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Ranger Jean Muenchrath dramatising a coyote running after a lamb. The lamb escaped. (click to enlarge.)

 Wednesday, July 31

Playing the part of a bear was the last thing on my mind as I went to the Tuesday evening program at the nearby Moraine Park campground. Jean Muenchrath, the artist coordinator and ranger was giving the talk, “Speaking from the Heart- Inspirational Ranger Stories”. It sounded interesting and it was a good chance to see her. I wandered in as she was looking for a volunteer to help out. I was to put on a bear suit and play the part of a Rocky Mountain black bear. The suit would just be draped over my shoulders and a bear head hat would complete the outfit. At the right cue I was to walk slowly down the center aisle and follow her script. The story was about another artist-in-residence, a wildlife photographer who got a very close encounter with the one animal he hadn’t photographed- a black bear. Apparently the bear got to about 30 feet of the photographer, who then began shooting pictures. Bored, the bear wandered off as the photographer said he was worried more about whether the photos would come out well than his own safety.

Earlier Tuesday I drove up the Old Fall River Road, which is a one-way uphill-only unpaved single-lane road that ends at the Alpine Visitor Center at 11,796 feet in altitude. It is the companion road to the Trail Ridge Road, which the park says is the highest paved road in the world, topping out at 12,183 feet. On the Old Fall River Road, it’s slow going up the 11 miles. Big ruts, a narrow passage and no guard rail off the side makes drivers cautious. Some people had pulled off into turnouts, but I was with 3 other cars that were determined to make it up without stopping. It took over an hour to make it to the visitor center, which was jammed with people. For my decent I took the Trail Ridge Road, stopping at some viewpoints. There is lots of tundra at this altitude and small wildflowers are blooming during the short growing season. Since this is the high point along a ridge, the wind was strong and views spectacular.

When the clouds clear out, the sky here is amazing. Even with a few clouds it’s still pretty dramatic. Monday night/Tuesday morning I was rained on briefly, then kept shooting as wild cloud formations passed overhead.

Ascending Old Fall River Road. (I don’t think my older sister will like this).

The Milky Way peeks through clouds at Sprague Lake. (click to enlarge.)

A pretty good view from the front porch of the William Allen White Cabin. (click to enlarge)

Monday, July 29, 2013

I’m at Rocky Mountain National Park now as Artist-in-Residence until August 10 doing the night sky photos. I’m hoping the mountainous terrain and high altitude will produce a different look from the pictures I’ve been taking in the Southwest.

The park houses the artist in an historic cabin once lived in by William Allen White, a journalist and editor of the Emporia Gazette in Kansas. He and his family would spend summers in the cabin that was built here before the area became a national park. It’s really a spectacular structure, a big porch that looks out onto an equally spectacular view of the mountains. Two rocking chairs allow you to comfortably watch the view. When the clouds come in and swirl around the mountains it’s quite a show.

I arrived in late afternoon on Sunday and the warm light really highlighted the 1920’s style interior. They’ve kept White’s old roll top desk and chair with small wheels. Lots of wood furniture and built-in cupboards. The “Policies and Operations Manual” on a trunk used as a coffee table  says the cabin does not have internet, cell phone signals or television- “These modern pieces of technology were not present in White’s cabin.” So it’s a nice escape from the fully connected world.

The main room of the cabin and the cabin with its view. (click to enlarge)

First I stopped at Beaver Meadows Visitor Center to check in with Jean Muenchrath, a ranger and artist-in-residence coordinator. She’s really enthusiastic about the program and all the artists that come here. She gave me the keys to the cabin and a lot of park information. She pointed out great scenic areas that might make good photos, I’ll check those out later today.

Earlier today Betsy Leverton stopped by to see if I had questions about the park and talk about the public presentation I will give on Wednesday night. She and her husband Roger will introduce me during the Evening Program at the Visitor Center. Then Juley Harvey from the Estes Park Trail Gazette came by to interview me for an article for the newspaper. She does stories on all the artists, I think there are 6 this summer.

Looks like a big storm moving in. Large windows let me work at the dining room table and look out at the view of the meadows and mountains and watch the weather come through.

Jupiter, Venus and the fainter Mercury set in this nice conjunction of 3 planets. (click to enlarge)

Friday, May 24

Drove to Cameron yesterday, it’s about 35 minutes north, the nearest town to the park. It’s mainly a trading post/restaurant/motel and some nearby Navajo/Native American shops on a dusty stretch of Highway 89, on the way to the Grand Canyon and far northern Arizona. I had the Navajo taco, which turned out to be huge. Basically a taco with lots of beans on an enormous flat “fry bread”. I did what many visitors did and ate mainly the inside and left the large outside crust. It was very good and I was not hungry for a while.

Driving back south there is a great view of the San Francisco peaks, an odd sight with snow at the top as you drive the lower altitude desert where it’s 91 degrees.

I went out to the Wukoki pueblo before sunset to photograph the almost full moon rising as the last rays of the sun hit the pueblo. At that time of day it’s quiet and cooling down and the giant structure is quite impressive. Behind me high clouds turned various colors of red, pink, orange during the usual spectacular sunset. I ran around to the east side of the pueblo to try and catch this display, but was about 1 minute too late. It’s amazing how fast the sky changes as the sun goes down.

Back in the parking lot of the apartment I see Jupiter and Venus setting in the west. Then I remembered there is a conjunction of Jupiter, Venus and Mercury happening over the next few days. I take out the binoculars and see Venus and a fainter Mercury to the right. I get my camera and tripod and walk down to the Wupatki pueblo overlook and see the three planets in a large triangle formation set over the pueblo tower. It’s a really great sight especially since most of the time it’s very hard to see Mercury, usually lost in the sun’s glare. Here it’s very visible with your eye, a rare event. As good as the photo is, I think it might be better tomorrow when the planets are even closer together. Can’t wait.

Moonrise over the Wukoki pueblo. (click to enlarge)

Lit by the nearly full moon, photo students from FALA pose by the Wupatki site. (click to enlarge)

Astronomy teacher Rich Kruger takes photos of the contellations. (click to enlarge)

Thursday, May 23

Had a visit from a group of enthusiastic photography students from the Flagstaff Arts and Leadership Academy (FALA) last night. Annabelle, Rene’s daughter, had come to the photo class Sunday night with her mother and a friend. She got some good shots and showed them to Rich Kruger, her astronomy teacher the next day. He in turn wanted to bring some students out to have me teach them some night photo tips. So 13 students from the photography class responded to the announcement of the trip up to Wupatki and arrived in 1 van and a car. We headed down to the Wupatki site where the students fanned out around the structures. All came equipped with a digital SLR and a tripod. Right away they seemed to produce good photos. Several experimented with “light painting”, shining flashlights on the ruins or themselves during the long exposures. Rich was shooting all the constellations in the sky to show to his class. Several students seemed very advanced  and it was nice to talk photo stuff with then. All had fun and wanted to return to Wupatki or do more night photography. At the end I took a group photo under the stars.

Earlier in the afternoon I climbed up the hill behind the apartments, all the way to the top. It’s a tough exercise since the hill is very steep and for most of the way you are walking through volcanic cinders, similar to sand. You can get a cell phone signal from the top, which I was doing in case there were any last minute messages about the night class. It’s quite a climb for a cell signal. You do get quite a view from high up, I’ll include a photo of the visitor center complex and the desert vista that we see everyday.

My apartment is in the building at lower right, the second back door from left is mine. Visitor center is building farthest away and the Wupatki pueblo is at the left. That’s where you can see some of the amazing sunsets. Desert view to the horizon. (click to enlarge)

Milky Way rises over Wukoki.

Wednesday, May 22

Had a pretty successful night Monday, getting a nice shot of the Wukoki ruin with the Milky Way rising behind it. This seemed to be the right combination of moonlight on the ruin and celestial object in the sky behing. The moon is very bright now so it washes out some of the stars unless it is low on the horizon. So I’m out at moonset, which was 2:39 am Tuesday morning (Monday night) and 3:17 am last night (this morning). It’s funny how it takes forever for the moon (or sun) to cross the sky, then as soon as it gets near the horizon seems to speed up. I race around trying to find the right angle in the dark for the type of pictures I’m trying to get before the moon disappears.

Tuesday Rene Westbrook, the artist-in-residence coordinator at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon took me on a ‘field trip’ to Grand Falls and Leupp. She lives in Flagstaff so I met her at the Flagstaff National Monuments headquarters there, the administrative office for Wupatki and the other area parks. The drive took us northwest of Flagstaff from the forest of the mountains back to the high desert and eventually onto the Navajo Reservation. Leupp is a very small town on the road east, it was the site of a Justice Department detention center for Japanese immigrants arrested and held by the FBI during World War II. Most of these were Issei, first generation men, usually head of families and some ‘community leaders’ as defined by the FBI. They were separated from their families who were held in 10 concentration camps scattered across the country. We didn’t see any sign of the center or any marker. We did see an abandoned building, possibly a community center, next to what looked like a pueblo ruin. The larger building was covered in graffiti, inside and out. A big “OBAMA” graffiti greeted us as we drove up.

More amazing landscape was seen at Grand Falls, except for the falls. The water that Rene had seen a month ago had dried up, so no cascading falls. Lot of volcanic cinders and giant lava balls could be seen in the surrounding area, all from the Sunset Crater volcano many miles to the west.

Back at the apartment we watched another colorful sunset as the last rays of the sun lit up the Painted Desert seen from the front porch.

Abandoned building in Leupp.

Center of the Milky Way.

View from a room in the Wupatki pueblo, the Big Dipper points to the right. (click to enlarge)

Monday, May 19

Heard on Hopi Radio, 88.10 FM yesterday afternoon- a drumming group playing the Sponge Bob Square Pants song.

Had a good time with Rush visiting. Mainly caught up on things and talked a little astronomy. We drove into Flagstaff Saturday so I could resupply at the Safeway and post to the blog. I had been listening to the Metropolitan Opera station on the satellite radio—all opera, all the time. They play recordings from past Met performances. Driving through the desert landscape with the opera on is a slightly surreal experience. Rush enjoyed it since he used to work as a lighting technician with some opera companies.

Each sunset seems to compete with the previous ones for how spectacular they look. Around 7:00 Rush and I walk to the Wupatki pueblo and were rewarded with a very nice sunset and some amazing cloud formations. Above us and to the east were very ominous looking clouds. The clouds stayed through the night, preventing any star gazing or photography. I woke up at 3:00 am to check the cloud cover since there was a predicted flyover of the space station. Couldn’t see many stars so I headed back to bed.

I did a public talk on Sunday afternoon, a small crowd was there to listen. But that turned out to be a good crowd by Wupatki standards, since this park doesn’t get huge number of visitors. At night was the photo class, only had 6 people for that. We walked to the Wupatki pueblo behind the visitor center and it was quite a sight in the moonlight. I helped a couple of people with their cameras, then took a few pictures of the pueblo. There is room you can walk into which made a nice shot looking out through the open ceiling and doorway.

After the class I almost went to bed, then decided to go out to 2 of the sites. The wind had died down and the sky was completely clear. I shot a bit around Wupatki pueblo, then as the moon neared the horizon, race over to Wukoki, about 3 miles away. The Milky Way was rising over the immense structure. I found a perfect angle as the moon dipped below the horizon. So I’ll go back tonight to get a better shot.

Another spectacular sunset. (click to enlarge)

Ominous clouds over Wupatki pueblo. (click to enlarge)

Saturday, May 18

Another interesting sunset. This cloud reminded me of a Dr. Seuss character. The quarter moon is high in the sky. (click to enlarge)

Almost didn’t go out last night to shoot photos because of the overcast, but I’m glad I did. There was slight hope at sunset as there was some clearing in the west and great cloud formations that made for some good pictures. Around 9:30 pm there were some breaks in the clouds and the moon was high up so I thought to check out the Wukoki pueblo, about 3 miles from the visitor center. It’s a tremendous looking structure built on a huge foundation of large rocks so it looks like it has grown out of the earth. Wukoki is one site that hasn’t been rebuilt. And visitors can walk inside some of the rooms.

From the east side the moon could be seen coming in and out of clouds giving a very eerie look. I made a few one minute exposures that blurred the clouds a bit making a nice effect. You could see occasional stars and sky, but not much. The moonlight got brighter so I walked to the west side of the ruin to catch the light on the face of the building. I kept shooting until a few stars could be seen and that made for a really nice shot. Ended up spending about 2 hours walking the perimeter of the site for different angles and actually getting several nice photos.

This morning my friend Rush Dudley from Albuquerque arrive to visit. He, Ken Spencer and I took a trip to Chaco Canyon exactly a year ago for the annular solar eclipse, stargazing and for my night sky work. It’s always great to see Rush, he’s got a good sense of humor and a good amateur astronomer. He brought his telescope, which will be great to look through under these dark skies.

A very faint ring around the moon can be seen here. I was hoping it would show up more, but too many clouds obscure it. The ring is the result of ice crystals in the upper atmosphere reflecting the moonlight. (Click to enlarge)

Wukoki atop its stone base.I’m amazed how the stars shine through the clouds. (Click to enlarge)

Wasn’t sure how this would look but it came out ok. Star trails from inside a room at Lomaki ruins. (click to enlarge)

Friday, May 17

To post to the blog I drive 14 miles from the visitor center on the loop road towards Highway 89, which goes south to Flagstaff or north to the Grand Canyon. In a small pullout that has information about the park I can get a moderate signal on my Verizon wireless card. Otherwise, no other internet service until Flagstaff, about another 30 miles. Phone calls are slightly easier, 4 miles from the visitor center is a picnic area where you can just get a cell phone signal if you park on the access road next to the medium sized cottonwood tree, but not in the parking lot. The ranger explained that the picnic area is about 300 feet higher in elevation than the visitor center so it’s possible to get a signal there.

Forgot to mention yesterday that it’s best to make sure all the things that hold the camera on a tripod are tightened before you move it. I was working Wednesday night on a small hill, moving the camera/SkyTracker/tripod set up. I was below the camera as I put it in a new spot and it fell forward, still attached to the tripod. The very hard metal protector on the lens hit me in the side of the head, causing a huge bump to form. There didn’t seem to be any blood and fortunately the camera survived.

Found out yesterday I’ll be doing 2 public programs on Sunday. The artist-in-residence programs likes you to do at least 1 program per week you are at the park. It can be anything from a slide show to demonstrations or performances. I’ll be showing the night sky photos I’ve shot over the years and talk about working in the national parks. That had been scheduled already. They also asked if I could do a photo class and teach people how to shoot at night. Because the moon is getting fuller each night, I thought sooner would be better so the bright moon doesn’t wash out too many stars. So we’ll go out to one of the ruins and do an on-site hands-on class.

I’m looking out the apartment window now and it’s gotten quite windy and overcast. The flag in front of the visitor center is flying straight out. When the wind picks up around the apartments you can hear a tremendous noise from the trees around us. Hope the clouds clear by tonight.

The Milky Way rising over Lomaki pueblo.

Thursday, May 16

The wind was blowing quite hard yesterday, I could see the flag outside the Visitor Center flying straight out, not a good sign. Lots of dust in the air as well as the usual clouds by early afternoon. Wondered if things would clear by night. Early in the day I drove into Flagstaff to meet up with artist Bruce Aiken. He’s an incredible painter who operated the water pumping station on the floor of the Grand Canyon for 33 years. He was an artist from early in his life and made hundreds of paintings while living at the Canyon. Bruce is with Flagstaff Area Monuments, a group promoting the national monuments near the city. He and Rene Westbrook, the artist-in-residence coordinator at the Grand Canyon helped arrange for my residency at Wupatki.

Back at the park I looked at the Wukoki Pueblo, about 3 miles from the visitor center. Late in the day Holly had brought me a box of equipment I shipped to the area parks headquarters in Flagstaff, which had made an intermediate stop at nearby at the Sunset Crater HQ.  The box had some crucial things so now I could start shooting. In the box was an iOptron SkyTracker, a device about the size of a big paperback book that tracks the stars as they move across the sky. You attach a camera to it, align it with Polaris, the north star, and it matches the earth’s rotation so long exposures can be taken without the stars making streaks across the image. I went to the Lomaki Pueblo to experiment and even with slight wind and occasional gusts, it worked well.

Holly reminded me to carry a flashlight at night since its rattlesnake season. I did but did not see any. But saw bats flying around at dusk and I think one may have almost crashed into me as I was setting up the camera. Lots of birds out, especially around the apartments, but I’ve seen no other animals.

….then about 30 minutes later, the light hits the step of the door opposite the first door! Not exactly a summer solstice alignment, but not bad for the moon.

Wednesday, May 15

The spectacular sunset silhouettes the tallest wall on the Wupatki Pueblo. (Click to enlarge)

I’ll be spending the next 10 days as artist-in-residence at Wupatki National Monument, an amazing place north of Flagstaff, Arizona. It’s a site with many pueblo ruins that date from the 1100s. I’ll be doing the night sky landscapes in and around the ruins. A group called Flagstaff Area National Parks wants to help promote Wupatki, nearby Sunset Crater and Walnut Canyon National Monuments. The Wupatki staff are hoping to use one of my night photos to help promote the night programs at the park.

I flew into Flagstaff Tuesday afternoon and it was mostly cloudy with a bit of sun. After shopping for food in Flagstaff it started to rain. Not such a great start to the trip, I thought. The clouds persisted on the drive up towards Wupatki, which is about 30 miles north of Flagstaff. Holly, the head ranger, greeted me and showed me the apartment I’m staying in near the Visitors Center. It’s a nice 1 bedroom place that is part of a single story building with 4 apartments. Holly and two other staff people live there full-time.

The view straight out of the front window is the Painted Desert- a spectacular vista of various colored buttes and geological formations all the way to the horizon. I was eating dinner when I looked out the window and saw the landscape glowing orange. Sunset! I grabbed my cameras and headed to the Wupatki Pueblo (picture below), a ruin just behind the Visitors Center. The storm clouds broke just enough to see the sun setting and provided one of the most brilliantly colored sunsets I’ve seen. Clouds were blazing in orange, reds and yellows behind the pueblo and the distant mountains. (Picture above) So it turned out to be a really great start photographically for this trip.

Sandstone and basalt glowing orange from the last rays of the sun.