Posted on February 6, 2019, 9:18 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Petrified Forest National Park at first doesn’t appear to be prime hiking territory since the park features relatively short trails that lead to areas of concentrated petrified wood. Because of the open terrain in many of them, it can be difficult to exclude other people from your photos. However, if you are willing to venture […]
Posted on December 3, 2018, 8:14 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
This year, I’ve written about quite a few national monuments. Some of them are larger and, in my opinion, more interesting than some national parks. However, they form a disparate collection with a huge range of resources, and Yucca House National Monument is a case in point. Yucca House was first described in F. V. […]
Posted on November 26, 2018, 7:30 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Of all America’s prehistoric civilizations, none left more visible traces than the Ancestral Puebloan culture, and nowhere else in the country can one find so many of their ancient sites, than at Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. The Anasazi or Ancestral Puebloan culture flourished between AD 300 and 1300 in the Four Corners area. […]
Posted on November 12, 2018, 12:00 am, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Wetherill Mesa is the quieter side of Mesa Verde National Park, but a few other cliff houses see even less visitation, even though they are some of the most visible structures in the park, like Square Tower House. Find out in this post about the most special tours in the park, which started only in […]
Posted on November 4, 2018, 3:00 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Wetherill Mesa, located on the west side of Mesa Verde National Park, is a long and narrow peninsula of land rising above deep canyons. Its rock alcoves are home to structures as impressive as those found on Chapin Mesa, however the experience of visiting is quite different. Many visitors rush through the landscape of the […]
Posted on October 29, 2018, 5:33 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
A few weeks ago, when I drove out of Montrose, Colorado, on the way to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, a sign warned of winter conditions. I wondered what that meant, but quickly found out as the nighttime temperatures dropped to the upper tens. The next day turned out cold and mostly cloudy. […]
Posted on October 8, 2018, 1:08 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
The dual side of Hanford Reach, and reason for the accidental existence of Hanford Reach National Monument, is the Hanford Site (Hanford Nuclear Reservation) the former top secret Manhattan Project plutonium production facility established in 1943, which is almost entirely surrounded by the national monument. Visiting the mysterious site used to require a security clearance, […]
Posted on October 1, 2018, 12:48 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Hanford Reach could the national monument with the most unusual history of all. Its lands, located in Eastern Washington, were initially set apart from development not for conservation, but as a security buffer zone for the top-secret Hanford Nuclear Reservation where the plutonium for the Nagasaki bomb – and many others during the Cold War […]
Posted on September 10, 2018, 10:15 am, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Observing natural changes is a rewarding aspect of revisiting a place, as I did for the Tinkers Creek Gorge of Cuyahoga National Park – obscure and far from California. The water flow fluctuated, and you can see in this post which conditions worked best for each scene and how I adjusted my composition in response […]
Posted on September 3, 2018, 10:54 am, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Mammoth Cave National Park is generally a dry place. I explore a few out-of-the-way watery places within the park, while discussing some of the compositional strategies I used in those relatively plain scenes. Sloan’s Crossing Pond Water has made the longest cave in the world. The karst landscape of Mammoth Cave National Park is characterized […]
