In this image, I am over ten miles west of the Las Vegas Strip looking east. There is about one-third of the strip that isn’t in the image to the south or to the right from this location on a slope on the western side of the valley. Behind me is the Lamdre’ Mountains and Red Rock Canyon.
Here is a different angle on our famous Las Vegas sign as I call it with zero people in the image! In the other image. I am westbound on Charleston Boulevard just outside of the city. The Red Rock Escarpment is seen just left of centre and several miles away from my location.
The Escarpment is a faultline.
Another view of how rain can make the Mojave Desert even more beautiful. ❤️🌴
Seven years on and this Michigan born man still loves his adopted home in the middle of nowhere. I think the evidence speaks for itself don’t you?
Here are three old photos from I don’t know when! Perhaps three years ago but one was taken at the Red Rock Canyon Scenic Overlook, the other in Calico Basin. The third image I don’t know where that one was taken. Rain and thunderstorms in the desert are beautiful to behold.
I tried to find very specific information on this fault line with no success, sorry about this but I am 100% sure that this escarpment is an ancient fault line. I’d like to know it’s last movement.
I did find information on known fault lines that are actually within the city of Las Vegas though, some are rather close to my location! Nevada is very high on the list of states with the most fault lines and the most active ones.
This has me wondering if Michigan is a safer place to live!
Here is another photo set taken inside the Spring Mountain Ranch State Park. There are always beautiful scenes to photograph here, the cute rabbit is to me a bonus photo! Who doesn’t love bunnies, right? They is sooo cute!
The Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel that is! These cuties appear to be Chipmunks but they are distinctly different as the ears suggest. They are so adorable scurrying about the desert floor looking for food or eating treats you toss to them. Probably not something humans should do but it happens all the time.
I visited this local state park about two years ago and really enjoyed the walks both inside the old homestead house and around the trails. If your in the area, do stop by. There is of course a fee for entry as it’s a state park. In photo one you can easily see the pixels coming apart due to my now heavily reducing the file sizes. Sorry about this, friends and thank you, WordPress.
Here are two older images (they are all old since I’m not shooting new photos) taken near Red Rock Canyon two or more years ago. They roam in packs but this guy or gal apparently wants some solitude. These donkeys are completely wild but will take food from humans which is not only an incredibly ignorant thing to do, but is also very illegal. Should the authorities catch you feeding them or the wild horses, you’ve just earned a five hundred dollar fine. As you should!
If you look to the left side of this photo about two thirds the way down you can barely see Las Vegas Valley which from this location is several miles to the east. I’m inside the twelve mile loop scenic drive which is run by the BLM and is a US Fee area. It sucks that we have to pay to enter, haven’t we already paid for entrance via our state, local and federal taxes?
This view is very close to the actual Red Rock Canyon which is a seriously deep gash in the earth. The rocks have such nice red colors though.
This curve is at mile five as you can see of the twelve mile scenic drive that takes you to Red Rock Canyon proper. There are two parking areas with easy foot access to the canyon which can’t be seen unless you are driving alongside it or flying over it.
It’s basically a major gash or cut in the Earth’s surface. So impressive! The rest of the drive offers some wonderful scenic views looking south and east as well as looking upward toward the mountain peaks.
Just take Charleston Boulevard west out of Las Vegas, you will eventually come to the fee station for entry. There is also a building that has the usual tourist stuff for sale, restrooms and some kind of food too.
Just a random photo here, this is where Charleston Boulevard crosses the two fifteen freeway with a dandy view beyond. The lens renders those foothills looking much smaller than they actually are.
One more image taken by the DJI drone a couple or three years ago. The Red Rock Escarpment is seen on the right, the road is Charleston Boulevard seen snaking it’s way south where it will terminate at SR160 or Blue Diamond Road. SR160 crosses this image east to west very distant in the image and isn’t visible of course. SR160 west from this point will take you to about 5500ft ASL at Mountain Springs, NV. Continue west and you will arrive in Pahrump, NV in about thirty minutes.
I am way down there somewhere! I thought I’d lost these photos and others until I found them on my external SSD backup drive that’s kept hidden in a secret place haha! 😎
Look closely, you’ll see the little snowflakes and that the sunshine has found an open shaft through which to touch the Earth. In the distance is our lovely Red Rock Escarpment shrouded in snow. I’m moving north at this point on Charleston Boulevard heading for home, as I move along I pass through zones of both snow and rain as the elevation is around 4000 foot ASL.
Here are two very different views of Turtle Head Peak. These were difficult to compress because the photos began banding heavily which makes the image look like crap!
These are the last two photos from last Friday, they were taken at the Red Rock Scenic Overlook. Nikon rules.
In these two images when you look beyond the Joshua trees you are looking roughly northwest along the ancient fault line known as the Red Rock Escarpment. I searched for some geologic research papers on the geology of this wonderful piece of art but found nothing I liked to link to.
Sorry.
The west side of this fault line has sloping mountainous terrain and is part of the beautiful Lovell Canyon. I wish I had the health to hike into these mountains as it’s so beautiful on the Lovell Canyon side as well. I’ll wrap up this rather large set I took with the new Nikon Z-6 camera today.
Bonnie Springs Ranch was a nice place to visit. Today, some former employees are possibly still searching for work. Thanks so much to those greedy land developers who will eventually build homes here. Last I checked, you can’t take your supposed wealth with you to Heaven…
A few more photos from the other day. The squirrel photos are highly cropped, did you know that a Joshua Tree can live around 700 years?
Here is the next set from today around the Escarpment and Red Rock Canyon. I went out there today because tomorrow is supposed to bring the valley about a quarter inch of rain. The desert southwest needs this rain so badly which leads me to say that it pretty much sucks that the southeast is being almost drown in rain and snow right now. Dammit.
Anyway, the more I use this camera the more I love it. There are still a few things I need to set up in the camera’s Settings, but man I’m completely sold on this Mirrorless camera. The color and clarity is so superiour in my non-professional opinion… Money well spent!
This morning I headed out of the city for my usual haunts around Red Rock Canyon, stopping at my favorite locations. While I am still learning the camera settings, the Nikon Z6 series is a hit with me. The clarity of the images is superiour to the Nikon D3300 but I guess it should be with the advances in technology and the fact that this camera is mirrorless.
That is to me what makes the largest difference. I used P mode almost exclusively, and manual focus as well. The Auto Focus or AF often won’t lock in clearly on some subjects. Some of the lenses I used on the D3300 body had the option for manual or auto focus which I did use both but this camera seems to work or like the manual focus mode better.
Much more to come, I’m looking forward to processing the Landscape photos.
Good morning from Las Vegas Valley. Sunny and 66F is forecast for Las Vegas today, a much better forecast than the crap weather I saw on the Weather Channel early this morning whilst eating my chicken soup. Cold and rain then snow rain mix. I’ve lived it.
I’m out of new photos right now so out comes my trusty external hard drive backups! I do miss flying the little drone, I was never an expert of course but it was fun capturing photos from four hundred foot. That was the altitude limit as far as I know. The thing took some damn good photos I think.
A drive in the desert outside the city, and a cuppa at home. 🥰🌵🌴 Today is fabulous, I’ve got some windows open, letting in those beautiful warm breezes. It’s almost that brief time of year when neither the AC or heating is needed. There are almost no bugs too, 100% opposite of Michigan.
Here are a few photos of this incredibly cute critter called the Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel. He’s not a Chipmunk! They are so fun to watch as they scurry about stopping to dig tiny holes apparently looking for food. And sometimes rather difficult to photograph too as they can move very fast and change direction fast too. I love my little critters!
Four photos from the other day, these images processed nicely. 🥰😎🌵
A random photo taken on the trail in Calico Basin the other day. The line beyond the Joshua tree is a small Wash that flows west.
Mary K. Eastman ~ Mary Kay Diffin
Photographer turned artist.
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