Fine Art Images from the American Southwest
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Wild Rivers Recreation Area, in the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument, NM. Popped in here for last but one stop on a tour last week. The clouds were chasing each other across the landscape, helping to create a wonderful depth to this vista, highlighting Ute Mountain in the background. Thanks for looking. G
Bighorn Sheep, in the Orilla Verde Recreation Area in the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument. What a fantastic afternoon the the National Monument following a herd of bighorn rams. The double sun stars are created by a rocky protrusion, splitting the sun in two. The bighorn sheep are posing on the ledges that they use to traverse the cliff faces. I was able to line up all the elements to accent the precarious terrain they inhabit. Thanks for looking. G
Bighorn Ram, a young one! Handsome and immaculately turned out. His horns look like they haven’t yet seen any rutting or any entanglement with larger, more experienced, rams. He was on his own, on a rock in the Orilla Verde area of the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument, chewing his cud. Doing what bighorn sheep tend to do, he ignored us and moseyed on his leisurely way. Thanks for looking. G
Mallards lift off, skimming over the water in the Orilla Verde, only to settle back on the the water a hundred yards away. Another fun day in the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument. Thanks for looking. G
National Monument day out. Days out on the road are memorable, some days more so than others. In the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument around Ute Mountain it can be sublimely memorable. The silence is palpable; the peace and tranquility immeasurable and the history is no further than I am able to imagine. Thanks for looking. G
Swallowtail Butterfly, in the Wild Rivers area of the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument. The image below is a composite of the same butterfly, on and off the Horsetail Milkweed. This plant, is essential to the Monarch Butterflies, but it also appears to be attractive to Swallowtails. There’s a lot of Horsetail Milkweed plant along the roadsides and verges all around Taos County. Fortunately, I think the road crews cut the invasive weeds and spared the milkweed plants when mowing this year. Thanks for looking. G
More on the Swallowtail Butterfly
Ute Mountain from the Wild and Scenic Rivers Recreation Area of the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument. An image made in April with a little dusting of snow on Ute Mountain. Thanks for looking. G
January 01 2018, Super Moon Rise over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in northern New Mexico. We took a drive north this evening, to the Wild and Scenic Rivers in the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument, to watch the super moon rising over the Sangre de Cristos. It was cold and the wind chill colder. The coyotes chimed in about the same time the moon came up and began their howling and chattering. It was a pristine, fitting, moment to start the new year off well. Happy New Year and thanks for looking. G
Avanyu, sea serpent petroglyph along the Rio Grande. Revisited this a few weeks ago and I still get a thrill every time I see it. Here’s the color image from 2012 which appears in my last book, Rio Grande del Norte: An Intimate Portrait.
