Short June Trip

In June, Bruce Hollingsworth, my San Diego photo-buddy, was to join me for some landscape photography.  However, due to unforeseen circumstances, he could not make the nine day tour I had planned out.  Since this journey included photo stops I had wanted to make for some time, I decided to shorten the June venture with Bruce, and go it alone.

My first stop was to photograph Shiprock, in northwestern New Mexico.  This iconic geologic formation is sacred to Navajo people and I used a local guide, Kialo Winters, to allow me to get up close to this volcanic neck.  Geologists estimate that Shiprock was about 2,500 feet below the land surface at the time the volcano formed, some 30 million years ago.  There are also vertical, wall-like lava dikes radiating from the volcanic neck that Kialo led me to.

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From Shiprock, I drove to Montrose, Colorado, to photograph Ute Indian petroglyphs in the Shavano Valley.  The 45 acres where to main rock art panels are located is protected by a conservation easement and access is controlled with a locked gate.  The Ute Indian Museum in Montrose has a list of docents authorized to lead private tours of the site.  From the list, I randomly selected Russ Barr to guide me.  That turned out to be a serendipitous choice because Russ turned out to be a great person to spend time with and also possessed extensive knowledge about the rock art.

I continued my solo photo trip from Montrose, Colorado, to Capulin Volcano National Monument in northeastern New Mexico.  I have photographed many of New Mexico’s national monuments, but not this one.  The location had not been on the original itinerary for the trip with Bruce, but since I was now alone, and had wanted to photograph Capulin Volcano for some time, that is where I headed next.  To be frank, the volcano itself was not very photogenic.  I was lucky, however, to have some dramatic storm clouds to enhance the view of the volcano.

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Capulin volcano lies within the vast Raton-Clayton Volcanic Field that was active some 9 million years ago.  Capulin is unique in that it was formed only about 60,000 years ago, making it one of the youngest volcanos in New Mexico.  Lava flows from the older, ancient volcanos created extensive lava capped mesas.  New Mexico Highway 72 is the backcountry route to Capulin Volcano National Monument and crosses the lava capped Johnson Mesa.  Only a few active ranches exist on this vast, flat grassy plateau.  I photographed some of the abandoned barns and an old church, built in 1897, along this long, lonely route.

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One my way back home on I-25 from Capulin Volcano, I made short stops at Fort Union National Monument and Pecos National Historic Park.  Fort Union played an important role in protecting wagon trains on the Santa Fe trail and in defeating Confederate troops that had invaded New Mexico Territory from Texas. 

Pecos Pueblo was located along an ancient trading route between Plains Indians and Rio Grande pueblos.  Prior to Spanish colonization, Pecos was a large and powerful pueblo with a population of some 2,000 people.

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