Tag: Tonopah

Saddle Mountain Picture of the Week

I have mixed feelings about this week’s landmark that depend on which side I see it from. Saddle Mountain is located on the south side of Interstate 10 at Tonopah. When I used to ride the shuttle vans to the Wintersburg power plant, seeing the mountain meant that I had to wake up and go to work. But, whenever we returned from an extended California trip, I was always on the lookout for that distinctive saddle. When it came into view, it meant that we’d crossed into Maricopa County, and we were almost home. Phoenix was still an hour away, but at least we were on home turf.

Saddle Mountain is easiest to recognize when traveling east on the freeway. It’s the big birthday cake that a telephone pole fell on. It’s the dent in the middle that describes it, although you’d have to have pretty long legs to ride it. As you get closer, you’ll see many blocks and spires rising from its base. It has a lot of the same characteristics as the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix. It’s said that the Flatiron face of the Superstitions is an ancient volcanic plug. On the other hand, Saddle Mountain—like its neighboring ranges—was formed by our old friends, rhyolite and tuff.

Being a couple of miles outside of Tonopah, it’s an easy place to get to. It’s not a wilderness area, so dirt roads are crisscrossing the surrounding land. In winter, snow-birds frequently dry camp in the flats. Signs say that the camping limit is 10 days, but I wonder if anyone enforces that.

Saddle Mountain - Blocks and spires adorn Saddle Mountain's north face.
Saddle Mountain – Blocks and spires adorn Saddle Mountain’s north face.

I’ve tried to photograph the mountain several times, but I never came away satisfied. It’s one of those places where you want to get in close to show the details, but you lose its distinctive overall shape when you do. This week’s featured image is an example of what I mean. I wanted to show the blocks and spires that adorn the mountain’s north face, but the saddle’s trough was hidden behind the ridge when I did. I’m pleased with this image, but there’s so much more to shoot that it frustrates me. Perhaps Queen Anne and I could drag the trailer down there for a camping trip later this spring.

You can see a larger version of Saddle Mountain on its Web Page by clicking here. Come back next week when we present our final December landmark. Both Queen Anne and I are wishing you a happy and safe holiday season.

 

Until next time — jw

Courthouse Rock Picture of the Week

After five years of retirement, I realize I slowly get things done by putzing. As I grow older, I don’t have a young person’s stamina, so I limit how much time I work in my shop or office. I am organized about it. I have certain days that I do things. There’s wood-Monday where I work in the shop; music is when I manage my music catalog; web- Saturday is when I update my website; and today—blog- Sunday—I write my posts. Each week’s highlight is dump-Thursday when Queen Anne rewards me for taking out the trash by treating me to Eggs Benedict at Nichols.

The remaining days are our weekend. Like the rest of America, we go shopping, on photo outings, visit our ever-growing list of doctors, and do chores around the house—if I must. I can also appropriate these days if I need more time for another priority. So, I’ve organized my interests into neat little day-packets. That way, I get to play with all of my toys. That’s important because if I don’t use them, Anne has threatened to haul them off to Goodwill. My system keeps me busy, yet there’s plenty of time for naps.

Imagine how frustrated I get when a week—like this one—comes along and upsets my routine. With this month’s I-10 project, I must go out each week to get a new shot. I planned to go out on Tuesday, but afternoon clouds moved in. Wednesday, it rained, so I swapped it with music Friday because Anne wasn’t here to gripe. The clouds remained on Thursday, but that didn’t stop me from going to the dump and buying my breakfast (there was hell to pay when the restaurant staff wanted to know what I’d done to Anne). Friday was still dull and gray, and I’d already done music Friday on Tuesday, so I had to sit on my hands. I needed a picture for Saturday’s update.

Yesterday, I set the alarm for 5:00 a.m. and drove down to Courthouse Rock in the dark. I repeated a mantra as I went, “Please let there be good light. Please let there be good light.” When I arrived, I was rewarded with high clouds, but the eastern horizon was clear. I only had about an hour to shoot as clouds were already gathering. This is the shot that I liked the best; I call it Courthouse Rock.

Courthouse Rock - Located in the north-east corner of the Eagletail Mountains Wilderness Area, Courthouse attracts rock climbers across the globe.
Courthouse Rock – Located in the northeast corner of the Eagletail Mountains Wilderness Area, the Courthouse attracts rock climbers across the globe.

The rock is the northeast corner of the Eagletail Mountains Wilderness west of Tonopah. You can see it on the south side of Interstate 10, less than a half-hour drive from the truck stop. If you take the dirt roads—as I did—the time doubles. The road in the lower right section of the photo gets closer, but I was running out of the golden light. I was still a mile away from the rock when I took this photo.

Courthouse Rock is well known to rock climbers, so it gets a lot of worldly visitors. As I left, at least a half-dozen SUVs loaded with people were on their way to the Courthouse. The vertical wall that looks like a curl from a Dairy Queen machine presents a challenge similar to Yosemite’s El Capitan. Besides the height, the most remarkable difference is that California’s is granite (lava that cools slowly underground). At the same time, ours is Rhyolite (thick air-cooled lava squirted out of an ice cream machine).

You can see a larger version of Courthouse Rock on its Web Page by clicking here. Next week, I’ll present another of my favorite I-10 landmarks. Because it’s sunny and clear today, I’m going out to shoot it this afternoon—none of this last-minute panic for me. Of course, it will have to wait until after my nap.

Until next time — jw