Two young bull Rocky Mountain elk, Moraine Park meadows,
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, August 31, 2009.

The elk in the foreground is a mature, but young, non-dominant bull.  The other is an immature bull, with two spikes for his antler.

Quick Links

Prickly Poppy, Nebraska Sand Hills, North of North Platte, Lincoln County, August 17, 2007

Images from the second major snow that we saw in four days in March, 2008.

Around the Yard, West-Central Arkansas, July 27, 2008

Rudbeckia hirta, commonly called black-eyed-susan, is a North American species of flowering plants in the sunflower family, native to the Eastern and Central North America and naturalized in the Western part of the continent as well as in China. Wikipedia

Quick References:

• Wikipedia
• Old Farmer’s Almanac
• The Gardener’s Network
• USDA
• Better Homes and Gardens
• Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

August 29, 2009

On two of our western trips, our first night camping was in Oklahoma at Canton Lake’s Sandy Cove Recreation Area.  In both cases, the stop was early enough for some leisurely relaxation and, each evening, there was a glorious sunset where I was able to get plenty of photos.

Quick References:

• Wikipedia
• Recreation.gov
• Oklahoma Tourism & Recreation Department
• Corps of Engineers

Interior of abandoned structure, Animas Forks ghost town, Colorado, September 8, 2009

Even though the town is well off the beaten path on an unpaved and sometimes rough road, we’ve visited Animas Forks several times.  Past the town, the road splits into narrower roads more suited to four wheel drive or all terrain vehicles.

Abandoned structure, Animas Forks ghost town, Colorado, September 8, 2009

Animas Forks is a ghost town located twelve miles northeast of Silverton in San Juan County, Colorado, United States. The area is managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Wikipedia

Recent restoration efforts have helped preserve Animas Fork’s nine remaining buildings.

Satellite view (Google Maps), Animas Forks, Colorado

Quick References:

• Wikipedia
• Durango Herald – September 4, 2014 article on restoration efforts.
• National Trust for Historic Preservation
• • Exploring Animas Forks
  • Ghost of a Chance – The residents of Silverton, Colorado, beat the odds to rescue a long-abandoned mining town
• Mountain Studies Institute
• UncoverColorado.com
• ColoradoPast.com
• GhostTown Gallery.com
• Unique-Photography-Concepts.com

Art on Sunday #11

Self-Portrait Among Churchgoers,
1939, Tempera on Board, Ben Shahn,
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, August 1, 2015

Ben Shahn is the name of a photographer I recognize from my interest in photography from the Great Depression. I didn’t realize that he was also a renowned painter and graphic artist.  In 1935, Shahn joined the photographic group at the U.S. Farm Security Administration, where he roamed and documented the American south through photography.

Ben Shahn was a Lithuanian-born American artist. He is best known for his works of social realism, his left-wing political views, and his series of lectures published as The Shape of Content. Wikipedia

An amateur is someone who supports himself with outside jobs which enable him to paint. A professional is someone whose wife works to enable him to paint. Ben Shahn.

Quick References:

• Wikipedia
• Museum of Modern Art
• Library of Congress

Living in a southern rural area with a small city less than a half an hour a way, we do have access to a small farmer’s market.  However, the number of producers who sell at the local market is few, so what little “fresh produce” we use comes from the supermarket.

Little Rock has a much larger farmer’s market that is open every Sunday from the beginning of May though the end of October in two outdoor, open-air pavilions in the River Market, “filled with farm-fresh produce straight from the backs of the trucks.”

However, Little Rock is over an hour’s drive away for us and we’ve only been to the farmers marker in Little Rock one time, in 2009, when I took the photos below:

Quick References:

Little Rock Farmers Market

• LR Farmers Market
• Facebook

Little Rock

• City of Little Rock
• Wikipedia
• Convention and Visitors Bureau
• Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism
• Zoo
• Facebook
• Airport
• LR Marathon
• LR Central High School National Historic Site – National Park Service
• Clinton Presidential Library

One of our favorite destinations at Arches National Park is the Windows area, which has two large arches cut from  the same sandstone fin. The Windows arches are also known as the Spectacles, with a large “nose” fin remnant separating the two windows when viewed from the southwest.

The Windows, Arches National Park, Utah, September 24, 2007

The Windows trail is a loop trail that leads to three massive arches, North and South Windows and Turret Arch.  The 1 mile (1.6 km) mostly gravel trail has a very modest change in elevation. An alternative, slightly longer, return to the parking lot is by way of a more primitive trail around the back of the two Windows, starting at the South Window viewpoint. While there is ample parking in the Windows parking lot, this is a popular destination and, at times, the parking lot may be full.

North Window Arch and the Nose bridge sandstone fin,
Arches National Park, September 24, 2007

North Window Arch, Arches National Park, September 24, 2007

North Window Arch, Arches National Park, September 24, 2007

North Window Arch, Arches National Park, September 24, 2007

North Window Arch, Arches National Park, September 24, 2007

North Window Arch, Arches National Park, September 24, 2007
Turret Arch is in the sandstone formation on the left.

South Window Arch, Arches National Park, September 24, 2007

Quick References

Arches National Park

• National Park Service, Arches
• Wikipedia
• Facebook
• Wikitravel
• Recreation.gov – Devil’s Garden Campground (a favorite for us, reservations often required well in advance)
• flickr – photos from the National Park Service

Windows Trail

• Utah.com
• hikespeak.com
• Your Hike Guide
• ProTrails – Windows Primitive Loop