Mining operation, Arizona-New Mexico Border

This colorful turquoise stain on the land is clearly associated with the mining complex on the left: I am not sure whether it is actually an evaporation mining facility or if this is some sort of tailings. Whatever the case may be, it is certainly a garish sign of our industrial activity.

Fractal watercourses, Arizona

One more supremely arid land of dry fractal carvings, now in a powdery white and yellow that looks even more desolate to me.

Desert castle, Arizona

Another monumental spire, but now looking more like the spires of a fantastic castle as we move from the lower red lands to higher beige deserts.

Soft elevation borders, Arizona

At this rising elevation, a softer line on elevation transitions across this line of canyons, with less vertical plunge and more vegetation.

Fractal watercourses, Arizona

The orange-white cap of this mesa disintegrates at the edge where it plunges into the softer layers of dark red slopes below.

Fractal watercourses, Arizona

Two overlapping layers of carving from different geological eras: longer and presumably older sweeping carved curves, overlaid with the dendritic patterns of more recent carvings.

Fractal watercourses, Arizona

Another line of colorful folds, dripping down from plateau to lowlands in Northern Arizona.

Fractal watercourses, Arizona

A closer look at the fractal traces of water left along these elevation contours in the red earth of Arizona.

Escarpment, Arizona

A long escarpment dividing layers of plateau on the Eastern side of Monument Valley.

Dry riverbed, Utah-Arizona Border

A dry riverbed near the Utah/Arizona border, not far from Monument Valley (or perhaps that's not dust but muddy water in the bottom).

Monument Valley, Arizona

One more view into the spires of Monument Valley, as we begin to pull away, ever Eastward toward the New Mexico border.

Monument Valley, Arizona

Another view on Monument Valley, capturing some of the broader sweep of its environs.

Monument Valley, Arizona

Monument Valley proper: a titanic cluster of pillars and mesas breaking away from the long escarpment hinted at in the background of this image.

Monument Valley, Arizona

Train Rock stands just to the West of Monument Valley proper, on the Utah side of the line and heralding the approach to this grand arena of natural obelisks.

Lonely mesa near Monument Valley, AZ

This tall mesa stands as a black monolith all alone on the flat lands outside of Monument Valley, and while I could find it readily enough in satellite images, if it has a name or part of any sort of park, I could not find that fact on any map.

Dry river junction, Utah-Arizona Border

Junction between two apparently completely dry rivers in the parched red dust of the Utah/Arizona border.

Red slopes, Utah-Arizona Border

Another red desert waste, this one peeling down from a more grayish upper layer of the rocks.

Mesa, Utah-Arizona Border

Another stark mesa, seemingly dropped straight out of Mars.

Mesa, Utah-Arizona Border

A long, stark, nearly vegetation-free mesa rising up near the Utah/Arizona border.

San Juan River, Utah

The third of the major desert rivers joining into Lake Powell, the San Juan river makes a remarkable change in coloration as it goes around its last major bend above the lake, clearly dumping a vast amount of sediment as it slows.

Colorado-Escalante River Junction, Utah

Dramatic contrasts between canyon and river continue as the Escalante joins the Colorado on the Northern borders of Lake Powell.

Dry oxbow, Escalante River, Utah

Once cut off, however, a bend from this river can go quite absolutely dry, as seems to be the case with this apparent oxbow cut from the edges of the Escalante.

Escalante River, Utah

The Escalante river seems all sharp turns, nearly impossible-seeming oxbows that clearly have not moved in a long, long time as they have burrowed down through the layers of rock.

Dry canyons, Utah

Another set of deep dry canyons, seemingly carved straight down into the rocks.

Canyons above the Escalante River, Utah

Lake Powell is fed by a number of rivers, including the San Juan, the Colorado, and the Escalante. Their watersheds in this area, however, are pretty highly bare, like this deeply squiggling canyons in the red earth above the Escalante river.

Lake Powell, Utah

A closer look into the cliff-edge boundaries of Lake Powell, steep red cuts dropping straight into the waters of the impounded lake.

Lake Powell, Utah

And here we see one of the most striking contrasts in the Utah desert, as the waters of Lake Powell rise up within the canyons of the Colorado valley. We are just North of the Grand Canyon, upstream of the Glen Canyon Dam, which has flooded this region and creating a long and squiggly lake.

Dry canyons, Utah

More dry canyons, really opening up a whole system of these striated carvings down beneath the ancient high plains.

Dry canyons, Utah

Deepening try canyons in Utah, starting to be deep and sharp enough to really show geological layering.

Desert farms, Utah

Crossing into Utah and the level of agriculture kicks up a notch. I think that what we are seeing here may actually be fruit trees, as apparently a number of stone fruits grow well in the arid climate of Southern Utah.

Powerline pads, Nevada

Two back-country roads and a high-voltage power line intersect in the Nevada wilderness, the power line picked out by the contrast by the pattern of cleared areas around the bases of its towers, connected by a thread of maintenance road.

Dry washes, Nevada

Dry washes, permeating the landscape and highlighted by the slightly greater density of vegetation they support.

Snowcapped mountains in Nevada

One more line of Nevada mountains, yet taller and reaching up high enough to maintain snow into May at least.

Escarpment, Nevada

Border of a wide plateau as we move across Nevada, moving toward the Utah border.

Desert farm, Nye County, Nevada

A desert farm in the middle of absolute nothingness in Nevada, with four circular green irrigation zone and nothing else. Why is this farm here, when there are no others anywhere for many miles around? My best guess is that it is a test site of some sort, deliberately far into hostile countryside.

Nevada mountains

Another line of mountains in Nevada. This set felt like it was really reaching up toward the plane with their barely softened folds and crags.

Nevada mountains

Dry brown mountains of the Nevada desert.

Nevada Route 376

A state road cutting across the wilderness in Nevada, ignoring all of the terrain as it proceeds in a straight line.

Open pit mine near Crescent Dunes, Nevada

On the other side of the environmental spectrum, across the open valley from the Crescent Dunes solar plant lies this giant open pit mine, where spirals have been carved down into the earth in service of extracting whatever value might have lain inside.

Crescent Dunes solar plant, Nevada

Recently, I had a remarkable flight from San Francisco to Dallas. It started out with mostly clouds and a few semi-interesting images (which I will post another time), but as we came out across Nevada, then on to Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, the clouds cleared and amazing things began to grab my eyes. This was the first, gleaming in through the window of the plane to yank my attention up from my work: the Crescent Dunes solar plant, a kilometers-wide installation in the middle of the Nevada desert. All these circles of mirrors focus sunlight onto a tower in the middle, filled with liquid sodium, and able to generate more than 100 megawatts of power.

Toilet snakes, Nashville Zoo

To me, the best part of the inexplicable safari bathroom outside the Nashville Zoo was the toilet snakes: several boa constrictors, lounging lazily above the urinals. No explanation, just a small plaque on the wall announcing their species. No equivalent in the women's room either, according to my wife, just snakes hanging out to stare at men as they pee. The joke seems obvious, but did a zoo really do all of this design work and choose to maintain these animals here, just for a lame joke? If not, shouldn't there be something in the women's room too? All I know is that my daughter and I both cracked up, and she demanding to go pee with Daddy so that she could see them again on the way out of the zoo as well.

Safari sinks, Nashville Zoo

Despite all of the neat animals, the most wonderful and inexplicably bizarre part of the Nashville Zoo to me was the men's bathroom just outside its gates. The whole thing was done up in sort of an African safari theme, like these sinks with their wooden mirror frames and tribal shield soap dispensers.  The best part of all, however, will be revealed in my next image.

Collecting a seahorse, Nashville Zoo

Seahorses may look elegant and graceful, but they aren't actually all that good at getting around, which we saw as we watched this one get collected by a zoo worker to enable them to work on its tank. We were just sitting there watching it when suddenly giant hands descended through the mirrored water above, deftly scooping up the seahorse despite its almost comically ineffectual flexing and bobbing to try to get away.

Poison arrow frogs, Nashville Zoo

When we were there, it was far to cold to be outside, both for us and for most of the animals at the Nashville Zoo. Fortunately, there was a wonderful and expansive indoor reptile/amphibian/fish exhibit, featuring lots of colorful characters like these poison arrow frogs.

Radnor Lake State Park, Nashville, TN

On the Southern edge of Nashville, I discovered a lovely little pocket of semi-wilderness, Radnor Lake State Park, cold and beautiful on that morning last March.

Broadway Venues, Nashville, TN

Down in the heart of the music district of Nashville, Broadway is lined with neon-flashing venues proudly advertising their part in making the city a musical hub.

Convention Center, Nashville, TN

Closeup of a convention center light, showing the variable sized pattern of holes its illumination shines through.

Convention Center, Nashville, TN

Another perspective on the convention center lights, up high near the ceiling and looking across their serried ranks, curving gently down.

Convention Center, Nashville, TN

Lights descending from the convention center roof, each suspended beneath its own diffusively reflecting cylinder.

Convention Center, Nashville, TN

Near the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville is a convention center, whose interior architecture burgeons with swells and sways that I found most enjoyable.