Sunrise paints Death Valley’s Cottonwood mountains with a vermillion glow.
The ruins of Abo Pueblo, probably built in the 14th century by the Tanoan people in central New Mexico. The pueblo was abandoned sometime in the 1600s, then re-discovered in 1853. Some of the structures were built during the period of Spanish colonization.
An afternoon storm passes over Albuquerque’s West Mesa volcanos and the Rio Grande: Known locally as the Three Sisters, the cinder cones are the result of lava flows from perhaps as recently at 150,000 years ago. Although the volcanos are dormant, they are not extinct.
This rural cemetery is near the ghost town of Alma, New Mexico, where the famous outlaw, Butch Cassidy, lived in the late 1800s, along with members of his gang, The Wild Bunch.
The strange atmospheric effect of partial rainbows in the bone-dry furnace of Death Valley.
Death Valley, California - Stars emerge in a twilight sky over Badwater Basin, the lowest point of land in the western hemisphere (277 feet below sea level).
The Rio Grande wends its through the arid landscape of the Chihuahuan Desert in southwest Texas.
A grazing bison placidly regards an evening visitor near Medora, North Dakota.
Spectacular cloud formations tower over Marble Canyon, Arizona, where the Navajo Bridge spans the Colorado River.
A turbid Colorado River on its unhurried path through Bright Angel Canyon, Arizona.
Late afternoon settles over the north rim of the Grand Canyon, Arizona
A bison herd grazes in northwest Arizona
Canyonlands, Utah - The Colorado and Green rivers, working over millions of years with other geological forces produced what Edward Abbey called “the most weird, wonderful, magical place on earth.”
Canyonlands, Utah - The Colorado and Green rivers, working over millions of years with other geological forces produced what Edward Abbey called “the most weird, wonderful, magical place on earth.”
Canyonlands, Utah - The Colorado and Green rivers, working over millions of years with other geological forces produced what Edward Abbey called “the most weird, wonderful, magical place on earth.”
Cathedral Valley, Utah: Sedimentation, uplift and erosion create fantastic sandstone shapes in this isolated desert basin.
Cloverdale is a ghost town in the far south of New Mexico. Apache warriors and the U. S. Sixth Cavalry fought in this area, and later, several ranches were established in the early 20th century. The old general store is the last structure still standing at the site of the town.
Winding through the immense arid landscape, the Colorado River carves a boundary between Arizona and Nevada
The plains around Cotton City, New Mexico
The cemetery in the ghost town of Dawson, New Mexico. One of the worst mining disasters in American history occurred here in October 1913, when 263 miners were killed in an explosion. Another 123 miners perished in a 1923 accident. The grave markers show that the miners came from all over Europe to work here.
Eons of weathering and erosion create a natural architecture of fantastic sandstone structures in Devil’s Garden, Utah.
Midnight in Devil’s Garden, Utah - Fantastic rock forms caused by erosion take on an eerie aspect late at night.
The morning sun highlights curves and angles among the sand dunes of Death Valley, California.
Delicate Arch – Utah: The sandstone arch, 52 feet (16 meters) tall, is a result of millennia of weathering and erosion.
An abandoned cabin near Dripping Springs, in the Organ mountains of southern New Mexico. The area was a resort in the late 1800s and early 20th century, and included a hotel, a stagecoach station and a tuberculosis sanitarium.
D. H. Lawrence shrine - New Mexico: The novelist and poet, D. H. Lawrence and his wife, Frieda, briefly lived on the northern New Mexico Kiowa Ranch (now the D. H. Lawrence Ranch) in the 1920s. Years after Lawrence’s death in France, Frieda wanted his ashes brought to the ranch to be placed in this shrine she had built on the ranch grounds. The artist Georgia O’Keeffe spent time at the ranch, and one of her paintings (The Lawrence Tree) depicts Lawrence’s favorite tree there.
Interior - D. H. Lawrence shrine. Lawrence’s wife Frieda constructed this shrine after the writer died in France of TB in 1930 at age 44. The shrine was originally designed to hold Lawrence’s ashes but there is evidence that Lawrence’s ashes actually are not interred there. In the arched niche below the window is a sculpture of the Phoenix, the mythical creature that rises from the ashes of its own destruction. The shrine is on Lobo Mountain, on the Kiowa Ranch in northern New Mexico, north of Taos. See the nearby photo of the shrine’s exterior
White Sands, New Mexico stretches across 275 square miles (710 square kilometers), the largest expanse of gypsum crystals in the world. The area was created by successive periods of complex pre-historic geological activity.
An abandoned homestead gradually crumbles into the landscape near Caprock, New Mexico.
White Sands, New Mexico stretches across 275 square miles (710 square kilometers), the largest expanse of gypsum crystals in the world. The area was created by successive periods of complex pre-historic geological activity.
Near Elkhorn Ranch - North Dakota: Theodore Roosevelt sought the solitude, hard work and beauty of his Elkhorn ranch in the 1880s following the death of his wife and his mother. His time there gave him a respite before he began the long road to the
The Fins of Fire in Big Bend, Texas are composed of magma that was cooled underground, then extruded onto the surface, forming a dike across the landscape. Eons of erosion gave them their fin-like appearance.
A serene moment on a friend's patio - Mesilla, New Mexico.
Ft. Union, a 19th century cavalry post in northern New Mexico, along the old Santa Fe Trail.
Sunset in southern Utah
Johnson Family Cemetery – Texas: U. S. president Lyndon Johnson and generations of his family are buried on the banks of the Pedernales River in “the barren and still isolated hill country of Texas” that did so much to shape LBJ’s early life. The tombstones of LBJ and his wife, Lady Bird are in the center of the first row.
Lake Powell, a man-made lake created by the Glen Canyon dam on the Colorado River. The lake is a reservoir created by flooding the Glen Canyon following completion of the dam in 1963.
A hot air balloon sails over the outskirts of Las Cruces, New Mexico during the annual festival.
Last Motel - Glen Rio, Texas: Glen Rio is a ghost town that straddles two states, Texas and New Mexico. In its glory days, it was a busy railroad town, with the railroad station on the Texas side, and the post office on the New Mexico side. Later, the classic film, The Grapes of Wrath was partially filmed here. The sign in front of the motel originally read, “Last Motel in Texas.” The reverse of the sign read, "First Motel in New Mexico."
This sculpture, Madonna of the Trail, is one of a series of identical monuments placed in the twelve states through which the National Old Trails Highway passed. The monuments were intended to memorialize the contributions of pioneer women in settling the American West. The speaker at the 1928 dedication of the Albuquerque sculpture was Harry S. Truman (later, U.S. president), who at the time was a county judge in Missouri. All twelve monuments were sculpted by August Leimbach. For decades, Albuquerque’s Madonna of the Trail was ensconced in a pretty, inviting neighborhood park. Unfortunately, the landscaping of the park was destroyed to make way for a large state government building—an architectural monstrosity of which Albert Speer would have been proud. The sculpture is now unfortunately diminished by such surroundings. Monument inscription: “To the pioneer mother of America, through whose courage and sacrifice the desert has blossomed, the camp became a home, the blazed trail a thoroughfare.”
The Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge in Nevada was the first concrete-steel composite arch bridge built in the United States, has the widest concrete arch in the Western Hemisphere. And at 890 ft. above the Colorado River, is the second highest bridge in the United States. O’Callaghan was a former governor of Nevada. Tillman was a former professional athlete and U. S. Army Ranger who was killed during the US war in Afghanistan.
These stubborn red sandstone buttes stand tall in Monument Valley, Arizona after the desert has eroded around them over long millennia.
These stubborn red sandstone buttes stand tall in Monument Valley, Arizona after the desert has eroded around them over long millennia.
Cedar Ridge, Arizona
Old and new riders of the plains in the town of Magdalena, New Mexico.
On the shore of the Great Salt Lake, Utah
The Kazan Russian Orthodox Monastery and Seminary in the Barelas neighborhood of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
A pony from a wild herd grazes at sunset near Medora, North Dakota.
A vintage motel - Whites City, New Mexico. Originally, "White's Cavern Camp," it was expanded during the Great Depression to become the Pueblo Motel, serving visitors headed for nearby Carlsbad Caverns.
Quarai ruins in central New Mexico. This building was a Catholic church, in use around 1629-1678. There are a number of sites in the area, dating from around 1250 through the Spanish colonial era, as well as some prehistoric Native American sites.
Rainbow, Mountains and River: A shimmering rainbow arcs across the Madison River, as storm clouds loom over the mountains near Ennis, Montana.
The Rio Grande as it makes its sluggish way through Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Stone sentinels- Monument Valley, Arizona
San Francisco de Asís Mission church – Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico: And adobe structure originally built between 1772 and 1816 when the area was part of New Spain. Georgia O’Keeffe judged it to be “one of the most beautiful buildings left in the United States by the early Spaniards.”
Sanctuario de Chimayó – New Mexico: Thousands of people make pilgrimages—some, going miles on their knees—to this 19th century church each year seeking ‘miracle cures.’
The Sandia Mountains seen from Albuquerque’s West Mesa. The city itself is hidden in the Rio Grande river valley between this mesa and the mountains in the background.
The setting sun bathes the Santa Catalina mountains of Southern Arizona in an iridescent glow.
A picturesque window in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Pueblo Revival architecture of the Santo Tomas El Apostol Church, Abiquiu, New Mexico. Although there has been a church on this site since the 1770s, this structure dates from the late 1930s.
A gnarled Juniper tree—possibly hundreds of years old—clings tenaciously to the south rim of the Grand Canyon.
A sudden thunderstorm on Route 66 west of Albuquerque.
Sunset near Chaco Canyon, New Mexico
A tangle of trees on the banks of the Rio Grande in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
A radio telescope, part of the Very Large Array (VLA) on the Plains of San Agustin, New Mexico, probes the universe as the Earth’s rotation turns the stars into streaks of light overhead. The antenna dish is 82 feet (25 meters) in diameter and weighs 230 tons.
The iconic industrial design of water towers forms an abstract sculpture against the desert sky in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
A scattering of stars in the night sky over a narrow, moonlit canyon -- Tent Rocks, New Mexico
One of the few residences remaining in a small neighborhood in the North Valley of Albuquerque.
A spectacular desert landscape in southern Colorado.
An abandoned schoolhouse in the southeast New Mexico ghost town of Frazier. The structure was built by the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression, using stones from the local area as building material. The town of Frazier withered away in the years following WW II.
A pair of stone formations highlighted in the blazing sunlight of Horseshoe Canyon, Utah.
Slot Canyon Entrance – Page, Arizona. The curvaceous walls of this small canyon are formed by erosion, weathering and periodic flash floods that blast through layers of limestone and sandstone.
Clouds hang low over a Utah highway
Gulls circling Cape Blanco, Oregon
Arroyo after a flash flood, near Green River, Utah
Northern New Mexico after a Rainstorm
A cottonwood grove shelters from the mid-day sun at the base of a sandstone cliff- Horseshoe Canyon, Utah.
A grove of giant Sequoia redwood trees, California
Bright sunlight and fleeting shadows near Big Bend, Texas
A deer on alert at the edge of a forest near Libby, Montana
As a rainstorm approaches in the background, a deer pauses in front of the Very Large Array radio telescope facility on the Plains of San Augustin, New Mexico.
A grove of trees shelters an abandoned windmill, near Antelope Wells, New Mexico. Antelope Wells is the southernmost settlement in New Mexico, a few hundred meters from the U.S. – Mexico border. It is also the southern terminus of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route which stretches north 3,084 miles (4,963 km) to Jasper, Canada.
The Chama River at Abiquiu, New Mexico, near the ranch where Georgia O’Keeffe lived and worked. The river is a 130-mile long tributary to the Rio Grande.
Zabriskie Point, Death Valley, was named after an early 20th century mining company executive., and has been the setting for movies, novels and musical compositions. These dramatic landforms were created by eroded sediments from a lake that disappeared five million years ago.
An abandoned homestead in Old Horse Springs, in the high grasslands of western New Mexico.
Rock Formations on the Oregon Coast
A crumbling farm house in Mule Creek, a ghost town in southern New Mexico.
The San Mateo mountains in south central New Mexico were once the domain of Apache warriors such as Geronimo, Cochise and Victorio, as well as outlaws like Butch Cassidy.