Terra Galleria Photography

Posts Tagged ‘culture’

Searching for Falling Man and Newspaper Rock

Although the landscapes and rock formations in Gold Butte National Monument are striking, one of the main reasons for establishing the monument was to preserve the artifacts left by the Moapa band of Paiutes (or Nuwuvi) who have lived in this area for some 3,000 years. They include some of the most impressive petroglyph panels […]

Two iconic ruins in Bears Ears National Monument

Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon have the most famous massive multi-room Ancestral Puebloan ruins in the Southwest. However, when it comes to smaller structures, in addition to harboring the highest concentration of them anywhere, Bears Ears National Monument’s Cedar Mesa area is home to possibly the two most iconic of them: House of Fire and […]

Visiting Anhui’s Ancient Villages

Shanghai is China’s most populous and properous city, while Mount Huangshan is China’s most well known national park. As the country is marching towards urbanization and industrialization, traditional villages have largely disappeared or changed during the last century. Located in South Anhui province, Hongcun and Xidi are rare surviving examples of those traditional villages. Designated […]

Yucca House: the Worst National Monument?

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. […]

Canyons of the Ancients National Monument: an Interconnected Cultural Landscape

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. […]

Least-visited in Mesa Verde: a New Angle on Square Tower House

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 […]

Wetherill Mesa: the Quieter Side of Mesa Verde National Park

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 […]

Stumbling into Alaska’s mining past in Nabesna, Wrangell-St Elias National Park

For something a bit different within our national parks, I visited the incredibly raw and well-preserved mining ghost town of Nabesna, a rare and off-limits find in the quiet northern corner of Wrangell-St Elias Of the two roads that lead into Wrangell-St Elias National Park, Nabesna Road, which opens up the northern reaches of the […]

New Series: “The Theater”

In the context of my project America’s Best Idea, I’ve started a new series called The Theater, which is still in its early phase compared to the other series in the project such as The Visitor and the series linked within. The National Park Service Organic Act of 1916 states two goals: to conserve the […]

New Series: “The Visitor”

While my nature photography celebrates mostly the wildness of the landscape, I have also been examining the national park idea through The Window and The Sign series. They pay homage to the work of the National Park Service via some of their most archetypical infrastructure, which have now spread around the world. In addition to […]