Marginal Adventures
wfeller
Registered Users Posts: 2,625 Major grins
A little exploring;
Sometimes you just have to pick a spot and see what you see.
A dry lake (playa) in an overlooked basin.
Where to start? Pick a spot that looks interesting.
These appear to be inactive dunes. Active sand dunes do not have so much vegetation as the sand hasn't stabilized.
As I wander, I wonder- Are these just sand dunes? -Probably.
But then again, maybe at one time they were a sandy beach.
These shells are from helisoma trivolis, typical freshwater snails found in many aquariums. Odd being so far out in the dry desert. However, they are probably remnants from a time when this playa was filled with water perennially--A condition which ended about 4,000 years ago. There were also pieces of Anodonta californica, a freshwater mussel, lying about.
Arroweed grows where the water table isn't too far below the surface.
Indians would use the straight branches of the plant to make arrows. Possibly, up until whitemen took control of the area, Indians may have either lived here (in wetter times), or visited the area to make use of its resources (mesquite beans, arroweed, hunting small game, etc).
Ah yes, a sign of the indigenous people.
Something interesting about a shard like this is that the local indians had neither the materials or technology to make or fire these vessels. Pottery and shards when analyzed may have come from origins several hundred miles away. Archaeologists use this evidence to help define possible trade routes and associations between the desert Peoples.
Life persists.
Tracks of a raven and a snake. The raven tracks were pocked by marks from raindrops, an indication that it had passed before the rain occuring two days before. The line in the sand from the snake was after the rain, and smoothly scribed in the sand.
And finally...
This is what I call a "Juxtaposition of Jerk." Someone left their trash OEM monitor out there probably thinking it was the funniest thing, ever. Not only did I not even get out of my truck to shoot this, I didn't even bother to turn off the engine.
However, after all was said and done, it was a beautiful day to explore this and other bits of the natural and human history I had found on my mini-adventures in the basin.
-
Sometimes you just have to pick a spot and see what you see.
A dry lake (playa) in an overlooked basin.
Where to start? Pick a spot that looks interesting.
These appear to be inactive dunes. Active sand dunes do not have so much vegetation as the sand hasn't stabilized.
As I wander, I wonder- Are these just sand dunes? -Probably.
But then again, maybe at one time they were a sandy beach.
These shells are from helisoma trivolis, typical freshwater snails found in many aquariums. Odd being so far out in the dry desert. However, they are probably remnants from a time when this playa was filled with water perennially--A condition which ended about 4,000 years ago. There were also pieces of Anodonta californica, a freshwater mussel, lying about.
Arroweed grows where the water table isn't too far below the surface.
Indians would use the straight branches of the plant to make arrows. Possibly, up until whitemen took control of the area, Indians may have either lived here (in wetter times), or visited the area to make use of its resources (mesquite beans, arroweed, hunting small game, etc).
Ah yes, a sign of the indigenous people.
Something interesting about a shard like this is that the local indians had neither the materials or technology to make or fire these vessels. Pottery and shards when analyzed may have come from origins several hundred miles away. Archaeologists use this evidence to help define possible trade routes and associations between the desert Peoples.
Life persists.
Tracks of a raven and a snake. The raven tracks were pocked by marks from raindrops, an indication that it had passed before the rain occuring two days before. The line in the sand from the snake was after the rain, and smoothly scribed in the sand.
And finally...
This is what I call a "Juxtaposition of Jerk." Someone left their trash OEM monitor out there probably thinking it was the funniest thing, ever. Not only did I not even get out of my truck to shoot this, I didn't even bother to turn off the engine.
However, after all was said and done, it was a beautiful day to explore this and other bits of the natural and human history I had found on my mini-adventures in the basin.
-
Anybody can do it.
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Mahesh
http://www.StarvingPhotographer.com
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The last couple months I've been having quite a good time doing my own thing like this. Nothing big deal, but relaxing and interesting to me.
I've reposted this along with some other junk on one of my long neglected web sites that is sort of a 'half blog,' the Desert Gazette. It deserves better than I've been giving it.
This will probably be my last photo post for awhile. I'm be volunteering as a tour guide at the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve this spring and hope to use the opportunity to think things through, and get into nature without so much always being behind the camera.
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If we attend continually and promptly to the little that we can do, we shall ere long be surprised to find how little remains that we cannot do. - Samuel Butler
Thank you Joash.
Cheers,
Lauren
Lauren Blackwell
www.redleashphoto.com
Thank you Lauren. I took the last few days and scaled way back, although I find I'm in this much deeper than I thought. I skipped a few sunsets, but there's no one else around during sunrises