Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Great Sand Dunes National Park

(Take Note: for those of you who have signed up to be notified by email of new postings to this blog, you have been receiving not just a notification, but an actual copy of the new blog posting as the email.  As this does not show the images of the paintings in the best possible light, you should click on the title of the latest blog posting at the top of the post, and not the title of the painting itself; this will open up the actual blog itself, and you may then enjoy the paintings at their best.)

Thursday, July 27; beyond Twin Lakes in the Valley of the North Fork Lake Creek on the road towards Aspen.



Beaver Dam.

Harebell

More Wildflowers.
Further back down the valley towards Twin Lakes.














Tuesday August 1, 2017; Great Sand Dunes National Park.

The highest Dunes of Great Sand Dunes National Park rise to over 700 feet.  In a nutshell they are formed when the creeks wash sediment down from the Sangre de Cristo Mountains into the San Juan Valley, where it is picked up by the prevailing westerly winds and blown back against the mountains, thus forming the dunes.


Vista of the Sand Dunes & Mt. Herard.

Medano Creek & Mt. Herard.






South towards Carbonate Mtn. & Blanco Peak.

Approaching …

… shadows …

… across …

… the dunes.

Upwards towards High Dune & First Ridge

On the way back down.


The Sunlight …

… and cloud shadows …

… were astonishingly …

… beautiful.

Back down to Medano Creek.

Next we crossed over to the west side of the San Juan Valley to Russell Lakes Bird Sanctuary.  The distant thunderclouds were interesting and made up for the fact that the birds were keeping their distance out on the lakes. 







Many thanks to Dan & Lee for my lovely visit.  

And now I’m caught up on my postings and tomorrow (which will be a couple days in the past by the time this is posted), I head out drifting north to the Wind River Range in Wyoming for the eclipse of the Sun in two weeks time.  From here on my postings will be a bit more intermittent, as I have discovered that I can have 4 bars of cell reception, but no internet connection ... I never had experienced that before, until I was crossing Nebraska!  Who knew ... probably the whole World, except for me!!  Next posting should get back see a small Oil  sketch, study or Painting, getting back to the purpose of this blog ... "Not Quite a Painting a Day."

Thank you again Dan & Lee, in Salida, and Martin, above Golden, for making my eastern Rocky Mountain sojourn so enjoyable.

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