A few from our trip

[eubank]

We took our little trip: Angel Fire -> Farmington -> Shiprock on BIA13 via Lukachukai to Chinle -> Gallup/El Morro/Wild Spirit -> Los Lunas/Home. A couple of notes:

1. Buffalo Pass between Shiprock and Lukachukai is absolutely beautiful (particularly that view of the Shiprock itself), but it is not intended for RVs of any larger size (like our 30 ft.). There were very long grades, and they were at a whopping 14%. Floored in first gear, we barely made it to the top. Going down in first gear and holding the brakes. We could smell it when we reached the bottom of the grade.

2. Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary is most cool!

I haven't finished processing pics yet, but I'll attach a couple of them here.


Lynn

[Michigander]

Nice pic's. Did you really look that wolf in the eye? He looks like he's laughing at us.

[pmclemore]

Wow. Those are the kinds of pictures that we Easterners go ape over. Such a different world.

Pat

[Gene]

Lynn,

Nice pictures of Shiprock.

Did you go to the trading post in Lukachukai? We were last there several tears ago and it was in the tradition of the old time trading posts on the Navajo res. They are disappearing all too fast.

Didn't know about the wold sanctuary—we had to go all the way to Denali to see wolves.

Gene

[Mike Leary]

Great pics, Lynn!

[eubank]

That one is 100% wolf, not one of the wolf dogs. (Characteristics include amber eyes, very narrow chest, narrower legs, very large paws, rounded ears, invariably dark noses.)

At the sanctuary, they give tours every couple of hours, starting at 11:00am. The wolves are in enclosures with very high chain link. I exposed that picture with very narrow DOF so that the chain link in the foreground was effectively made invisible (though it did make the pic a smidgen cloudy).

Once I get all of the keeper pics processed, I'll put them onto my Flickr site. Attached are a couple of probable non-keepers.


Lynn

Originally Posted by Michigander

Nice pic's. Did you really look that wolf in the eye? He looks like he's laughing at us.

[eubank]

Nope, we skipped that one. We were trying to make it to Chinle (Canyon de Chelly) somewhat earlier in the day so that we'd be sure to get a site in their campground. (They don't take reservations.) As it turned out, there were gobs of sites available, so we got a fairly choice one.

Oh, and this time we did the half-day shake-and-bake tour of the canyon. It was pretty neat and well worth the money. Most of my pics from there are of petroglyphs and pictographs. Once I've gotten that far, I'll try to post a couple of them. Attached is one.


Lynn

Originally Posted by CrawfordGene

... Did you go to the trading post in Lukachukai? We were last there several tears ago and it was in the tradition of the old time trading posts on the Navajo res. They are disappearing all too fast. ... Gene

[Aage]

My golly, Lynn, you are one heck of a good photographer! Thanks for sharing them with us.

That first one from Buffalo Pass is stunning. I don't suppose we could talk you into putting up a bigger version of it?

[Gene]

Gene, We did the same things—took all day tour of Canyon de Chelly years ago with our SUV, and then a couple of years ago did the half day tour with the tour truck. Each is different in feeling and both are good ways to go.

Cottonwood campground near Canyon De Chelly and east of Chinle several miles is a nice CG. We were there in the fall and it was mostly empty. It's free with a dump station and water. Lots of large cottonwoods with shade. We were amused by the gigantic million dollar MoHo towing a full sized Hummer that pulled in and had trouble fitting in any site, but they did because they were big and bad.

I remember last time you tried to take this trip it got short circuited by some problem; glad you made it through this time.

Gene

[eubank]

Gene, there's now a sign at the entrance to Cottonwood Campground indicating that it's not going to be free much longer. They've done some work on the place (toilets nice, all paved). They're negotiating with NPS to see what kind of rates will apply.

I've got larger versions of all of the pics; I just made a few small ones for Airforums. Once I've got all of the keepers processed, then I'll put them all in large format onto my Flickr site. It'll be several days, especially for the high dynamic range versions. (The Orton conversions like the wolf shots are a lot easier.)


Lynn

[Splitrock]

Very nice! Thanks for posting!

[eubank]

Ok, I made quick work of the photos by deleting about half of them. (My usual story.) The keepers are at my Flickr site, linked in my signature below.

Lynn

[eubank]

Going thru the archive of pics (keepers and non-keepers alike), I found a couple that are bound for the bit-bucket in the sky, but include the Airstream.


Lynn

[wbrownrr]

Wow! That first picture in post #1 is one of the most spectacular I've ever seen! Keep those pics coming.

[eubank]

Yeah, that one was nice, but I didn't like the colors in it: Too much blue that just wasn't there when seen live. So I re-did it.




The larger neck in the background is Shiprock. The smaller one more in the foreground is the Mitten. What's not visible in this shot is the Thumb, located well off to the left. (The Thumb is easy to identify when you see it: It's got a round top.)

What I do like about shooting from BIA 13 is that you can see the two fins leading away from Shiprock. In the shot above, you can see them left and right. In the shot below, we're standing beside the fin leading off to the right.




Lynn

[Gene]

Originally Posted by eubank

Yeah, that one was nice, but I didn't like the colors in it: Too much blue that just wasn't there when seen live. So I re-did it.




Lynn

Lynn, it's art, not reality. They're both good.

Gene

[Airstream25]

Hey Lynn, Great photos! Glad you had a chance to get away for awhile.
We may try that drive someday.
Jerry

[eubank]

Originally Posted by CrawfordGene

Lynn, it's art, not reality. They're both good.
Gene

Yeah, I know. It's just that I like to make a picture mirror what we experienced while there.

Lynn