Further into the Basin & Range.

Friday, 18^th May to Monday, 21^st May, 2018; to the Schell Creek Mountains.

C1671

“Desert Rain”

Oil Study on Pannelli Telati fine Cotton Panel

3½” x 9¼”

Click here to make this Your Own

Pigments used in the painting:

Imprimatura: Rublev Ercolano Red;

Drawing: W&N Cobalt & Ultramarine Deep Blues;

Pigments: W&N Cobalt and Ultramarine Deep Blues, Cadmium Orange;

Rublev: Ercolano Red, Purple Ochre, Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre, Italian Burnt Sienna, & Lead White #2.

Just down the hill from Great Basin National Park, a couple of miles north of Baker, is the Baker Archaeological Site.  It is worth a twenty minute visit to stroll to the site of the former dig, reading the guide, provided in the steel box at the beginning of the trail, and to think about and visualize those who have gone before.  At the dig site there are low adobe walls marking the layout of the building that were excavated here, and on the way features in the landscape and plants have been brought to your attention that have a bearing on the Fremont Culture whose community this was.  The Fremont Culture was contemporaneous with the Anisazi peoples (otherwise known as the Ancestral Puebloans), of Hovenweep, Mesa Verde & Chaco Canyon, but occupied the territories north and west from them.  They have been considered as the country hicks of era, but the excavations done here were instrumental in changing that perspective.  It appears that they were more sophisticated than previously thought, and that they were victims of the less long-lasting materials they had at their disposal (adobe, wood, etc.), compared to the stone buildings of the Ancestral Puebloans. 

From here I moved on to Ely, Nevada, on US Hwy 50, billed as the loneliest road in America (the Extra-terrestrial Highway further south is lonelier, as far as I am concerned).  For the past couple of days I had been studying the map and mulling over where I might look for campsite to continue charging my AGM deep-cycle battery, for a day or two, after I filled up my petrol tank, and got some dry ice to delay the melting of the remaining normal ice I had left in my cooler.  I had spotted a road marked the Success Scenic Loop, northeast of Ely, and on the west side of the Schell Creek Mountains, but the high pass on the route was marked “closed in Winter.”  After checking with the Ranger Station in Ely, I drove north on Hwy 63, for 18 miles, turning right onto County Road 486 for 8 miles, or so, and then left 5 miles to Berry Creek where there were a few campsites, and free, as far as I could see.

Sunlit mountains in the middle distance
are the Duck Creek Mountains,
with the Schell Creek Mountains beyond.

Snow ...
still on the Schell Creek Mountains …
Berry Creek Canyon right of center
where I will set up camp

I settled in at the first site just after crossing the Ford at the creek, and that provided enough open space to keep the Solar array clear for much of the day, considering the canyon here is only about a hundred yards wide at this point.  This seems to be a transition zone between the Junipers and Pinyons, and the Firs, Pines and Aspens of the higher altitudes; there is also a grove of those Mountain-Mahoganies on the opposite slope from my camp.  I hadn't intended to camp this high, but found myself at 8100'; I had thought I would be camping at about  6000’ – 6500’, and thus at warmer temperature, but it's a nice camp, so we'll see how the battery charging goes.  A crescent New Moon and Venus, graced the evening sky that evening.

In the morning … a butterfly.

Frost on the vegetation in the morning!  Several mid-ninety degree days last week at Zion, and now frosty mornings, but I am 3800' higher, so I shouldn't be surprised.  The vault toilet, across the way, is a mixed blessing.  Upon opening the door there were scored of black flies dropping off the door jamb and walls and milling about on the floor, too cold to fly.  After ascertaining there was no toilet paper (the camp is not yet officially open), I went back to the truck to get my own.  Since there is really no real place to dig a convenient hole in this narrow valley, the vault toilet was the place, so I girder my loins to wreak slaughter on the dozy flies.  I crushed dozens underfoot, leaving those few left on the walls to deal with the next day,  and then went and scraped the soles of my boots across the grave, in the shallows of the nearby stream, to clean them of the un-illustrious dead.

The ford as seen from my camp …
the blue skies belie the cloud
and showers to come.

The battery charging went better than expected, considering that it clouded over by mid-day.  I have discovered that the Solar array works even through an overcast, although slowly.  And then it rained for a couple of hours.  I recalled that when researching the Solar array, it was safe to leave it out if it rained, since the controller is on the underside of the panels which are set at an angle, when set up, and thus protected from the falling rain.  This was the first time I had ever tested this, and it turned out to be true.  I did unplug it from the battery, however, just in case.  After the rainfall, I plugged it back in, and everything was fine … good to know, but even so I won't make a habit of it.  This evening as I write, the cloud is clearing away, and the stars are appearing.

Water Violets.

A second day was spent at Berry Creek, recharging the AGM battery further, throughout another series of cloud and showers, and an Oil Sketch completed.  No stars that night. 

A walk among the Aspens.

The last of the flies were slain at the vault toilet, on the Monday, although there were a few that managed to warm up enough to fly off during the time I was at this camp.  Packed and ready to leave, I strolled up the creek towards another campsite, about three hundred yards from my own.  Another camper had come in on the Saturday, and I thought to ask him a question or two, if he knew the area.  He was just driving down as I started up his road.  His name was Pete, from California, and this was his first time in the area.  We chatted for awhile, and parted ways, as we both were heading out that morning.  I had wanted to know about the road south, but he had come in from the north, just as I had.

Aspen grove.

Nevertheless, south I went on the gravel road, with the Schell Creek Mountains to the east and the Duck Creek Mountains to the west, climbing to 9000' before the descent towards Cave Lake State Park, where I refilled my water bottles.  It was a beautiful drive, especially through groves of Aspens before the summit of the pass.  After watering up, I completed the scenic loop back to Ely, with desert rains sweeping across the Steptoe Valley to the south.

Dropping down the pass …

… to the valley floor.

Desert Rain.

Great Basin National Park, Nevada

Wednesday, 16^th May 2018 to Friday, 18^th May; Great Basin National Park, Nevada.

C1670

“Forest Waters”

(Great Basin National Park, Nevada)

Oil Study on Pannelli Telati fine Cotton Panel

5” x 7”

SOLD

(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.)

To refresh your memory … the campground at Baker Creek, Great Basin NP is down there in amongst the Spring Aspens.

Except for my three weeks down in the Tonto National Forest in Arizona, and the couple of days spent in the Sedona area, my Winter and Spring was spent on the Colorado Plateau.  This geographical province, roughly centered on the four corners region, has been rising for some millions of years as a unit, and has generally maintained its layers of strata in the horizontal sequence in which they were laid down.  From the west of this area all the way across the remaining part of Utah, and all of Nevada, to the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California, lies the Basin & Range geographical province, which I am crossing to reach Oregon, and in which lies the Great Basin National Park, just inside the Nevada border from Utah.  The Earth's crust within the Basin & Range is being stretched and thus thinned, causing north/south faults, which in turn cause the land in between these faults (fault blocks), to be either tilted and uplifted, in the form of “horsts” and mountain ranges, or to subside in the form of “grabens” and valleys between the mountain ranges; there are some three hundred north/south mountain ranges and their flanking valleys within the Basin & Range, making Nevada the most mountainous State in the Union.  I will let you look up on the Internet the terms “graben” and “horst.”  The sediments eroding down from all these mountain ranges have filled the original deep valleys, changing them into broad flat plains, or basins of alluvial soil.

View of Mt. Wheeler
from the Baker Creek Trailhead,
a mile up the road from the campground
… we are at 8000’ here.

Oregon Grape in blossom …
the leaves resemble Holly,
and the berry clusters will be reminiscent
of blue berries in colour and size,
and the clusters like grapes.

Orange-yellow flowers.

The Great Basin National Park has several peaks over 11,000’, with the highest, Mount Wheeler, at just over 13,000'.  Thus as I approached the Snake Range, which these mountains are a part of, they loomed six to eight thousand feet above he roughly mile high valley I was travelling down.  Once you leave the town of Baker, Nevada, within the valley, and climb up to the Visitors Center, you ascend about 1800’ during those intervening six miles; Baker Creek Campground, where I have my campsite is at about 7700’.

In the morning I proceeded to the trailhead at the end of the road above the campground, and after consulting the signs there, decided on a short walk; or so I thought.  I had been thinking of a mile at the most, kind of stroll, and then on to another part of the Park, but it turned out to be 3.2 miles, ascending from 8000' to just under 9000'.  It was worth it in the end, even though I spent four hours doing it, what with all my photo-stops and Nature observations.  At the high point there was a lovely alpine meadow, with a small creek running through the grass.  After time spent taking photos from various spots, I spotted movement on the far side, which I at first took to be a Porcupine, but which turned out to be a Turkey, once I trained my binoculars on it.  Later, on the descending part of the loop trail, I spotted three more, and further observations and photos ensued.

Spring Aspens, near the beginning of the trail.

Manzanita blossoms.

Butterfly absorbing some mineral
or other.

Down at my campsite, a thousand feet below, I had noticed the Aspen leaves were a lovely Spring green, and pretty much full size.  At the trailhead, they were a bit less further along, but still of goodly size and shape.  As I had worked my way up the trail, I had noticed they were less and less developed, until they were just small leaflets breaking out of their buds, and finally at the altitude of the alpine meadow, they were just buds awaiting the right temperature before risking opening themselves to the World; all in a thousand feet.  Interesting to think that these higher altitude Aspens will also be turning colour in the Autumn before their brethren lower down, so their growing season is more compressed.

Spring Aspens further up the trail,
with less advanced leaves.

Now … patches of snow.

On the descent there was a grove of deciduous trees that was not aware of ever having seen before.  They reminded me, superficially, of the Hackberry trees I had first seen at Hovenweep in January.  The bark was a dark charcoal grey, deeply furrowed on the more mature specimens, and a lighter blue grey, and smoother on the young trees.  The leaves were about an inch and a half long, and lanceolate in shape.  The older trees were about twenty feet tall with decent sized boles, and beneath them old fallen leaves were red and yellow.  Later at the Visitors Center, a Ranger and I worked out that it was Curl-leafed Mountain-Mahogany that I had seen; not a true Mahogany, which is a tropical tree; always nice to learn a new tree.

In a grove of Curl Leafed Mountain Mahogany.

Curl leafed Mountain Mahogany.

Mountain Meadow.

Stream in the meadow.

Turkey through the Aspens.

Hmmmmm.

Blue Flowers.

Indian Paintbrush.

After the hike and spending time at the Visitors Center, it was really too late to take the drive up to the Mather Overlook, so I left that for the morning, where I had breakfast.  There at the Overlook you have just crossed the 9000’ mark and have a view across the valley to Jeff Davis Peak (12,771'), and Wheeler Peak (13,063'), the patterns highest in the Park.  Beyond this point the road is closed, being expected to open by Memorial Day, at month's end.  It goes for another five miles and gains another thousand feet to just over ten thousand, to the Wheeler Peak Trailhead.  There you can walk to groves of Bristlecone Pines, a couple of which I saw at Bryce Canyon.  These ancient trees are in eminent danger through Global Warming, for where can they go from their various mountaintops?  Animals and birds and even many plants can migrate north, but you're kind of stuck on the top of a mountain, if that is your only habitat.  I should have liked to go see the better specimens here; perhaps in a future Autumn, when the Aspens are glowing gold, and before the return of the Winter snows.

From Mather Viewpoint …
Jeff Davis Peak on the left, Wheeler Peak on the Right.

Note the barren Aspens down below,
at this 9000’ altitude.

Closer.

They call this the Thumb, so I’m told …
looks like a finger to me.

An hour later.

At the Overlook I met Tom from North Carolina, who was doing an extensive circular driving tour of Nevada.  He had been in parts of Nevada in the past, and was enjoying the chance to see more of it.  We talked about lonely roads and myriad mountain ranges, desert valleys and the fact that the majority of people, sadly, think of Las Vegas & Reno and gambling when Nevada is mentioned.  He had left his disabled brother at a cathouse near Pahrump, for the duration of his travels, which was the reason for his opportunity to visit Nevada again … his brother needed help to travel to Nevada brothel; bucket list I guess.  I hope he doesn't return to find his brother has suffered a heart attack from all the excitement, when he picks him up in a few days’ time!

Jeff Davis Peak on the right,
from the lower Visitors’ Center in Baker.

Great Basin NP as seen from the
700 year old Baker Archaeological Site,
a mile from town.

Pigments used in the painting:

Imprimatura: Rublev  Ercolano Red;

Drawing: Rublev Cyprus Dark Umber, and W&N Ultra Deep Blue;

Pigments: W&N Cerulean, Cobalt and Ultramarine Deep Blues, Cadmiums Orange & Yellow Pale;

Rublev: Ercolano Red, Purple Ochre, Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre, Italian Burnt Sienna, Cyrus Dark Umber, Orange Molybdate (just a tad) & Lead White #2.

Leaving Zion

Monday, May 14, 2018 to Wednesday, 16^th May; 

Zion National Park to the Great Basin National Park.

I was going to post on my blog while crossing Nevada, but the library I tried had no Wi-Fi!!!  Well ... it is the loneliest road in the USA, they say.

C1669

“Desert Halo”

Oil Sketch on Centurion Oil primed linen Panel

5” x 7”

Click here to make this Your Own

There was lots of Cactus around my campsite below Eagle Crags, mostly prickly pear, but also this specimen in much fewer numbers.  Some of these blooms came in before those of the Prickly Pear.

Pigments used in the painting:

Imprimatura: W&N Venetian Red;

Drawing: W&N Deep Green mixed from Ultramarine Deep Blue & Cadmium Yellow Pale;

Pigments: W&N Cobalt and Ultramarine Deep Blues, Cadmiums Orange & Yellow Pale, Permanent Rose;

Rublev: Ercolano Red, Purple Ochre, Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre, Orange Molybdate & Lead White #1.

(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.)

My evening dinner associate, the little lizard, had been missing for the previous two evenings, but one appeared on my last evening in this camp, but on a different rock slightly further away.  This one looked thinner with folds of skin, whereas my usual dinner guest was fatter.  Still, this one had the little purple spot in the same place, and watched me in the same way, and wasn't at all skittish.  I believe she, yes she, had been fat and gravid, and then gone off to lay her eggs, during the time she had been missing.  I had noticed that she seemed fatter than the other more skittish lizards, and had wondered whether she was in fact a she, and gravid as well … pretty sure this is the scenario.  I wished her and her offspring well, on this my last evening, as she disappeared into the darkening twilight.

Not so fat now, are ya?

My last morning at my lovely campsite below Eagle Crags, I left early to make sure I got a parking spot at the Zion Visitors Center.  I wanted a last taste of Zion, so I boarded the shuttle bus to the Weeping Rock, and headed up the trail towards the Hidden Canyon.  I wanted to get some photos from higher up on the canyon wall, since I had so many from the Canyon floor.  How far I went would be decided on the trail.  After a number of ascending switchback, I fell in with two ladies and a bloke from New Jersey, Dana, Yolanda and Rob.  It was a good thing that I did so, since I would have deemed that I had enough higher altitude photos and so begun my descent, much earlier than I did.  That would have meant missing the trail sliding into a slot canyon, and the beauty to be seen there … so thanks, Dana, for introducing me to that part of the trail!

View from the Hidden Canyon Trail.

The Virgin River below.

Higher …

… and higher …

… until the …

… slot canyon …

… is reached.

Here had lunch.

On the way back down.

Good Grief! Did I walk up that?!!

Shortly after 14:00, I retrieved my car and headed towards the East Entrance road.  Just past the 1.1 mile long tunnel I parked in the small car park and took the half mile long trail to the Canyon Overlook, above Zion Arch.  Along the trail the interbedded layers of the Navajo Sandstone show off their sand dune origins at their best; one can readily visualize those dune fields of long ago.  The views over the Canyon are stunning as well, and worth the effort.

Zion Arch, although it is not yet
really an “arch,” but still an alcove.

View from above the “Arch.

They grow in the darndest places.

Cactus garden on the cliff.

On the trail back to the car.

It was later in the day than I had planned, when I left Zion National Park, after topping up my water supply at the visitors center, and passed through the town of Springdale, but I had said my goodbyes to my Eagle Crags campsite, so I travelled west only about ten miles, to Dalton Wash Road, turned north onto it and after 4.2 miles came to a dispersed camping area, I had wondered about. The road in is comparatively good, a bit wash-boardy in spots, but the last bit gets pretty steep and so I threw her into 4-wheel drive for that bit.  Once the mesa top was reached, I found I was immediately in the camping area, and no one was in the area.  That didn't last long, but long enough for me to get my choice of the dispersed sites, and then one of those Cruise America camper trucks (I heard it grinding up the hill), crested the mesa top and took a site about a hundred yards away.  I had a great view of the west side of the southern part of Zion Cliffs, with the West Temple topping all, as I ate supper, and the light of the setting Sun cast its glowing light on all.  In the morning I found a new cactus, which I can only describe as a cactus bush (see photos).

The Virgin River a few miles west of Zion.

View from my campsite west of Zion,
with the West Temple (highest part of the ridge)
as seen from the west, wouldn’t ya know.

Cactus Bush.

Closer …
don’t think I’d like to fall into that.

Orange flower of some sort.

Before going on my last Zion hikes of the day before, I had enquired about Cedar Breaks National Monument, which I had passed on my way to Zion, from Bryce Canyon National Park.  To my surprise it was still closed and was, in fact, expecting snow showers!  I mulled that over as I gazed at the clear blue skies overhead and thinking of Cedar Breaks less than fifty miles north, as the crow flies … funny old country around here.  Thus here I was heading into Hurricane to resupply before retracing my path of a month ago to Cedar City, instead of leaving Zion by the East Entrance and visiting Cedar Breaks … perhaps another time, should I ever get down here again.

The Wal-Mart in Hurricane was out of camping propane, so I popped into the one at Cedar City, and petrol-ed up at Smith’s, where I get a 3-cent per gallon discount.  I perused my maps and discovered that the route northwest of Cedar City, that I had considered, was an unpaved road, so I headed north on State Hwy 130, intending to pick up Hwy 21 west at Minersville, but a few miles north I reconsidered, thinking that those unpaved roads can be pretty good sometimes, especially if they serve a dispersed populous.  So I took a connecting road (unpaved), over to the unpaved Lund Highway … interesting designation for an unpaved road.  It was as good as I had hoped and so I crossed the Escalante Desert, spotting the odd Pronghorn, and not seeing another vehicle for an out 40 miles.  The I spotted a cloud of dust on a connecting road.  They must not have seen my cloud of dust, for when just after the intersection of the roads as I rounded a bend there was a pickup truck stopped by the side of the road, with its passengers lined up pissing beneath a tree.  I waved and proceeded on, leaving them to muse on what the chances were that, without seeing another vehicle for however many miles, one should happen by just when they decided to take a whiz!  That was the only one of two vehicles I saw in 80 some miles, until I joined State Hwy 21 the next day. 

A few miles farther on from the whizzing truckers, I turned onto Jackson Wash Road and found a quiet camp for the night below the tops of the Indian Peaks Range (on my map, but also called the Needles Range in a geology book I have).  The surface soil here is particularly granular, with not a lot growing on it, but Junipers and Pinyons.  After referring to my Geology tomes, I decided that it was made up of volcanic tuffs probably from the nearby Needles Range, not far to the west; I expect this tuff gets tough during wet weather (har, har!).

I remained in camp the next day until 14:00, topping up my AGM battery with my suitcase solar array, and self inflicting a haircut … it had been six weeks, already, since my last one on Buckskin Mountain, the day before I entered Cottonwood Wash!  Grooming done, I leisurely drove north down the Pine Valley, with the Needles Range to the west, and the Wah Wah Mountains to the east.  I joined the pavement of State Hwy 21 and about 30 miles farther on crossed from Utah into Nevada, and then entered Great Basin National Park, where I took a spot in the Baker Creek Campground, next to a babbling brook.

Indian Peak in the Needles Range.

Those orange flowers again.

Great Basin National Park,
still about 40 miles away.

And I heard on the radio
that cattle rustling does still go on!

Old homestead tucked
into some great Cottonwoods.

One of the cabins.

Great Basin, at last …
the campground is amongst those Aspens.

It's interesting how the temperatures can vary in just a few miles and a bit of a difference in altitude.  When I re-supplied in Hurricane it was getting to be an onerously hot day, but thirty something miles north at Cedar City, and a couple thousand feet higher, it was a very pleasant day, and now I’m at just over 7000', and it is quite cool in the evening, especially after the Sun dips below the crest of the mountains.  They had snow here a couple of days ago, probably the same snow that was supposed to hit Cedar Breaks National Monument.