MA-KO’-SHI-KA

During the height of a day areas of badlands do not always reveal their beauty completely. This is in particular true for days with a lot of sunshine and hazy weather conditions. That wasn’t any different at our next destination, Makoshika State Park in eastern Montana. It is the largest state park in Montana (11,538 acres, 46.7 square kilometer) and the name originates from the Lakota phrase Ma-ko’-shi-ka, meaning ‘bad land’ or ‘bad earth’. The park is not just known for its badland formations but also for fossil remains of Tyrannosaurus Rex, Triceratops and others. (source: http://stateparks.mt.gov/makoshika/)

Getting out of the sleeping bag at dawn and having the camera ready before the first rays of sun hit the rocks isn’t always easy, but there was no regret when the warm light started filling the canyons below our campsite.

All images: Nikon D750, Nikon Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm, f/4G ED VR

PAINTED DESERT (2)

Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona

The two photographers from the Netherlands in the picture below and I entered the National Park right after it opened its gates for the public at 8AM. This is of course too late for sunrise all year long. The park closes at 5PM, too early for the “killer light” we all like to use for our photos. It is understandable that the resources of the park, like the petrified wood, need to be protected but it is a little bit of a bummer for any landscape photographer.

Here is a quote from one of the signs at one of the overlooks: As you look over the Painted Desert, you see only a small portion of it. The Painted Desert extends over 7500 square miles (19425 km^2) across northeastern Arizona. Because Petrified Forest National Park lies at its heart, the entire park contains the colorful rocks of the Painted Desert. These particular mudstone and sandstone rocks are called the Chinle Formation and were deposited from 227 to 205 million years ago during the late Triassic Period. During that time the supercontinent Pangaea broke apart, eventually forming our present continents. Over the next 180 million years, the rocks of the Chinle formation were deeply buried, uplifted, and eroded into the badland topography you see today. Approximately 20 million years of late Triassic rock and fossil history are recorded in this geologic kaleidoscope.

With almost two days on hand I wanted to explore and capture the essence of this landscape. Petrified wood is scattered at many places and revealing its beauty was part of my plan. More to come…

Out there as early as possible .

All images: Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200mm / f4

PAINTED DESERT (1)

Colorful geology at the Blue Mesa, Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona

After a busy week in and around Phoenix I spend this weekend in the Painted Desert, and in particular in Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona. It is a wonderful place to see the fossil record from the Late Triassic Period, 225 million years ago. Trunks of petrified wood are the most obvious remnants of this former tropical landscape. The National Park covers about 230 square miles (~600 km2).

Unfortunately for every camera owner, who likes to take advantage of the light around dawn and dusk, the park doesn’t open before 8AM and closes already at 5PM. I tried to make the best out of it and like to share a few photos over the next weeks with you. So, please stay tuned…

COLLECTING FOSSILS (YEP, LEGALLY!)

If you look at the second photo first, I don’t blame you if you ask me, have you been back in Badlands National Park, South Dakota again? No, not at all. Joan and I stopped on our way home from Pilot Knob State Park last Monday at the incredible Fossil & Prairie Park Preserve in Floyd County, Iowa, located just a few miles west of Rockford, Iowa. The park includes an abandoned shale pit, preserved kilns, and a large area of native prairie. Our time was limited and so we just explored the former shale pit.

Shale pit at Fossil & Prairie Park Preserve, Rockford, Iowa

The rocks in the park are Devonian formations and about 375 million years old. At that time Iowa was still located near the equator and seas covered most of the land. As a result we can find many small fossils between the relatively soft limestones and shales. And here is the cool thing, fossil collecting is encouraged within the park. And that’s what we did and enjoyed (beside making a few clicks with the camera). I found mostly Brachiopods as you can see in the first photo, but Joan had also some Gastropods, little snails that scavenged the ancient sea floor.

If fossils and rocks are not “your thing”, well, the native prairie area with some wetlands and a pond looked very promising. Unfortunately time was too short to explore all of it, but we definitely “bookmarked” this area in our brains for another visit sometime.

(source used for some details provided in this blog post: Park brochure by Iowa Geological Survey)

OUT WEST #16

Beartooth Highway, Shoshone National Forest, Montana

It has been a while since we visited Yellowstone National Park. This time we wanted to make a different approach and entered the park trough the northeast entrance. In order to get there we drove north into Montana and followed the Beartooth Highway all the way to Cooke City. All three images were shot during stops along this spectacular highway that winds from Red Lodge, MT through Shoshone National Forest and over the Beartooth Pass.

Overlook at Beartooth Pass (3,347 m / 10,947 ft)

Beartooth Lake with Beartooth Butte, a fossil repository that was pushed upwards during the last 75 million years.