More from Great Sand Dunes

A week ago we visited Great Sand Dunes. I really wish we'd had more time to explore the park further. Unfortunately for me that wasn't to be however as there isn't the coverage for my shifts at work. Some vacation is better than none so I do thank my lucky stars. I've worked a lot of jobs over the years with no paid vacation time. Just because a job is full time doesn't mean there's any paid time off like most apartment complexes, etc. If that's something you're interested in you need to check when you apply for the job. At one time it didn't. I just wanted to work.

More recently I'd gotten some additional filters for my Fuji. There's an adapter ring that I had to attach to the lens frame. It came apart and I glued it to the camera. Some of the glue spread out on to the glass. If I don't zoom out enough it shows up at the corners like in the next image. The gray part is some of the glue that I have now managed to scrap off of the glass very carefully with a paring knife. All the time I was doing it I was concerned with scratching the lens.

Presently I am looking at various DSLR's because I'd like to use filters and have some additional photography capabilities that I don't have now like longer shutter time. I haven't made any definite decisions yet, however, though I came really close to splurging on a rather nice remanufactured Olympus set that came with the camera body and two lenses.

The river you see is one that disappears under the sand in the south part of the park. I'd taken off my shoes and walked across the river. The water was quite warm and there's a lot of suspended sand in it. It looks almost like a river of gold as you look down at the water.

I'm not sure the name of the mountain in the background. It sure is lovely though.

This is one of the big dunes. The black spots at the top are people.

Here are some more people headed to the top.

I managed to capture several images of this couple and their very young child. These, in essence, are the outtakes. a bit later I got the mountain in with them and that's what I uploaded to View Bug.

The forms the sand takes is quite fascinating.

This is another two with the couple and their young child.

This is another interesting image. Lighter sand forms these ridges on top of the darker.

More from Mesa Verde

Here are some more of the cliff dwellings. It amazes me they lived in such a place. Naturally, as to the reasons why, I wonder. These are not easy to get into. To get some of these shots you need a lot of focal length, and therefore a lot of glass on your camera.

I can see how this would be named the Dance Plaza. It kind of looks like one. 

They must have had really good climbing skills to get into the upper parts.

The dwellings start right at the bottom of the canyon. Technically they would be in the flood when there was serious rains. At the time, however, my understanding is there was a major drought going on.

This is the canyon those cliff dwellings is in. Not too bad I think from the bottom of the canyon. To get to the bottom of the canyon easily you have to walk a couple of miles.

I'll try to post some more in the coming weeks.

Great Sand Dunes

We also visited Great Sand Dunes. The sand pile is huge. You don't really get a concept of how huge from the pics unless a person is in the picture. Susan is the little figure in the middle of this panorama.

I thought the footprint cross was cool.

The dark iron deposits looks cool on the tops of some of drifts.

There's a weird optical illusion happening in this frame. The footprint was actually inset instead of the way it looks here.

Now we're tired. I kind of wish we had a vacation from our vacation. Altogether I got about 170 pictures. Some are really good, others, not so much.

Four Corners

One of the things we wanted to see is the Four Corners Monument. It was quite different for me this time compared to the last time I'd been here which I think was about thirty years ago. Susan had never been here before.

The flags was cool and I got this frame with most of them.

This was outside the monument. I did a panorama of the Ute reservation. 

This is the marker that denotes where the actual four corners is.

Susan was acting silly here. I thought it was cute.

The shadow and light of the benches was interesting for me.

This is Treasure Falls. It's located on US 160.

We weren't able to get to Great Sand Dunes today. I guess tomorrow morning we'll be visiting that park.

Mesa Verde

We went to Mesa Verde National Park today and had a great time.

I seemed to have a little over exposure issues for a few of the 90+ pictures. Still, this had some merit because of the composure.

This is one of the canyons.

 Cliff Palace

 Close ups of part of Cliff Palace.

Another canyon

Sun Temple

Fire Temple and New Fire House

Getting ready.

I checked the fluid levels on the car, and the tire pressure, so it would be as ready as I can get it. Some of the food, and most of the clothes I'm taking is in the car too. Susan is still packing.
After months of not using it I started cleaning my SLR this morning. I will say cleaning cloths aren't as effective on cleaning the lens, and filters as blower brushes used to be. Anyway, the camera is ready now.

Vacation

On Tuesday, Susan and I, will be going on vacation. We're both looking forward to it. Neither of us has been to Mesa Verde before, and she hasn't been to Great Sand Dunes before, or four corners.
I will try to do some posts on our vacation. I'm sure I'll be uploading a lot of pictures to View Bug too. I really like to do the photography competitions.
For the near future I probably won't be posting any more flash fiction shorts. They are fun to do so I'm sure I'll be making more.