Floating world
Lake Powell, Page AZ
April 24th, 2019
451 || 453
Category: Away
Horseshoe Bend
The most photographed horseshoe in the world.
And who would have expected to find a Greek translation in Glen Canyon, overlooking Colorado River?! (even though they could have done with some proofreading… still it made sense)
Page, AZ
April 24th, 2019
Industrialisation
Taming Nature
Glen Canyon Dam, Lake Powell
Page, AZ
April 23rd, 2019
Terracotta & Blue
Somewhere among the Antelope, Owl, Rattlesnake, and Mountain Sheep Canyons, the undulating formations of the sandstone so perfectly pleated like a Mariano Fortuny mythical gown, the warm colour palette that ranges from sand to pink to terracotta and blood orange, it occurred to me that I was at a loss for superlatives.
We toured with Adventurous Antelope Canyon because they were the only operators with a permit to tour into the Upper Antelope, Owl, Rattlesnake and Mountain Sheep Canyon. This means that whereas Upper Antelope is toured by five different operators and gets really crowded, we had the other three to our group only. That in itself was quite magical.
Slot Canyons of Page, AZ
April 23rd, 2019
HoodooLand
Mother Nature’s White Magic
Much as it is easy to believe that they were placed here by magic, the Paria Rimrocks – Toadstool Hoodoos to friends – are formed when Dakota Sandstone boulders perch atop pedestals of softer Entrada Sandstone. As the Entrada erodes away, the harder Dakota forms a cap, and creates these unique formations.
The Toadstool Hoodoos are part of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah. Located between Kanab and Big Water, they are easily accessible via a trail off US 89, between mile marker 19 and 20. The hike is around 1.6 miles out-and-back with absolutely no shade.
Toadstool Hoodoos, Kanab, UT
April 23rd, 2019
85.5 metres below sea level
The lowest point in North America is here.
Where the water that flows from the mountains of central Nevada, hundreds of miles away, into the porous limestone bed-rock and trough an aquifer, emerges at Badwater along the faultline at the mountain’s base and forms a pool. Salts dissolve from old deposits and flow to the surface, making the spring water ”bad” – a word which here means ”salty”.
We found the pool almost dry, the saltwater flats all the more spectacular.
Badwater Basin, Death Valley, CA
April 21st, 2019
Zabriskie Point
Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that one day I would see this stunning landscape in real life. But here I was, with scenes from Antonioni’s 1970 film passing before my eyes, breathing the dry desert air, feeling humbled by its enormity. And slightly disappointed to learn that it was named after Christian Brevoort Zabriskie, vice-president and general manager of the Pacific Coast Borax Company, and not Zabriskie Point, the film.
Death Valley, CA
April 21st, 2019
Lost Highway
Earth
April 21st, 2019
Amargosa Opera House & Hotel
About five miles past the border line, in the middle of nowhere and well underway to the Death Valley, a building complex housing a hotel, a café, an exhibition space and an opera house. Marfa, for all its artistic weirdness, does not even come close – not by a long shot.
Here we are, at the Death Valley Junction, looking in amazement at the Mexican Colonial adobe building, constructed in 1924 to house the Pacific Coast Borax Company’s offices and labourers’ quarters, and a twenty-three-room hotel welcoming the mining town’s many visitors. Next to it, Corkill Hall – an entertainment centre with a built-in stage where the dances, weddings, movies, church services and other community events took place.
We learn that in 1967, a flat tyre brought Marta Becket – a New York City born artist – and her husband, to this very garage you see in the first picture for repairs. While her husband was taking care of the car, Marta walked around the building, realised it was an abandoned theatre and decided there and then that it was waiting for her to bring it back to life.
Marta wrote in her memoir: “As I peered through the tiny hole, I had the distinct feeling that I was looking at the other half of myself. The building seemed to be saying, ‘Take me… Do something with me… I offer you life.’” [source: The Mojave Project]
Amargosa Opera House was born and it became Marta’s stage, home and life. She only stopped performing in 2012, at the age of eighty-eight. I was not fortunate enough to catch one of her performances – I hadn’t even heard of Marta Becket or the Amargosa Opera House and Hotel, before our trip in 2019!
I didn’t even realise then – not before I started reading more about it, that the hotel would probably be better known to many as the ‘Lost Highway Hotel’ from David Lynch’s Lost Highway (1997). But at the time, I was too busy peeking through windows, staring at Marta’s costumes and photographs….
April 21st, 2019
Red Rock Canyon
The beauty after the beast
April 21st, 2019
The Humble Fabulist 