Those Crooked Trees!

 

Hopefully you are not tired of all those beautiful, crooked, dead trees in the Southwest, because I'm not done yet! Especially Arches National Park has an abundance of these trees. For this post I've chosen some of my favorites, shot over two days in this beautiful and exciting park.

Some trees only have parts of their trunk left.

Others frame the view over the desert landscape.

A thin twisted trunk is all that is left, but it makes such a stunning statement.

Some reach towards a dramatic sky.

Buddha's hand or Medusa's head?

Even as a dead tree it still has a task, framing this rock formation.

You can study the twists and turns right in front of you, and look at that beautiful bark.

Skyline Arch wouldn't be half as interesting without all this twisted, gnarly wood.

I always find it interesting and fascinating how the Juniper trees are dead on one side and carry berries on the other.

The following tree was (and still is) my favorite one. When I looked back on one of our hikes - I think it was the Windows Loop - I was immediately taken by the shape of the tree and how it framed the rock formation that was then carrying on the line with that dramatic sky behind it. Everything was in line! (You know how we photographers also look for lines.)

A few years ago I took a short class with Melanie Rivers, a Canadian artist I like very much. The main subject was trees and one of the challenges was tree woman. I never really liked what I created, but over the years she grew on me. She is for Nicole's Friday Face Off.

By the way, have you read about Nicole's new challenge "Sunday in the Art Room" (SITAR)? You'll find me there this Sunday. Until then, my friends.

Dead Horse's Sunset

 

What a weird title, you might think. 

You might remember that we had visited the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands National Park in Utah. On our way back to Moab we stopped at Dead Horse Point State Park, just a few miles away from the entrance to Canyonlands, still on top of the mesa. From here you have a breath taking view over the desert landscape of canyons, carved over millions of years by the Colorado River and the Green River. On a clear day your eyes may travel over to the La Sal Mountains in the distance.

This state park is particularly popular for both sunrise and sunset. It has been on our list for quite a while, because whenever we had been up here it was either completely foggy or we were a bit too late since we had spent so much time in Canyonlands. This time, though, we were right on time.

Above you can see the canyons and also the Colorado River if you look closely. The picture below is directed to the other side which is more hazy because of the low sun, but you can still see the crazy bends the river makes.

So, what about that name, Dead Horse? There are different legends how it came to its name. One of them is described on the park's website:

Dead Horse Point is a peninsula of rock atop sheer sandstone cliffs. The peninsula is connected to the mesa by a narrow strip of land called the neck. There are many stories about how this high promontory of land received its name.

According to one legend, around the turn of the century, the point was used as a corral for wild mustangs roaming the mesa top. Cowboys rounded up these horses, herded them across the narrow neck of land and onto the point. The neck, which is only 30-yards-wide, was then fenced off with branches and brush. This created a natural corral surrounded by precipitous cliffs straight down on all sides, affording no escape. Cowboys then chose the horses they wanted and let the culls or broomtails go free. One time, for some unknown reason, horses were left corralled on the waterless point where they died of thirst within view of the Colorado River, 2,000 feet below.

A couple more pictures while the shadows weren't too long yet.

Then the light started to change, turned more golden and warm.

The shadows became longer and deeper, obscuring the canyons.

Well, of course, a tree! Is anybody surprised?

The two "lakes" you see on the desert floor are solar evaporation ponds for a potash mine.

One of the last views over the darkened canyons.

Rocks on the mesa were still in sunlight, but not for much longer.

What about some Alpenglühen (alpenglow)?

Even that changed quickly on this winter evening.

The top of the mesa was tinted in pink-purple for a few minutes.

I finish this post with a twisted dead tree.

December Reflections

 

Like every December I participated in Susannah Conway's December Reflections on Instagram. It is a good way for me to reflect on the year, go through my photos and just take it a bit slow. Sometimes I feel the prompts are not really for me, but funny enough I always come up with something.

Here are my 31 photos. There are quite some faces to see and they, of course, are for Nicole's Friday Face Off.

There are a couple photos I want to say a few sentences about.

Day 24 was "patience". How do you express this in one photo? I was a bit lost first, but then I thought of my mom who loved to do jigsaw puzzles. There was a specific one of a painting by Albrecht Altdorfer, "The Battle of Alexander at Issus".

We had that as a puzzle of 1500 pieces and every year we would put it together between Christmas and New Year's Eve. Well, it was my mom who did most of it, but we all loved to help and find those pieces that just seem to disappear and then magically reappear right before you. This painting is probably the one I know best. When the puzzle was finally finished, it would be left on the table for a couple days and then put apart again and back into the box until the following Christmas.

Here is my mom working on a different puzzle (I think this was the English countryside):

Day 25's prompt was "memories". That is a wide open field. I chose a photo of my family - i.e. my husband and daughter, and my parents. This was taken during one of our visits back home. Staying with Omi and Opi was always special for Kaefer and I am so glad that she has these memories of happy, careless times with them. Both my parents adored her and she in turn adored her grandparents.

One last photo, for the prompt "birds", day 5. I had taken this photo of a Black-crowned Night Heron at the lake on a very foggy day when the lake was very still. The bird - one of my most favorites - is also perfectly still (that could have worked for "patience" as well) and the picture seems to be all grey in different shades. But there is the tip of the branch the heron is sitting on that has some light color as well as some slightly lighter part on the heron's chest where one solitary dappled ray of sun has hit. Not a masterpiece, but an image that truly reflects that morning.

I want to thank you, my wonderful readers, for reading my blog, leaving thoughtful comments and getting in touch outside of my blog. Thank you to those who checked in after our very forceful storms in the last week. And thank you for taking up with my sometimes weird English expressions that are colored by German.

To all of you I wish a happy and healthy 2026.