Photo Blogging

Today is the start of week two of  On the Road After Dark as we catch up on submissions.

On the Road: Week of July 13 (5 am)

Albatrossity – Coso Canyon
way2blue – Hanger 7, Salzburg, Austria
🐾BillinGlendaleCA – Brown Mountain Dam
Steve from Mendocino – Los Angeles train yard
ema – Pandemic Pics Part Deux: The Reopening

On the Road After Dark: Week of July 13 (10pm)

Albatrossity – Hovenweep and Chimney Rock
lashonharangue –  Yosemite Backcountry
🐾BillinGlendaleCA – Inyo County
Steve from Mendocino – Los Angeles Harbor
BigJimSlade – Hiking in the Italian Dolomites

Albatrossity

The western US has many well-known and iconic places to visit, e.g. the Grand Canyon, Yosemite and Yellowstone National Parks, and many scenic mountain ranges and lakes. There are also many less well-known but equally fascinating spots, and I have had the privilege of seeing and photographing some of those as well. In these times of lock-down, when future travel plans are among the “unknown unknowns”, I’ve been wandering through old photos and revisiting some of those. I will probably be able to do that for quite some time; I would like to be able to travel again, but for now, these virtual visits are what I’ve got. Here’s one of those places.

Coso Canyon, aka Little Petroglyph Canyon, aka Renegade Canyon, lies in the eastern Sierra Nevada in Inyo County CA. The closest town is Ridgecrest, which I suspect many jackals have also never heard of. This canyon is within the boundaries of the China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station, and that makes access somewhat problematic. But the military brass have an agreement with a museum in Ridgecrest that allowed tour groups to visit the site on a regular basis in the spring and in the fall. Those tours are canceled right now, but if you have plans to visit eastern Kern County sometime in the future, check with them and get on a tour if possible.

Why would you do that? Because this canyon is home to one of the oldest and finest galleries of rock art in the entire country. By virtue of its remote location on a military base, it has not been damaged by yahoos with ATVs and high-powered rifles, like much of the rock art in the rest of the country. And it is ancient, dating back to the Pleistocene, when this region was glaciated, game was abundant, and the dry lakes actually were full of water. The times were not recorded in writing, and the people did not build permanent structures or pass down an oral history, so the petroglyphs of the canyon provide some of the few insights we have into the early history of the peopling of North America.

Coso CanyonMarch 5, 2005

The ride from the entrance to the station to the trailhead at Coso Canyon, climbing up through Joshua Trees and other Mojave Desert flora and fauna, takes about an hour. Pictures are not allowed during that time since you are, after all, on a top-secret military weapons testing range, but we saw some wildlife and even a couple of herds of wild horses. Once at the trailhead you hike a short distance to the canyon and this view.

On The Road – Albatrossity – Coso CanyonPost + Comments (21)

As you will see, otmar appears to be a man of few words in his introduction this evening :-) but Part 1 was just this morning, so hopefully we all remember where we are!

It’s the end of our first of two weeks of On the Road After Dark, where we are catching up on some of the submissions that were waiting in the wings during On the Road Virgins week. (Perpetual h/t Baud.)  Once you’ve finished talking about the photos, I would love to hear your thoughts about After Dark.

Is it too much having two OTRs in a day, or is this a good way to handle the scheduling delays when we have On the Road Virgins week?  Personally, I have loved the submissions from new people and I’m thinking that I’d like to do a regular Virgins week once a month to encourage new people to submit.  All feedback welcome, once you have given otmar and his photos their due. ~WaterGirl

otmar

This continues my last submission.

June 13, 2020

This is the entrance to the “Hoher Stock”, the central part of the fortress.

On The Road After Dark – otmar – Festung Hohensalzburg (2/2)Post + Comments (29)

I have no idea what Festung Hohensalzburg is, but I imagine we are about to find out!  We’ll close out the week with Part 1 this morning, and Part 2 this evening, in On the Road After Dark.  I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say that while it distresses me to learn that ottar has antibodies, I am delighted that he came through it okay and is still here t share his wonderful adventures with us. ~WaterGirl

otmar

During the Corona surge in Austria it was not recommended to visit elder relatives. When I learned that I had developed antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in the beginning of June, I decided to visit my mother in Salzburg. Going by train was an interesting experience, as this was my first travel after three months of staying close to my home in Vienna.

Saturday (June 13th) was a warm and sunny day, and in the evening, we decided to go for a walk.

NonntalJune 13, 2020

We live a bit south of the old city center of Salzburg, so walking north you can see the fortress looming over the houses. See YouTube and Wikipedia

On The Road – otmar – Festung Hohensalzburg (1/2)Post + Comments (20)

Tonight we have delightful flower photos.  The azalea in the top picture is magnificent!  I would kill to have that in my garden.  If that seems a little dark… well, we couldn’t have an After Dark post with only bright, happy, gorgeous flowers, could we?

Seriously, though, it would be great to keep these posts politics-free.  This is the submitter’s moment to share their world with the rest of us.  ~WaterGirl

Emma

Hello again! I read Mike in Oly’s post about his trip to Mt. Pleasant 1.5 years ago, which inspired me to plan a road trip with my mom that would both test my new Leaf and my ability to not secretly abandon her in Longview. (Just kidding, Mumz, I would only abandon you at Southcenter Mall 😉) My mom absolutely loves flowers and plants in general, so after much planning on where to get free charging stations and decent meals, off we went in June, which is the tail end of iris season, 2019. I’ll spare you the video I took of my mom blissfully unaware of an army of geese marching up on her and get right to the flowers.

I should note that while Chad, the owner of the farm, specializes in and sells irises, he’s a master gardener in general. This lovely, enormous azalea bush greets visitors as they approach his house.

On The Road After Dark – Emma – Mt. Pleasant Iris Farm, Washougal, WAPost + Comments (37)

Frosty will be taking us on a trip to see several national parks.  This is the introductory post, which will be followed by 8 more detailed posts, on-and-off over the next few months.  It should be quite a trip!  ~WaterGirl

frosty

I’ve been a road tripper all my life. When I retired on January 31st we made plans for our sixth annual snowbird road trip to Florida, but this time instead of heading back north, we’d be heading west to see six National Parks we hadn’t been in before: Big Bend, Joshua Tree, Death Valley, North Rim of Grand Canyon, Grand Staircase-Escalante (NM), Arches, and Canyonlands. Along the way we added White Sands and Saguaro to the list.

Throughout the trip, we were pretty well isolated in the car and our trailer while traveling, camping, and sightseeing. We bought hand sanitizer in Louisiana, the last time we ever saw it in a store. We lucked into face masks in a hardware store in Lake Havasu. We typically had about an hour a day interacting with other people (grocery stores, other campers, hikers and sightseers) and except for the stores it was outside and more than six feet distant. We followed stay-at-home orders, but our home had wheels under it.

South PennsylvaniaFebruary 15, 2020

We’ve been trailer campers for over 25 years, moving from a Coleman popup to our current 27-footer.

On The Road – frosty – Coronavirus and The RoadPost + Comments (38)