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November 15, 2010

Desert Cathedrals

Forty miles west of Randsburg (see previous post) in the Mojave Desert, where the southern foothills of the Sierra Nevadas meet the El Paso Mountains, sits Red Rock Canyon, a small area of badlands and exposed strata of dramatic form and color.













Men come and go, cities rise and fall, whole civilizations appear and disappear - the earth remains, slightly modified. The earth remains, and the heartbreaking beauty where there are no hearts to break . . . I sometimes choose to think, no doubt perversely, that man is a dream, thought an illusion, and only rock is real. Rock and sun.

~ Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire


16 comments:

  1. Dramatic form and colour doesn't begin to describe it. These photos, that place--absolutely magnificent! There are so many hues and details even in the shadows of your shots. Gorgeous, simply gorgeous. What a magical place: your pictures convey the magic, clearly.

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  2. Beautiful. Layers of time laid out that accentuate the fact that our own time is so brief...we are just little pebbles rolling about along the surface of things. Or perhaps we are more akin to those wisps of passing clouds overhead. Thanks.

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  3. Cool. Only rocks are real. If only.

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  4. Wow, you just keep cranking out amazingly beautiful photos!
    You have a great eye for beauty and you really know how to share it!

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  5. i am thinking of Rilke's magnificent lines, i am sure he would have been happy to see them next to your pictures, they are equally magnificent:


    The trees which you planted as a child
    Have long since grown too heavy; you do not deceive them.
    But the winds ... but the spaces ...

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  6. Desert Cathedrals is such an appropriate way to entitle such places as this. We feel so much awe in going there. And one is reminded of how the American Indian cherished many such places as sacred.

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  7. Stickup, these are simply great photos. I immediately recognized the location. A number of movies have been film in the canyon over the years. One of the first was Howard Hughes' "The Outlaw" with Jane Russell. It is the movie in which Hughes created a special underwire bra for Ms Russell that uplifted and exposed a great deal of her breasts. It was very controversial at the time.

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  8. Oh my, breathtakingly beautiful! If I wasn't so lazy I could imagine playing hide and seek in them there hills...

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  9. They are impossibly unreal colors. So many years are stacked up there for us to see... gorgeous photos.

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  10. oh wau...
    rocks rock,
    and you too! :)
    Greetings from Helsinki again!

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  11. Wow! These are absolutely gorgeous pictures! The work of nature is unbelievable.

    If you haven't visited Turkey yet I strongly recomend you a tour on Cappadocia. Check it on Google images if you are not familiar to the site. It was one of the most amazing places I've been to in my life.

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  12. I am so sooooo happy to see you are reading Desert Solitaire, and relating to it like this... I had hunch you would like it...

    Your photos here are GORGEOUS.

    This is one place where it would be really safe to say :

    YOU ROCK !!!
    :-)

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  13. A wonderful series! Imposing these rocks! Stunning photos. Greetings!

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  14. By the way, I forgot to tell you I also have some Cappadocia scanned photos posted on the travel blog. You can click on Turkey (labels) if you like.

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  15. BEAUTIFUL photographs! I'm going to visit Randsburg later this year. I'm going to have to stop at this spot.

    I really like what I see here and if you don't mind, I'm going to tag along.
    thanks!
    http://patricktillett.blogspot.com/search/label/Photographs

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  16. Desert cathedrals indeed. Who could fail to be awed and inspired by the splendour of these rocks. You had a wonderful day for it - the blue sky backdrop with the reds and sandy colours are stunning.

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