messiestobjects

The West Is Big And Full Of Holes And Rocks

As promised, here are a few more pictures of the Trona Pinnacles. I know it's been a while; it's been a very busy few weeks here. But Christmas is over, I'm finally getting settled in to the new place, and my routines are slowly renewing their control over my life, so here we go. The picture above isn't really a scary-ass man with a halo, it's just a rock with the sun placed conveniently behind it. But you can see why maybe some location scout thought this might be a good place to film a Forbidden Zone or two.

As I didn't get a chance to explain last time, the Trona Pinnacles were once formations at the bottom of an inland sea in southern California. Now they are formations in the middle of a desert in southern California. Geology is quirky that way. I took the following photo from the top of one of the pinnacles. There was absolutely no one and nothing for as far as I could see (except for the borax mining company we passed on the way in; much of the ground on the way out to the pinnacles is white with borax. Pretty neat looking) and there were no signs telling us we couldn't climb them, so of course one is obligated to do so.

I put up many many more very forbidding shots over at my smugmug page, as usual. The Trona gallery is here. And now for...

Meteor Crater Arizona! After our 2 days at that really large canyon, we headed down to Flagstaff Arizona to see what was what. The first thing I wanted to do, naturally enough, was to blow right past town and head out to Winslow where a meteor crashed into our dear home not too long ago, around 42,000 B.C. and made yet another really really big hole in the ground. It's hard to get an idea of the size of this thing from the photo... hell it was kind of hard to get a good perspective on it standing right at its rim! Granted, it's not even close to the immensity of the Grand Canyon, but this is a very different beast and equally as cool for different reasons. So here's a gauging aid:

That itty bitty pebble on the top of the rim, directly above the viewing scope is indeed the size of a house. Big crater. Small meteor. Makes one really hope that we figure out a way to blast bigger rocks out of the Earth's path jackrabbit quick. I mean, an even better way than sending oil rig drillers into space. (That would be an Armageddon reference, by the by. What's the opposite of creative genius? Michael Bay, that's what) It was so windy the day we were here that I was actually picked up off my feet slightly when I tried to go up past an area they had roped off so I could get a better shot. That was neat. I of course have my Meteor Crater gallery with more photos over at smugmug. Anyway, back in Flagstaff...

We visited the Lowell Observatory! Percival Lowell thought he'd discovered canals on Mars back in like 1895 with this very telescope! What a maroon. I'd loved that story since hearing about it from Carl Sagan in Cosmos, which I'd read long before seeing the TV series. Because of his mistake, he fired up many a young boy's imagination with thoughts of Mars and Martians, culminating in HG Wells' War of the Worlds. Pluto was discovered here, as well as the observation that the galaxies were receding from us very very fast which lead to the discovery that the Universe is expanding. Good scientific history. The telescope was also awesome to visit because it just looks so damn cool. Very Steampunk. Those are truck tires which rotate the roof of the observatory so that the telescope can be pointed at any direction in the sky. Here's a quick video I took:

The only other thing notable in Flagstaff was the hotel we stayed at, the Monte Vista. It has a bunch of hokey ghost stories about it which Miss Luongo posted about already. Parts of Casablanca were filmed there, and it's one of those places where movie stars love to check in. We stayed in the room in which Lee Marvin resided while filming some western or other. Wicked. Flagstaff Gallery is here.

So I actually have more stuff, but I'm tired of this post. I'll save it for the next one. I took way too many pictures this trip and had way too much free time, causing me to visit way too many Arizona attractions. Ugh. Work is hell.

Grand Grandy Grandness And The Canyon Of Death

As we were checking into our hotel on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon (The Bright Angel Lodge) the other day, the desk lady said to me; "Oh, I see that you are staying in one of our historic cabins!" Suitably interested, I replied "Oh yeah? What happened there?" A blank look ensued. "I mean," I attempted to clarify the seemingly unclarifiable for her, "why are they historical?" "Oh," she said. "They're really old."

I'm not sure that historical means what the Bright Angel Lodge front desk lady thinks it means, but still, her statement was true enough as far as it went. The Grand Canyon itself is of course the best example of this definition of historical. It's really, really old, although nothing of import has happened there, per se. It certainly is historical in the sense of the importance that we choose to give it just for existing.

I'm here to tell you folks, the Grand Canyon isn't just a 60's family-in-a-station wagon stop over on a road trip vacation any more. The place is incredible. I can't pass on the feeling of standing at the rim and looking into forever to you, any more than anyone who went there before me was ever able to impart how awesome it is to me. "Yeah yeah, the Grand Canyon." I'd say. "It's Grand, isn't it? Sure sure, I'd like to see it some day, why not?"

Pictures are no good, either. No matter how many pictures I took of it (and believe me, I took a lot) there is no way to fit it all in there. Even panoramic shots are a joke. It just goes on and on forever and there's no way to do it justice. It's the biggest living fractal on Earth. Here's a Geological survey map showing it in all it's fractal glory.

I did get this shot of a near Darwin Award winner. His girlfriend dropped her camera over the edge of the railing at one of the lookout points, and it stopped just before going over the very very very steep cliff of death. So this guy valiantly goes to get it. Two ladies happened to be there who lent him their walking poles in order to try and snag the camera by the strap. He kept inching closer and closer to the camera... I was sure he would fall so of course I started taking pictures. To be fair, I did tell him he really really shouldn't do this, that surely the Park Rangers would have some sort of grabby device he could borrow. Sage advice offered from the passenger seat is rarely heeded however. The ladies who lent him the poles had to go to the other side of the lookout so they couldn't see him; they couldn't watch, he was making them queasy. Julie was feeling a bit uncomfortable, but didn't want to miss the excitement. I was, um, documenting this event, and his girlfriend watched excitedly and never once tried to talk him out of this madness. "My pictures from the last 4 days are on that memory card", she explained. Creepy.

They sell a book in all the Canyon gift shops called Death in Grand Canyon which is full of tales of stupid people falling into it. Unfortunately, my near-Darwin experience guy was successful and lived to see his girlfriend's photos or this would be a very different post. I never get to see Darwin in action, dammit!

Uh, I mean, all's well that ends well, whew, praise Jesus amen. Hey guys, look over here, pretty big hole in the ground, huh?

Well that's pretty much all I got from my adventures at the very big canyon. I mean, there are many many more pictures, and a few more good tales, including one about a hand caught in a car trunk, a philosophic carpenter and a coy elk, but perhaps I'll bore you another time. Meanwhile, we spent a night in Flagstaff and are now getting ready to leave Las Vegas, so I'll have more stuff later. Grand Canyon!!

Snapshots From The Forbidden Zone

I'm in California! For work. Not for fun, of course. Work work work. Don't have time for a full post, (too busy um, working) but here are some black and white photos I took today. Guess where I am.

They film movies here all the time. Planet of the Apes, and Star Trek V, for instance. I think that Sigourney Weaver and William Shatner live in a cave out here somewhere, so that the commute to work is easier.

It's a place 20 miles outside of Ridgecrest, California in the Mojave Desert by the Sierra Nevadas called the Trona Pinnacles. It's totally wild out here.

But I have to get going... I'm out here for another week or so, lots to do. Here's a color photo I took of my first up close look at the actual Pinnacles. I have a mess of them of course, but I haven't had time to go through them all yet. I'll post more another time.