My Images of the West    

 

For sharper image, click on the photograph.

 

 

Dusk, Right-hand Collett Canyon,
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah.

 On the slickrock, Polly's Pasture, Grand Gulch Primitive Area, Utah, June, 2015.

 

 

 

Providence Mountains in spring, from a wind cave in a nearby saddle.
Mojave National Preserve, California.

 

 



Arrow-Leafed Balsamroot overlooking Popo Agie River, Wyoming, May 2012.
(Popo Agie is a Shoshone name, pronounced "Po PO Shuh.")

 

Bent, but not broken.
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, 2007.

 

 Aspens in April anow, central Utah.

 

 

Summer snow, hail, sleet, rain, wind and lightning coming!

Grand Gulch Primitive Area, Utah.

 

 

Coyote bush, Whipple's fishhook, Sagebrush, Common prickly pear

and Cisco woodyaster, Professor Canyon, Utah, May, 2013. 

 

 

 

Birches in Ashley National Forest, Utah, May 21, 2010.

Ahhh.  Time for a nap, with soft music from a crystal clear stream.
About 50 miles southeast of Lander, Wyoming, May 6, 2013.



Birches in Ashley National Forest, Utah, May 21, 2010.

 

My mentors. 
Ashley National Forest, Utah, May, 2010.

Cisco woodyaster (Xylorhia venusta) and
sagebrush along Onion Creek in Utah, May, 2013.

 

 

 Brrr. . . stream exiting Sawmill Lake,

Shoshone National Forest, Wyoming, May, 2012.

 

 

 A claret cup cactus beginning to show its appreciation for April rain.

Clark Range, Mojave National Preserve, 2005.

 

 

 

Easy, respectful free climbing. Clark Mountains, Mojave National Preserve, California, 2005. Nevada is in the distance.

 

After the rain. Looking west toward Clark Mountains,
 Mojave National Preserve, October 18, 2005.

Day's end, Big Bend National Park, Texas.

Drum Peak, New York Mountains, Mojave National Preserve.
 

Beavertail near Providence Mountains SRA, California

in harmony with its neighbors (L to R): creosote,
lechuguilla, barrel cactus and catclaw. (April, 2004)

Frye Lake, the morning after a snowstorm.
Shoshone National Forest, Wyoming, May, 2012

'The greatest revelation is stillness.' --Lao Tzu

Grand Gulch Primitive Area, Utah 1 (April, 2012).
 

Grand Gulch Primitive Area, Utah 2 (April, 2012).

  Grand Gulch Primitive Area, Utah 3 (April, 2012).

A small (1") spider is lurking under the right blossom of this desert
evening primrose, to snack upon the next pollinating insect. 

It kept playing hide-and-seek as I composed this close-up.

 

 

 

 Hole-in-The-Wall, Mojave National Preserve. 

In the 1960s my fellow Marines and I free-climbed these cliffs

on cool, crisp nights under a bright full moon and brilliant stars.

The still night air allowed one to hear normal speech a mile away,

 and coyotes ten miles away. 

 

This old sagebrush in the Wind River Range of Wyoming confided in me,
"I wouldn't trade my life for anything!"  (May, 2012) 

 

Sagebrush doesn't normally cling to rock. But in the
upper reaches of Sinks Canyon, Wind River Range,

Wyoming, a constant 45mph wind leaves little choice.  

 

 

A quiet but inspiring sentinel of Drum Peak in the New York Mountains.
Note new growth on its right side.  Mojave National Preserve, March, 2004. 

Lady Bird Beetle in the snakeweed near Silver King,

Mojave National Preserve, California.

 

Lichen and moss greet morning on the east edge of

Dishpan Butte, central Wyoming, May 8, 2013.
 

Rock and lichen, north side of Clark Mountain, Mojave National Preserve.

"Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look behind the Ranges. 
Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you! Go!" 

-Rudyard Kipling (The Explorer, 1903)
 

Lichen and moss speciation through adaptation. 
Escalante-Grand Staircase National Monument, Utah, April, 2005.

Mineral encrustation in stream bed, Escalante-Grand Staircase National Monument, Utah. Having several times been under the vast inland sea of the Great Basin, much sand and sandstone in Nevada and Utah has a high salt content. As stream levels recede in late spring, exotic crystalline structures of sodium chloride and other minerals often remain.

All is in balance in this igneous rock garden. 
Mojave National Preserve, April, 2004.

A juniper embraces extremes. Clark Mountains, Mojave National Preserve.

 

Alive and well on Death Ridge.
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah, December, 2008.

 

 

 

Sacred canyons seen from Muley Point,

Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Utah.

 

 



Open range Northeast of Rock Springs, Wyoming, May, 2012.

'I love all waste and solitary places, where we taste the pleasure
 of believing what we see is boundless, as we wish our souls to be.'
-Percy Bysshe Shelley

 

A McCormick-Deering 10-20 relaxing in retirement 
west of Wheatlands, Wyoming, May, 2012.



Pallid milkweed (Asclepias cryptoceras),
Professor Creek Canyon, Utah, May 2013. 

'What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have yet to be discovered.' 

–Ralph Waldo Emerson

Paintbrush northeast of Escalante, Utah. Cloudy April day, 2005.

Palo Verde root borer beetle (Derobrachus geminatus), Mojave National Preserve, 2009. New subspecies? All other descriptions and images of this species indicate brown or mottled brown coloration.

Popo Agie (pronounced "Po PO shuh") River roars down Sinks Canyon.
Wind River Range, Wyoming, May, 2012.

Prickly pear (beavertail) in winter phase. 

Big Bend National Park, Texas, December 2, 2004.

Pristine birches on snowy Utah hillside, April 24, 2005.

 

October cloud mantle.  
Providence Mountains, Mojave National Preserve, 2005.
 

East of the Providence Mountains,

Mojave National Preserve, California, March 9, 2004. 

'Generations of seekers have gone into the wilderness and have encountered spirits both benevolent and terrible. Though the possibility of great discovery is mixed with the threat of misadventure, we must all go into the mountains to seek these answers. We should understand that these mountains represent the unknown aspects of our own minds. Meditation is a process of discovery, of slowly exploring how you function as a human being. Through walking in the vastness of this land you can resolve the problems of your psyche and seek the treasures buried in your soul. Like actual mountain exploration, this process is not without danger. Failure means falling into disorder and obsession.  Success is to find treasures without comparison anywhere in the world.' --Deng Ming-Dao, 365 Tao (Excerpted from March 13).

 

 

Purple sage near Silver King, Mojave National Preserve, April 18, 2004.

 

Snow melt near Drum Peak.

New York Mountains, Mojave National Preserve, March 5, 2004

 

 

 

Stream bed, Escalante-Grand Staircase National Monument, Utah. 
The assertive green sprout is two inches tall. Each colorful stone
and each grain of sand has its own unique history over
 millions of years, and which will continue through the eons.

Become the sunset. Slow yourself to the pace of nature's changing art.  

Big Bend National Park, Texas, December 1, 2004.

Sunset in Sinks Canyon, Wind River Range, Wyoming, May 2012.

 Ancient survivor on the southern slope of Drum Peak,

New York Mountains, Mojave National Preserve, March 6, 2004.

 

The cool, clear water of Professor Creek, Utah invites wading.   May, 2013.

The perfect hill.  Mojave National Preserve, March 5, 2004

Interdependence.
Ashley National Forest, Utah, 8:47 pm, May 21, 2010.

New York Mountains twilight. 
Mojave National Preserve, 9 pm, March 6, 2004.

In the Grand Gulch Primitive Area of Utah, April, 2011.

 

 

I discovered several caves in the Permian limestone above

 Silver King in the Providence Mountains of Mojave National Preserve.

My climbing does not impress the bighorn sheep.  (March, 2004)

 

Halfway up Dishpan Butte, central Wyoming at 8 am, May 8, 2013.

(My truck is at center left.)

 

 Rough mulesears (Wyethia Scabra), Ute Canyon,

Colorado National Monument, May 2013.

'The earth laughs in flowers.' –Ralph Waldo Emerson.  

 

Chilly spring hillside, Shoshone National Forest, Wyoming, May 2012.

Blue sky, snow flurries. . . it's magical.

 

Morning sun warms Dark Canyon Wilderness, Utah.   June 2, 2015

 

 

Prickly Pear on fragile microbiome, Grand Gulch Primitive Area, Utah, June, 2015.

Double bladderpod in June glory, 

15 miles north of Natural Bridges National Monument, Utah

Sea Salt Evaporation Basin, Amboy, California, April, 2005.

Springtime Aspens, Dixie National Forest, Utah, June, 2015.

Surreality.

Undisclosed location, Grand Staircase-Escalante
National Monument, Utah, Spring, 2015.

Fidelity. 

On Hell's Backbone, Southwest of Boulder, Utah, June, 2015.

I've added a few quotes to several of my images.

Link: MY IMAGES. . . WITH REFLECTIONS

One of my Facebook albums also includes a few of these images, at
 https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2003577046526.2106953.1156613318&type=3. 
A classic Arthur Chapman poem, Out Where the West Begins, introduces the album.

I invite you to my author page at  https://www.amazon.com/William-Walsh/e/B01M1AAY6J/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1