One Row at a Time
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After a couple of failed attempts — one year the Rio Grande ran too low to float a canoe, another year it moved too fast to be safe — we finally made it into Santa Elena Canyon by canoe in … Read More
Paradise Lost: A Canyon Under Siege
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Anyone who has ever been to Big Bend National Park has probably hiked into Santa Elena Canyon — it’s one of the park’s signature trails, and the view is unforgettable. This shot was taken at golden hour, looking out over … Read More
Walls That Need No Wall
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On a December morning in 2021, I stood at the mouth of Santa Elena Canyon in Big Bend National Park, where the Rio Grande slips between limestone walls that rise as much as 1,500 feet (457 m) above the water. … Read More
Lens-Artists Challenge #373: Looking Back at LAC #31: Landscapes
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I am relatively new to the Lens-Artists challenges. I discovered the group in 2023 and served as a guest host in September of that year. I officially joined the team in January 2024. So, when we began the Looking Back … Read More
Black Diamonds of the Wild
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Black is beautiful. When it comes to black in wildlife, that saying is spot-on. The American black bear (Ursus americanus) you see above was photographed at Big Bend NP, near one of the park’s busiest and most popular trails, the Lost Mine … Read More
Our Power, Our Planet
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Happy Earth Day 2025! The post’s title is this year’s theme: Our Power, Our Planet. This marks the 55th anniversary of Earth Day. As we were leaving Big Bend National Park a couple of years ago, we experienced a beautiful … Read More
Mariscal Mine
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Lens-Artists Challenge #344: Abandoned Getting to Mariscal Mine in Big Bend National Park may not be easy. High-clearance vehicles with four-wheel drive are required. When we first visited this area in 2007, the ranger told us that he was not sure … Read More
Lens-Artists Challenge #342 – It’s a Wild Life!
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“It is in the wild places, where the edge of the earthmeets the corners of the sky, the human spirit is fed.”[Art Wolfe, American photographer and conservationist] What is wild? A dictionary definition includes living in a state of nature, … Read More
One Scene, Three Views
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I used to zoom to the max back in the day when I got my first camera with a good zoom lens. Of course, I lost a lot of contextual stories. Sometimes zooming in works well, and sometimes not. For … Read More
Vernon Bailey Mountain
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It is undeniable that Big Bend NP has a lot of iconic views and hikes. The park is 1,252 square miles or 801,163 acres. That makes it the fifteenth largest park in the National Park System and the eighth in … Read More