and headed to the bathroom to shower, having not had a real shower in a couple of days. i turned the water on and waited for an appropriate temperature, so as not to scald myself upon entering … the water, at this point, was still coming from the main spigot. once the temperature was satisfactory, i was ready to hop in … only, i couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out how to turn the shower head on. i scoured the tub/shower looking for the mechanism that would switch the water from the spigot to the shower head and … never found it/never figured it out, much to my chagrin/future embarrassment … i had to then, give myself a sponge bath of sorts trying my best to clean my road worn body. once i felt somewhat clean (or as clean as one could have gotten), i got dressed and headed upstairs with my things, making no mention to anyone what had just happened … only mentioning my ordeal to Jeff hours later while on the road. i am quite silly, i know.
Mike and Carol were already hard at work preparing a huge breakfast for Jeff and I. the grill was fired up, and bacon was being thrown on … each piece met the grill with a loud sizzle, reminiscent of applause, as Jim Gaffigan would remind us. Carol cut up some melon and beat some eggs to then give to Mike to prepare over the side burner of the grill, where the bacon was being cooked. once everything was complete and laid out before us, we, again, like the night before, felt incredibly indebted to our hosts and amazed by their generosity to relative strangers. over breakfast we discussed our route out of Cowley and into Yellowstone … Mike and Carol suggested a very specfic route that would take over a mountain pass by the name of Beartooth. the route would have us weave along the Wyoming/Montana border, entering and leaving each state several times before arriving at the northeast entrance of Yellowstone National Park. Mike and Carol mentioned the towns we would be passing through and if there was anything worth stopping for in each town. As we finished breakfast, we helped clean up, and began saying our thanks. we couldn’t have thanked our hosts enough. Mike and Carol were amazing. they treated us like old friends. they said that if i ever come back across the country, to stop in again … we had made new friends in Wyoming.
Jeff and I had the car loaded and pulled out of Cowley, heading west on 789. from 789, we turned north on 310 and entered Montana …
Montana ... we've got ... mountains!
310 took us through various random small towns … i hate to say not worth mentioning, but compared to everything else … they aren’t worth mentioning. From 310, heading north and west, we turned on to Rt. 72 and headed south and west.
some scenery ...
once on 72, we passed through a town called Belfry and turned due west onto Rt. 308, which would take us through the town of Bearcreek. Bearcreek is significant because the “worst coal mining accident in the history of Montana (occurred here) killing 74 men and sealing the fate of the coal mining industry around Bear Creek. Today, the rail spur has been removed, and no active mining is done in the area” [ Wikipedia ].
Bearcreek mine remnants ...
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...
...
the pictures above show a lot of mining buildings still standing, seemingly abandoned. it was all pretty eerie …
From Bearcreek, we continued on toward the town of Red Lodge, where Mike and Carol suggested we get gas because it would be the cheapest gas we could get for a while. they also mentioned Red Lodge being a quirky little mountain town. Jeff and i drove through and snapped a couple pictures of random things …
Red Lodge
a river runs through it ...
leaving red lodge, we drove into the mountains …
into the mountains ...
i would be lying if i said i wasn’t at all nervous about driving in the mountains after our experience the day before. headed south and west on 212 back towards Wyoming. between us and Wyoming was Beartooth Pass, with an altitude of over 10,000ft. Mike and Carol spoke of the drive up the mountain being really fun … steep grades and switchback turns. this excited me. the drive back down from 10,000ft. did not. nevertheless, we pressed on into the mountains. each mile traveled brought views more scenic than the previous mile. the scenery we began to encounter reminded me of when i had been in Rocky Mountain National Park two years earlier.
Beartooth Scenic Byway
Huge tracts of land ...
...
hazards of the road …
hold on ...
tighter ...
if not for the sign, i'dve driven off the mountain ...
after a series of switchbacks and steep grades, we arrived at …
The Rock Creek Vista Point
breathtaking, no?
Me
the view ...
Jeff
after many pictures and exchanging of amazed utterances … we pulled out of the vista point and to our amazement, continued to climb …
our pace was slowed not only by our ogling of the beauty all around us, but by the loose gravel of the roads, and the steep grade of the climb up to the pass. i cannot imagine that the road up here stays open very late into the fall … 10,000ft. is high for a pass. we continued climbing, encountered a bit of roadwork (surprise), and took a lot more pictures …
Beartooth
Glaciers
Ski lift?
jagged
more ...
Bear's Toof
10,947 ft.
having passed over the west summit of the peak, the dreaded descent was upon us … though it wasn’t as fierce a descent as the one conquered a day before, there was more traffic to potentially complicate our drive … motorcycles and minivans and trailers and RVs to be exact … the pace down the mountain was acceptably cautious. we crossed back into WY on the way back down, only to cross back into MT not more than 30 miles later. the winding roads of highway 212 provided driving excitment and the views out the window remained breathtaking … plus there was the possibility of wildlife around every corner …
This is Grizzly Bear Country
Down ...
Down ...
once we were back in MT, we drove through the small, touristy town of Cooke City, just outside of Yellowstone National Park’s northeast entrance.
Driving into Cooke City ...
we got to the entrance for Yellowstone. the fee was $25 for up to a week’s stay … we were just driving through, so it seemed a bit steep. the ranger at the pay station was nice enough … from MD … Havre de Grace, he said. we paid the $25, and entered the park with expectations of grizzly, wolf, elk, and moose sightings dancing in our heads, much like sugar plums dance in the heads of children at Christmastime (i think it’s time to update this saying.)
Yellowstone National Park
as we entered, stately evergreens stood tall looking over from both sides of the road … seemingly a perfect place to spot at least a deer … here is what we saw …
Bison hanging out in the woods by himself ... sad
this is funny because once we drove out of the tree-lined entrance to the park and into the valley, there were hundreds of bison grazing … for whatever reason this one was in the woods … alone.
part of the herd
the view as we drove into the valley …
Waterfall
the bison and waterfall further raised our already too-high expectations for Yellowstone … especially for us driving through … as we drove along, we encountered a lot more bison on the side of the road … jeff spotted one on the right side of the road. i drew his attention to the left side, where i spotted this …
Pronghorn Antelope! again, all alone??
i pulled over and Jeff went in with his 80-300mm telephoto lens to capture the above photo … we piled back in the car after a few more photos and after pulling some eats out from the backseat. back on the road through Yellowstone …
Yellowstone River
i’d like to skip over our next stop, but i suppose i can’t because it is something that we did … on our map of the park we saw a petrified tree monument or something to that effect. it sounded cool enough, so jeff and i decided it would be worth a stop. once we stopped and parked and walked up a paved walkway to the “tree”, we were amazed by it … not because it was so spectacular, but exactly the opposite. this is more of a product of our ridiculously high expectations. the actual tree, though not much to look at, was hundreds of years old and had survived the harsh climate and volcanic activity of those years. anyway, here it is …
Petrified Tree
after we felt we had wasted time at the Petrified Tree, he hauled ass, heading westward still in the park. Mountains, rolling hills, green meadows, waterfalls, etc. Yellowstone is a beautiful place.
...
...
...
blurry, but beautiful ...
of course, the beauty of the park cannot be captured in a handful of images … even if i posted every last picture that Jeff and I took in the park as we drove through, the magnitude of the beauty wouldn’t come through. our time in the park was drawing to a close … saying our “time” was drawing to a close is a bit misleading. it was just that the road we were driving through on would soon exit the park and take us north toward I-90W. we climbed one last mountain in the park and once at the top, we were greeted with a pleasant surprise …
Badass Elk
Elk!
growing some antlers ...
the space that was full of elk was a courtyard in a little town in the park. it reminded me so much of estes park, CO, which is the town right outside of Rocky Mountain National Park, where elk roam through the streets and gather in a park on main st. it was a good way to end our time in the park. the descent from the courtyard took us down into another valley where we exited the park, passed through the town of Gardiner, MT and headed north on Rt. 89. for some reason, we didn’t end up with many pictures from this part of the journey. this, however, is in no way an indication of lack of beauty. it was really no different than being in Yellowstone still, just higher speed limits. we encountered a touch of rain on the way up to I-90. upon further inspection, once we left the park, the next pictures are from when we filled up in Missoula, MT … weird. i guess every photographer needs a break … so Jeff took a break.
one thing i do remember from this leg of the trip is the delicious homemade conchord grape jelly (courtesy of jeff’s grandmother in law) that we had on PB&J sandwiches. so delicious. there is something about a good peanut butter and jelly sandwich …
this was our longest day in the car because of the time we took to drive through Yellowstone. we, as i said, stopped in Missoula, switched places, grabbed a little treat for ourselves, and headed out. the treat i refer to, and i am ashamed to say, was mcdonald’s. before you begin to pile on the criticism, all we got was one order of fries and two apple pies (one each). just a little treat to keep us going. jeff took the wheel, and we headed north and west on I-90 toward our destination.
The route through Montana ...
i had my fun on the roads earlier when we conquered Bear’s Tooth, and at this point in the trip, Jeff got his fun. I-90 west of Missoula and into Idaho turns into a winding speedway. The car handled wonderfully. Jeff was loving every minute of the drive and the scenery was no slouch.
Montana
Idaho
west with the sun in our faces ...
Idaho ... more than just potatoes
the bitterroot mountain range is stunning … not so craggy as the rockies, but covered almost exclusively in coniferous trees. the sun hits the trees and and creates intense patches of light and dark. it was just sad to see Idaho go some quickly … something like 63 miles … and then …
...
Spokane River
Washington State
we had finally reached washington, but it was later in the day than we expected. the sun was setting and we still had 2-3 hours left of driving before we got close to the campgrounds. once we entered washington, the earth flattened out. the mountains were behind us, for now … we pushed further into washington state as the sun began to set, not only on the day, but on the trip itself.
Setting ...
this was a difficult time on the road … washington state drivers seem to be unable to grasp the concept of the left lane being the fast lane … so we’d end up behind a minivan going 65mph in a 70mph area, and of course everyone around this minivan was going 65 as well, which made passing near impossible. it was just a very frustrating stretch. on top of this, with the sun setting and darkness coming, the campground we initially had pinpointed as our stop for the night was looking to be a little bit too far off of I-90 for us … so i had go into my phone and vigorously search my nav software and google maps in order to find a more convenient campground for us … after a little research, the R & D (that is, whoever was passenger with the phone) found a couple sites closer to I-90 … but the drive was still tedious. we had about 80 or so miles to the campground, traffic had cleared up enough to where the darkness and lack of traffic started to wear on us … 4 days on the road will eventually wear you down. we were tired. we wanted to be at the campground, out of the car, enjoying some hot tea and a clove, but we still had a ways to go.
i was sad that it was dark when we crossed the Columbia River Gorge. going over the bridge at night is an interesting experience, especially when your car is buffeted by crosswinds … i am curious to see how it is to cross in the light of day.
soon after crossing the gorge, we stopped for fuel and some candy, as a little pick-me-up … the home stretch was proving a bit tedious. a little while after our stop, we were jumping off I-90 again towards the campground. after passing through the small town of Cle Elum, we were ensconced in the tall pines of central WA. it got very dark, very quickly. we saw our first sign for the campground … the distance didn’t at all agree with what google maps was telling us … this is the part of the trip where it seemed like we were in every horror movie ever … lines like these started from our lips …
“it’s just up here a bit further …”
“maybe we should stop and ask for directions …”
“huh … my cell phone just died …”
ha, it was a little creepy, to be quite honest. each little town we passed through seemed more deserted than the last. it wasn’t all that late, and yet, we saw nary a light on. the part about the cell phone isn’t completely true … it didn’t die (even if it did, i had a car charger), but instead it lost reception completely. no gps, no incoming or outgoing calls. google maps still gave us a map, but the gps was no longer following our progress. after a while, we passed the point on google maps that was supposed to be destination. we were now relying on street signs and our own sense of direction. after a little while longer, and many more jokes about being in a bad horror flick, we pulled into the campground. we promptly parked at the first site we saw. upon turning the car and lights off, we were hemmed in by the black of night; swallowed up in its darkness. it was black. can’t-see-the-hand-in-front-of-your-face dark. we had a single flashlight by which we were meant to set up and get around by. we grabbed some things from the car, plugged in the water for hot tea, scoured the site for a suitable tent location, and began setting up for the night. it wasn’t too bad, actually, but mostly because jeff is a whiz with camping gear, having camped in many settings and circumstances. props to jeff …
got settled, layered up (it was cold and getting colder … into the 40s by morning), poured ourselves some tea, and lit a clove. the day was nearly over … it was a long one.
with the evergreens of washington state towering over us on all sides and the stars, with their ancient light, suspended overhead, we slept. comfortably nestled in the belly of blackest night, we slept.
Filed under: photography, Travel | Tags: Badlands, beauty, Bighorn Canyon, Bighorn Lake, bighorn sheep, bison, black and white, canyons, car, cross country trip, dead trees, driving, foothills, grace, great plains, mountains, roadtrip, Rocky Mountains, South Dakota, wild horses, Wyoming
There is something to be said for traveling at night … the only visible things is what is illuminated by the headlights of your car, and the cars around you. the occasional streetlight comes along and does its best to light the way … but everything outside of the road is blanketed by the darkness of night … not to take anything away from the moon and stars … all of the direct light from headlamps and streetlamps creates some interesting shadows cast from other cars and whatever may be beyond the highway. fear of the unknown is ushered in with the darkness. there is something otherworldly about the kind of darkness that prevents one from seeing his own hand in front of his face. it seems unnatural. darkness by itself can be scary and foreboding, whereas light by itself can be harsh and blinding … but where the two meet … the interplay of light and dark is beautiful.
The sun shone sharp and bright as a knife, cutting into the thin nylon of our tent. It was 6am. having few obstacles to block its gaze, the sun peered out onto the wide open landscape of the high plains. i woke up with the sun in my eyes. jeff, who had gotten up a bit earlier, saw that i was awake, “dude, you gotta look outside.”, he said with surprising enthusiasm for such an early hour.
as i unzipped the fly of the tent, i could already see where Jeff’s enthusiasm had come from. though hidden in the black of night, our surroundings had no chance to hide from the light of day. we had come into the park with these natural structures all around us, but what we could make out of them was only enough to lend a spookiness to the night … but now, with night gone, the full beauty and splendor of the Badlands was on display.
Needs no caption
...
...
after taking in all we could of our surroundings from our campsite, we packed it up, made some coffee and headed to the visitors center to get a park map and to look around. a ranger informed us that the route we were taking back towards I-90W would take us past places where bighorn sheep and bison have been known to roam. we left the visitor center and began our mystical journey through the Badlands. we had some time to take in the sites and to even hike around a bit, as our time in the car was shorter than the previous two days by about half.
not long after we started on the road, i was slowing down a little as jeff took a picture of the beauty all around us, when this douche bag in a minivan from michigan laid on his horn behind us. the speed limit in a national park is 45mph … we maybe slowed down to 35mph. after speeding up a little, the d-bag decides to pass in a no passing zone and speed off … i wasn’t immediately bothered by this guy, but the more i thought about it, the more pissed off i became. he’s in a national park … he is surrounded by so much natural wonder … if you are in such a hurry, take a different route, dumbass. i wanted to kick his teeth in. i all of a sudden turned into a UFC fighter. i don’t think i completely let on to jeff just how angry i was. i was sad and angry that this prick felt the need to beep at someone and pass them when there is so much to see all around. if this jackass can’t appreciate the kind of beauty represented in the photos below, he shouldn’t be allowed outside.
anyway, not long after this incident, we pulled off, and decided to snap some shots of the rugged beauty around us …
...
"Badasslands"
...
like a gymnast ...
badlands national park rocks!!
...
no words ...
Words fail ...
more ...
as promised by the ranger ...
as promised ...
Dogs of the Prairie
after driving through the northern section of the park, we turned to the north to head back towards I-90W and Wall, SD. unfortunately, the road that took us there, was an unpaved gravel road. being a worrywort, the road conditions bothered me more with each pebble that got thrown in the wheel well and rattled around. jeff insisted that everything would be fine. i tried to believe him, but was uneasy because of the remaining 1000 miles or so left in our trip. part of the road we took through the badlands was unpaved, but the speed limit was low enough to where i wasn’t bothered too much. the posted speed limit through the section of road headed north and out of the park was 50mph. my speed remained constant at 30mph … lucky for him, Douche Baggins from MI didn’t end up behind me. after about 10 miles or so, the road became paved and we entered the interesting town of Wall, SD. i had heard from several different people that we had to check it out … after spending a fair amount of time in the Badlands and with the time being past noon, we decided we needed to skip Wall, and be on our way to WY.
once we had been through the Badlands, the beauty we saw gave both Jeff and myself a huge surge of adrenaline. the Badlands was just the beginning of the scenic part of the trip. so as we left the high plains behind us, and headed into the Rocky Mountains and its foothills, we were giddy. plus, it was a much shorter drive on Day 3.
every day to this point, i had to continually convince myself that this trip was actually happening … not even so much because of the difficulty i encountered trying to make it happen, but because of the new places and things i was seeing along the way … to think that just two days prior, i was still in MD, and here we were now, entering Wyoming. 1800 miles away.
August was a whirlwind of a month as far as travel was concerned. I traveled down to Asheville, NC for a cousin’s wedding, passing through VA and TN along the way. Two weeks later, my family headed up to Martha’s Vineyard, MA to visit and vacation with my aunt and uncle, passing through DE, NJ, NY, CT, RI, along the way. Since leaving MD on the 20th, we had passed through PA, OH, IN, IL, WI, MN, SD. So, in all, over a three week span, that’s 17 states … 18 counting WY … and, like i said earlier, a whole hell of a lot more to see still.
After driving through the biker town of Sturgis, SD, WY came quickly. Not much changed in the way of scenery. hills, occasional rocky outcropping, very few trees … but we were headed toward the Rocky Mountains, and we expected drastic changes …
Wyoming
passed signs for sundance … and began seeing signs for grand teton national park and yellowstone national park … the excitement in the car grew with the sight of these signs.
a lot of coal mining going on in WY … i have a feeling that a lot of pressure is being felt with all of this talk of alternative energy sources being explored … a lot of jobs are in coal …
i guess now is a good a time as any to mention (read:complain about) the ridiculous amount of road work encountered on I-90W … all through SD and WY 90 was down to one lane with the lines of cones stretching for miles and miles seemingly without reason. at times traffic from 90E would merge toward the westbound lane and create a two lane, two way highway with a speed limit of 65mph. such a situation can wreak havoc on the nerves of drivers as the chance of a high speed, head-on collision is exponentially increased. with the thoughts of a deadly collision hanging in the air, we drove miles and miles with cones seperating the eastbound and westbound traffic … when the lanes split apart, the cones remained, blocking off the left lane, and sometimes the right lane. every few miles or more, roadwork vehicles could be seen, but rarely ever was any work actually being done. so … it seemed useless to have the cones stretch for miles and miles and miles. it was a major point of frustration … the thing is, 65mph (really 70) is definitely not slow, and the stretches with one lane never really caused any sort of traffic congestion. an understanding of the roadwork in this part of the country is imparted to the drivers when you begin to see signs, accompanied by red and white arms to block the road, mentioning interstate closures. roadwork in this part of the country is not a year round job … the snows in the fall, winter, and spring make it virtually impossible to work. the snow falls furiously once the temperatures drop … therefore the workers work long days (12-15 hours) from April to September. that helps explain the reason for the cones staying up at all times during working months, but doesn’t take away the frustration.
our time on 90W would soon be over for the day, though … we stopped in Gilette, WY, fueled up and switched positions, with Jeff jumping behind the wheel to soon tackle a part of the trip that was both terrifying and amazing. while stopped, Jeff put in a call to his co-worker, Shawna (forgive me if that is spelled incorrectly) to get her parents phone number. her parents, Mike and Carol, were generous enough to open their home to two relative strangers. once we had the phone number, we left Gilette and pushed westward …
west of Gilette
WY Sky
the rockies came into view, though under a thick haze. as we got closer, the view became clearer. we exited 90W at Rt. 14. the drive on 14 up to Cowley was supposed to be the best and most fun stretch of driving of the day because it was to offer some mountain climbs and “twisties”. with my car being a manual transmission, we were supposedly at an advantage for this type of driving, as we were able to freely downshift into lower gears for the descent, rather than rely on the brakes. we started our climb …
Climb
the ears starting popping as we gained altitude quickly. after a series of steep grade straightaways and hairpin turns, there was a scenic overlook …
scenic lookout
Me, looking very approachable ...
Jeff, looking like he wants to and can rip my head off
we continued our climb …
up a mountain behind an RV ...
more mountain views ...
...
the climb gradually grew steeper and that, of course, was when the roadwork started … we had to deal, once again, with gravel roads, only this time, we were climbing up a mountain.
steeper climb, still behind the RV ...
once we got to the top, the pictures become more scarce … this is because somehow on one of our shortest days on the road, i got really claustrophobic and irritable. (i guess the 75mph speed limits will do that to you when we are slowed down to a snail-like 50mph and slower … that and being behind an RV). Jeff insisted that i put the camera down and take a breather, of sorts. it was weird how i turned this way. i guess with nearly 30 hours of driving and riding in two and half days under my belt, it was finally catching up with me a bit. i suppose it was bound to happen. the near miraculous part is that my irritability did not lead to any sort of animosity between Jeff and myself. smooth sailing … i picked the camera back up and shot this …
perhaps my favorite picture that i took on the trip ...
at the top of the climb Rt. 14 split, with our route taking us on 14A. This was a section of road that Shawna had told Jeff about … the descent down the mountain into the valley where Cowley is situated. once we started our initial descent, the views were amazing, and enough to take my mind off of the fact that guard rail didn’t exist along every mile of road going down … pulled over and got these shots through a fence …
through the fence ...
between links ...
the ride down was deathly terrifying at times, but devastatingly beautiful every second. downshifting took pressure off the brakes, but hearing the car rev up above 6000rpm while going 40mph+ in first gear on a 12% down grade was hard for me to listen to without getting nervous about my car’s breaking point. everything had gone swimmingly up to this point, and part of me was still waiting for my car to go up in flames … jeff was quite adept behind the wheel as we made our way down the mountain and into the valley.
ignore the bug smudge on the windshield
...
earth and sky
i don’t know that i played up just how exhilarating and scary the descent was … jeff himself mentioned to me the next day how nervous and anxious the descent made him … but it was a blast, i think we both really enjoyed the route that Shawna had directed us on …
leaving the mountains behind ... for now ...
...
approaching Bighorn Lake
we crossed Bighorn Lake, which is a former river that has dried up in most areas, but has somehow held on to some water to form a long, narrow lake … more on this later …
once we crossed the lake, we drove through Lovell, and finally into Cowley … Jeff remembered directions to Mike and Carol’s house based on the landmarks that Shawna had given him over the phone … we pulled up outside what we believed to be the house. across from a cemetery, the first right turn once you enter Cowley. as we were stopped outside, a SUV pulled up along side us. here we are, two grungy looking dudes, driving in a little VW gti, MD tags, in a land full of pickup truck driving cowboys … we must have stuck out … the SUV rolled its window down and the woman in the passenger seat asked, “are you Jeff?” … we had found Mike and Carol … or, more accurately, they had found us. they invited us to park in their driveway. Jeff and I got out of the car, stretched our tired, tight legs and walked over to Mike and Carol to meet our hosts. they greeted us warmly, like old friends, only really knowing of us, namely Jeff, from their daughter Shawna, whom Jeff works with in Baltimore. we were invited in and given beer almost immediately. this is a part of the trip where i’d really like Jeff to chime in on his experience, because hearing how amazing Mike and Carol were to us from just me, won’t do their hospitality and love shown to us justice. we drank our beer while Mike and Carol talked to us and prepared dinner. I sat and took it all in as Jeff and our gracious hosts shared stories about Shawna and her dog. As dinner neared completion we were invited to sit outside on the back patio with our beers. Mike tended to the grill as Carol slowly filled the table with fruit, cheese, corn, and vegetables, soon after, Mike pulled the main course off the grill and set out 6 enormous grilled T-bone steaks. we ate and talked and laughed and just had a lovely and amazing time. we helped clear the table and clean up a bit. Mike and Carol then offered to take us down to the Bighorn Lake and Canyon … they offered to drive and we all piled in their car and were on our way. sadly, Jeff and I didn’t think to bring our camera or cell phones … this is sad because the Bighorn Canyon is one of the coolest, most ruggedly beautiful things i have ever seen in person. a 1200′ drop down to the still, smooth as glass lake … please take the time to check out Bighorn Canyon National Rec area online, or better yet, go visit. on the way out of the park, after driving around for a while and hearing about the wild horses that inhabit the area, with night falling quickly, we spot some off to the side of the road. the majestic stallions and mares grazing on the delicate grasses in the cool, arid night air … we drove back to the house, feeling satisfied … looking forward to sleeping in a real bed for the first time in several days. It had been a good day … Night fell over Cowley, WY. Day 3 was over.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: beauty, change, darkness, dreams, job loss, joy, light, moving, pain, rosie thomas, sam beam, struggle, sufjan stevens, summer, sunrise
i can explain … i think all i need is one word, actually …
life.
that sums up the extent of my absence, and thus, my lack of involvement here.
apologies all around.
i miss the hot, lazy summer days as a child … the day would pass slowly into evening, lilting along with an easy current, mimicking the soft, warm breeze july in oklahoma. i look back now and imagine myself as an oft-seen tumbleweed … blowing along the dusty earth, carried toward every wind with nary a care … as a child, the worries of being caught in the wind and scattered about were groundless … obligations were few, fun was abundant. as years have passed since i enjoyed carefree days of warmth and joy, many things have changed. obligations are many … there are important, life-altering decisions to be made … fun can still be abundant, though the time one has to have such fun, has been greatly diminished. life is a struggle … ever-constant … push/pull, light/dark, joy/pain, happiness/sorrow, life/death … but at the center of this struggle is where beauty is most defined … i hope to find myself centered more often than not in this struggle in the coming days, as i finalize plans to uproot myself from my home of more than 18 years … leaving friends, family, and most things familiar and comfortable to me. there is still much work to be done, and some things still need to fall into place, but i am trying to take in these scary and exciting days with the mindset of the child i once was … being able to enjoy the ride, more than stress about it … being able to see the beauty that is at the heart of struggle.
i was informed last week that my position at work is being cut at the end of the month. reading this, many of you (all two or three of you) would normally assume that this is an awful thing, though, not at all surprising, given all of the bad news fed to us about the economy and lessthanstellar job market. i can tell you that this news reached my ears and was met with excitement. i have felt pretty trapped at this job … dependant upon it for income, yet being completely bored with and uninspired by it. unfortunately, with many financial obligations, the money out-dueled my boredom and dreams, and so i kept on in it. every day was the same … nothing new … exciting things were coming up over the horizon, but looked dim, like the sunrise on a cloudy day … the job was the cloud-cover, teasing me … i could see the faint hints of light, but it was obstructed just enough to keep me discouraged. now that the clouds have cleared, my dreams are once again coming into focus. these are exciting times, indeed.
and to add to the excitement …
RELEVANT MAG: Let’s talk about the future for a moment. I hear you’re working on a project with Sam Beam. That sounds like a match made in heaven. Can you tell us any more about what’s to come?
ROSIE THOMAS: Sam and I are great friends. He sang at my wedding and is just such a sweet man who has his heart in the right place. I like him a lot and I like his work. For years he’s been pushing me to do a record with him and I finally took him up on it. We’re starting in February. I’m not really sure where it will go, but we have high hopes for it. It will be great just to be around him. He keeps making jokes saying, “Rosie, I really want you to just belt something out. I want to hear some real R&B from you.” It’s funny. … I didn’t set out to only do records with friends. But this stuff just keeps coming up and it’s too fun. I can’t turn it down. It’s where I’m supposed to be right now.
now that she’s been married off, maybe rosie will keep the joking about being pregnant to a minimum for this collaboration.
cheers.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: art, beauty, illuminate, new years, photography, soul, sunrise
going to work at 5:30am every morning (m-f) is a terrible thing. i am, by nature, a night owl. my mind is at its most productive and active state in the late evening and early morning hours. since i have had to wake up for work as early as 4:30am for the past year, i have tried to discipline myself with a bedtime. most nights i try to be in bed before 10pm. i am usually prostrate, but wide awake for at least an hour before i actually slip slowly, restlessly into a night’s slumber. the sleep is hardly ever restful or refreshing. it seemed for a while nothing good came from being up so early. however, i have more recently began cataloging, through photography, each day’s sunset. i have not gotten to the point where i shoot every day, but i hope that that day will come. in addition, it should also be noted that i haven’t always had my camera on me, so my cell phone has had to suffice. the photos presented below are all taken with my cell phone and were taken the week of dec. 29-today …
new years eve
January 2nd
january 2nd (brightness adjusted)
this morning ...
keep in mind that these have been shot with a cell phone and that to truly capture the beauty of each sunrise, (even the best camera fails) one must take them in with his/her own eyes. i would ask you to wake up for a sunrise and let the first light of day hit your eyes and illumine your soul, just as the light hits the trees. let the beauty speak to you and touch your soul.
cheers.
Filed under: music, photography | Tags: a farewell to arms, authentic, beauty, celestial, clouds, hemingway, jammin' java, jupiter, moon, photography, rainbows, rosie thomas, starbucks, storms, the sky, venus, vienna
but i only have photographic proof of one of these …
i was trying to finish up “a farewell to arms” before returning it to the library, and actually planned an extended reading session over some christmas blend at my local starbucks, as i had a free drink coupon. my best laid plans, however, were thrown off track by the mesmerizing sky.
i sat outside to enjoy my coffee and book (along with a clove) and began reading. shortly thereafter, a blustery wind kicked up and the sky suddenly was a sweeping swath of gray clouds. big, heavy drops of rain began to fall and i gathered my things and headed inside, but not before stealing the photo from above on my cameraphone. the clouds quickly overcame the sun [as it tried to assert its light and warmth] and dumped a quick downpour across the area … as the clouds exited stage east, leaving mere showers behind, the sun once again broke through the gray and shone brilliantly through. the sky was painted in hues of gray, pink, and yellow and the sun’s light reflected its blinding light off of the wet blacktop of the parking lot. i walked out the door and was greeted with a vividly intense rainbow. being colorblind, rainbows can sometimes be difficult for me to spot, but this particular one … announced its presence quite adamantly. using the very useful ROY G BIV mnemonic device, i deduced that the yellow and green rays of the spectrum were the most prominent, and gradually increased in intensity as they neared the horizon. it was just the beginning of my encounters with beauty …
while at starbucks, after giving up on getting some good reading done, i hopped online and was convinced by a dear friend to see rosie thomas (and her friends) at jammin’ java in vienna, va. the show started at 8pm, so we drove down around 6:45. night had already come, and with it, darkness and his celestial friends. those who happened to notice, were given a glimpse of a bright, crescent moon, jupiter, and a ridiculously bright venus. these celestial bodies were all bunched together for a portion of the night, forming a smile in the sky.
rosie thomas did not disappoint, playing a mix of songs from her new Christmas CD, as well as a good mix of older and newer originals. she is spectacular and has an uncanny ability to command your attention. though her songs can be melancholy and quiet, her voice is one that grabs you and pulls you in. and one would never think that a singing voice so full and dynamic, would come from someone whose speaking voice is so mousy and childlike. in addition her musical talents being on display, rosie cracked jokes the whole night, and just the sound of her giggle would elicit audience smiles and laughter. in short, she is adorable. another thing that sets rosie apart is how real she is. once she develops a rapport with the audience (which happens almost immediately), anything she says is heard … she doesn’t take that for granted, as everything she said, even if it was something silly, held authenticity and hope. this was particularly evident when she would preface a song or two with a story of how the song came to be. she, on more than one occasion, reminded her captivated audience, that, yes, things can be bad, but that there is reason for hope in the midst of the storms. it may sound cheeseball coming from a lot of other artists, but not so with rosie. she was more than just entertaining … she was a source of beauty and means of grace.
maybe your day today has not been a good one … though i would not recommend living in the past, i would implore you to look to the beauty of yesterday. now that you’re a day removed from it, look back on it, and recognize the beauty you may have missed.
[ the yesterday i am referring to in this post was monday, dec. 1 ]
cheers.
Filed under: drawing | Tags: autumn, beauty, brokenness, complete, dead trees, drawing, fall, gloaming and dawn, God, hope, jon foreman, redemption, spring, summer, wholeness, winter
i had some more thoughts to add to my previous post … so i’ve called this the addendum.
i’m going to post another drawing to help illustrate some more thoughts more aptly. this was the first drawing i did in the dead tree series. it may look familiar …
jon foreman, anyone?
again, this image was achieved by doing the actual drawing and then taking a photo of that drawing using lighting to add to the overall aesthetic. once the photo is on the computer, i touch it up using some simple software. this method suits me well because my drawing skills leave much to be desired and it allows me to be creative in other areas of media.
the above drawing was something i did from scratch … that is, you will not find this tree anywhere, as far as i know. but apparently the design of the tree and its shadow are not completely original, as they look uncannily similar to the cover of jon foreman‘s fall ep. this was an honest “mistake” but i think it points to something that resonates in me …
long before i knew of jon foreman’s “ep-for-every-season” project, i had envisioned a photo project based on the four seasons. i had (as i believe i discussed in the previous post) thought about finding a place of particular beauty, and taking a picture during every season, showing the beauty of each setting. scrambler and i recently discussed these things. he articulated it more perfectly than i ever could … and i won’t even try to regurgitate what he said word for word, for fear of butchering it, but … it revolved around the idea that through the seasons the tree’s appearance will change … it will look different, but it is still the same tree … beautiful in its own way in all four seasons.
the fours seasons illustrated through trees …
i love the change of seasons. i think i would grow tired of a place that didn’t have them. i crave the wholeness of the year. times of sunshine and warmth. times of gray and cold. times of dry and of wet. there are times the weather suits my mood. there are also times when the weather dictates my mood. i suppose it is the same as movies and literature, and other forms of stimuli. this really is a poor attempt to articulate these thoughts of mine, but i shall continue nonetheless.
complete.
we like the idea of complete. each season complements its predecessor and successor. gloaming and dawn complete the day. we say things “complete us” … referencing the fact that we are, in fact, incomplete in our current state. we hear a piece of music that ends on something other than the root chord of the key … this deceptive cadence, as it is referred to in music, leaves the listener on the edge of his or her seat, waiting for the chord and piece to be resolved or redeemed by the root … this makes us uncomfortable … this “incompleteness” of the song.
we like stories that resolve, and we marvel at our stories of “incompleteness” and brokenness being resolved and redeemed by our Maker. we’ve been shown all around us glimpses of His work, which is a great mystery, but one that offers hope of change, wholeness, and even beauty in every season.
cheers.
Filed under: music | Tags: anticipation, autumn, beauty, cinematic, Creation, death, fall, hope, iceland, leaves, life, lightning, lovely, sigur ros, snow, spring, storm, summer, thunder, winter
in past writings about their catalog, i have waxed obsessive about the beauty and cinematic quality in the music of sigur ros. that, if one takes time to listen; takes time to drop everything, close their eyes, and give full attention to the music, it will produce images of beauty in your mind’s eye. perhaps this is a bit lame, or a bit over the top, but not if you ask me … which you haven’t, but i will be telling you nonetheless.
a little more than a year and a half ago i could often be found on the wooded trails of oregon ridge regional park in hunt valley, md. i would go for trail runs over the dirt trails riddled with rocks, pebbles, and overgrown roots, careful to not twist an ankle as i gingerly ran, trying to keep a taxing pace. other days when i lacked the energy, i would just walk the trails, careful to notice something new each time. through all four seasons, weather permitting, i would visit the park. i loved noticing the difference from particular places of interest in the park from one season to the next. a towering oak tree, bursting with green life in the summer, would be reduced to a mere skeleton whose bones would rattle in the strong northwest gusts after a cold front comes through. songbirds, whose voice once absent from the snowy forests, have come back for the thaw, singing their songs in the anticipation of spring. the more i think about it, i believe that i am a seasonal, migratory creature as well … maybe not so much in the physical sense, but definitely mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. the seasons seem to elicit very raw emotions within me. as i feel something in me dying, fall and the glorious colors of death that come with it resonate deep in my soul. the winter closes its moribund curtain and the lights go down on nature’s theater … an act break if you will … but soon, soon the stage will come to life once more. as i mentioned with the birds earlier, spring brings strong anticipation with it … the hope of life reborn. as summer incrementally bakes and soaks the earth, bringing heatwaves and raging thunderstorms down from heaven, autumn prepares once more to paint the landscape in gold, orange, and red.
/leaves laid to rest, begin their colorful dance/
/green to gold, gold to brown/
/brown to air, air to ground/
/scattered to every wind/
the cycle continues, paying no mind to us as we take these changes for granted. we are all in cycles and seasons … listen and look to Creation, though broken, it’s beauty points to something whole. appreciate the similarities of our lives with the life of this lovely earth.
on to the song … i would ask you to keep the change of seasons in mind as you listen … close your eyes and drink in the beauty.
