Random Photos from Road Trips

I was looking for photos that I took near Zzyzx Road (Megan is presenting an academic paper on the "meaning" behind Zzyzx) and I found some other photos that you might find interesting.

This photo was captured on July 9, 2020 about 1/10th of mile from I-15 just south of the Cima Road off-ramp in Southern California. I had been hiking and was walking back to my car when these two critters decided that they could "buffalo" me. Their attempt to encourage my return to my vehicle was successful. There was just a tad too much 'tude from them.

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...imaRD-Cows.jpg
Curious cows along I-15, near Cima Road by Mark Sedenquist

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...loads/Bull.jpg
Another view of one of those characters that "encouraged" me to get back in the car.

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...ads/Cows-2.jpg
Still taking a dim view of me being there -- see the I-15 call box in the rear of the photo?


Likewise, this jackrabbit attempted to "buffalo" me, but he wasn't all that intimidating.
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...aRD-Rabbit.jpg
Same day, about three minutes before I ran into the open range cattle.

Gotta love those ears!

Yep, she/he knew I was there long before I saw her/him.

Mark

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...0_DSCN4753.jpg
Looking past the former Kokoweef Caverns sign at the MolyCorp mine at Mtn Pass, California
(Mark Sedenquist on March 12, 2006)

I drove past the mine two days ago and the tailings pile is extraordinarily tall -- making a new mountain there. I will have to go and get a new photo.

Mark

Mark, thanks for this opportunity to post atypical images from past trips. I would like to share some of mine from my first trip to Europe, specifically to Ireland. Now when most people think of such a visit they imagine scenes such as kissing the Blarney Stone, driving the Ring of Kerry, standing on the edge of the Cliffs of Moher, hiking the Giants Causeway, everywhere green, green, green - and stunningly beautiful images.

My experience was, shall we say, a bit different. The trip was part of a University of Delaware program to facilitate student travel in pursuit of knowledge. In my case this was in furtherance of some courses I was taking in photography. I note this because the course I was taking was aimed towards training the eye, so everything had to be shot as B/W slides. The thing about that restriction was that we processed the film ourselves, and the film that went through the camera was exactly the same film that got cut up after development and put into slide frames. No lighting or focus adjustments, no cropping, no anything - just exactly what the camera captured when you clicked the shutter.

Also, I did not go to the Republic of Ireland, but rather to Belfast in Northern Ireland during what was euphemistically called The Troubles. And another 'also', I managed to get myself detained by the British Army (King's Own Scots Borderers) whose Major suggested that I accompany his soldiers through the streets as he casually dropped my passport into his desk drawer. I decided it was in my interest to comply with his suggestion. So with that as background, here are some of the resulting pictures...

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/foru...1&d=1728693763


https://www.roadtripamerica.com/foru...3&d=1728694010


https://www.roadtripamerica.com/foru...5&d=1728694053


https://www.roadtripamerica.com/foru...4&d=1728694038


https://www.roadtripamerica.com/foru...0&d=1728694169


https://www.roadtripamerica.com/foru...8&d=1728694126


https://www.roadtripamerica.com/foru...6&d=1728694070


https://www.roadtripamerica.com/foru...7&d=1728694103


https://www.roadtripamerica.com/foru...2&d=1728693931


https://www.roadtripamerica.com/foru...9&d=1728694138

AZBuck

Hey, Buck,

These are great! It clearly took some guts just to be walking the steets in those circumstances, much less pointing a camera at people with weapons, and taking the time to compose each of your photos. Traveling the world in my (much) younger days, I found myself in the middle of dangerous situations on a number of occasions--and I'll freely admit that I never had the stones to whip out my Nikon!

Rick

Yes, pretty awesome collection of photos and the back story is memorable too.

Thanks for sharing.

Mark

To be perfectly honest, I never thought in terms of fear or danger, and the time spent on the streets with the soldiers was not the scariest moment of that trip. My first unsettling encounter came early on. It had rained nearly continuously for the first few days I was in Belfast, so I spent the time at the Queen's University student union talking to people and getting suggestions as to what I should go see once the sun came out.

One place that kept getting mentioned was a flea market. I went and made the rounds of the stalls taking pictures mostly of the buyers and the general ambiance. But when I went to leave I was forced up against a wall by 3 or 4 men who wanted to know what I was doing. Once it became clear to them that I was a naïve (clueless) American, they let me go. Only after I got home and developed the slides did I notice that in every image I had of the sellers, they had a bag or newspaper in front of their faces. Aha! They were selling stolen merchandise.

I will admit to being a bit startled when I first turned around (at Long Kesh, the prison where the IRA members were kept) and saw 2 jeep-loads of soldiers with M-16s drawn. It was also a bit unnerving as they patted me down and stopped each time they came to a pocket in which I had stored a lens. But again I was a clueless young American who complied with their every request. When they took me in, the Major told the Sargent in charge of the patrol to 'examine' my equipment. Well there's only one way to examine a camera and film and sure enough when I got home I had no pictures of Long Kesh and one roll of exposed film.

Once out on the streets with the soldiers, it was a bit otherworldly but not frightening in the least. As you can see, soldiers and children co-existed on the streets and the youngsters didn't seem particularly afraid. Indeed that turned into the theme of the project, that interaction between the soldiers and the populace, particularly the children.

The only other time I worried was when I was crossing from Northern Ireland into the Republic. I had hitch-hiked a ride and as we were coming up to the border, the driver said to me "Now act normal, I'm smuggling." As we approached the checkpoint the thought occurred to me that any guns or explosives would be smuggled the other way, northbound. So again I decided that there was not much I could do but see how it all unfolded. As it turned out, he was smuggling contraceptive devices into the heavily Catholic Republic.

In any event, travel is supposed to be enlightening and rewarding. I have a story still worth telling and pictures still worth showing some 50 years later. So I guess it was all worth it.

AZBuck

The last time I was in Peru (1973) I flew into Cuzco from Lima, and landed in the middle of a tense demonstration. Hundreds of students were protesting a violent incident that had taken place the previous day in a different city (Puno). Three young people who were involved in an entirely seperate protest were shot and killed by the soldiers sent to keep the peace, and the mood, even there in Cuzco, the gateway to Machu Picchu, was close to the boiling point. Fires broke out in several of the government buildings lining the square, black smoke coiling into the sky. Police and soldiers formed ranks, and people in the crowd started prying up paving stones from the cobblestone streets, and hurling them at the soldiers, crouched behind their wall of riot shields. Right about then, tanks rolled into the square, and the soldiers moved forward in a line, swinging clubs that broke bones with sickening thuds. I prudently beat feet for higher ground, and watched from a distance as the army took over the city. There was a dusk to dawn curfew through the rest of my stay. Walking back to my hotel after dinner that night, I was a couple of minutes past the bell, as were several young Peruvians walking on the same street, and while I watched, a squad of soldiers appeared and beat them bloody with rubber truncheons. My camera stayed out of sight throughout the festivities.

This was a dark era in many parts of Latin America. The Generals were in charge, and they ruled with an iron fist!

Rick

This is one of the few surviving photos of the Dodge Powerwagon that I shipped to South America, the year I graduated from college. The picture was taken in Ecuador in 1973. The road in the background is the Panamerican Highway, and the two lines on the road represent the equator.

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...ne-Sept-73.jpg

In the far background, obscured by clouds, is Volcan Cayembe, a volcano that's close to 19,000 feet tall, crowned by permanent glaciers (right on the equator, no less). In the Andes, altitude is everything!

I must say that your experience in Peru tops mine in terms of sheer danger! The picture of your truck straddling the Equator also reminded me of two places I have always wanted to get to but never will. Both are in oceans: the intersection of the Prime Meridian and the Equator (Atlantic) and the intersection of the Equator and the International Dateline (Pacific) where one can be in all four hemispheres at the same time.

AZBuck

I had never thought of this kind of "four corners" experience. Yeah, I doubt I will ever have the means or the reason to tarry at the intersection of those four "lines."

And with respect to Rick's experiences -- from the stories I have heard -- the Peru trip, described above, wouldn't even be in the top 10 of his most dangerous scrapes with certain folks. In some ways, Rick was a real life "Indiana Jones" in his misspent youth.

Mark

My husband has crossed the Equator at least 2 or 3 times (courtesy of the US Navy), as well as the International Dateline (also USN). It's possible to be in two hemispheres and two days at the same time, but it isn't a common occurrence with the USN. Navy guys have a special thing when they cross the Equator for the first time.


Donna

So, I started this thread, looking for photos of Zzyzx, still haven't found the ones I thought I still had, but here is one from October 8, 2024:

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...942707_HDR.jpg
(Reflecting Pond)



Glenwood Springs Hot Springs -- that is I-70 in the foreground and the Colorado River.
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...958186_HDR.jpg
(April 29, 2024)



And including this one, dating from March 2024 -- This is Red Rock Canyon near on the edge of Las Vegas and I put it here, because you might think this is a rainstorm.
But it is a Duststorm.
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...0302_HDR-1.jpg



This is from the Navy Yard at San Francisco. Does anyone recognize what the line of sailors/families/??? is doing on the dock?
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...F_NavyPier.jpg



This is a photo I shot of Zzyzx Springs on February 11, 2006. I chartered a plane to get some aerial shots. I still don't know what happened to the photos I did in 1994, but you can spot the reflecting pool in this long-distance shot. It also shows some of the dry lake bed.
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...s/DSCN4584.jpg

Some great photo's and memories being shared here!

Quote:

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This is from the Navy Yard at San Francisco. Does anyone recognize what the line of sailors/families/??? is doing on the dock?

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Could they be lining up to represent the number 7, the number on the side of the ship?

(Doh! It's the wrong way round! )

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Southwest Dave

Could they be lining up to represent the number 7, the number on the side of the ship?

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I guess that could be answer, but who could see that? (I don't know the answer, I just find it very curious)

Are you back from your road trip?

Mark

Quote:

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I guess that could be answer, but who could see that?

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I was thinking some type of aerial shot, but it's a real wild stab in the dark!

Quote:

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Are you back from your road trip?

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Yes, home now. Had a great couple of weeks exploring the Lake district here in the UK.

Dave

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Southwest Dave

Had a great couple of weeks exploring the Lake district here in the UK.

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I would love to go exploring that region sometime.

Mark

To be more precise, it's a llama, standing in Lake Titicaca, taken in Peru in 1971!

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...a-Llama-sm.jpg

Gotta to wonder why the Llama was standing in the lake!

Mark

A couple more random photos.

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog..._095502218.jpg
(September 2019 with Peter Thody) This is the upper drainage of Grapevine Canyon, and a reasonably tough climb to even get here. For me, this is my "secret spot."


Greater Alberta, this is the Bleriot Ferry
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...otFerry_05.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mark Sedenquist

Gotta to wonder why the Llama was standing in the lake!

Mark

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Cooling his heels? Actually, I've always wondered that very thing, whenever I look at this photo. I just asked "Perplexity," the AI search engine, if such a sighting might be common, and the computer replied:

"Seeing a llama standing in shallow water near the shore of Lake Titicaca is relatively uncommon. While llamas are native to the region and often found grazing on the Altiplano, they typically prefer dry land rather than wading in water. The lake’s shallow areas may occasionally attract llamas, especially during hot weather, but such sightings are not a regular occurrence."

And there you have it.

Rick

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...icut-Woods.jpg


Unsafe at any speed! Taken in the Connecticut woods, May of '79.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rick Quinn

Unsafe at any speed! Taken in the Connecticut woods, May of '79.

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Be nice! I've owned 3 Corvairs in my life and I liked them.

Well at least the flags are both red, white and blue (or white, blue and red). Note the car is a
Ford rather than a Lada, the two different license plates (Texas and Russia) and the 'bumper' sticker in the rear window using the Cyrillic alphabet.

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/foru...7&d=1542687784

Shot in Moscow, 2006 while on a business trip.

AZBuck

Addendum: In posting this I realized for the first time that Russian license plates use the Roman alphabet rather than the Cyrillic. Probably to comply with some European Standard.

When I was a young dude, driving all over the Northern Andes in my Dodge Powerwagon, I discovered a very cool road outside the city of Manizales, in Colombia. The tallest mountain in the area was the Nevado del Ruiz, a stratovolcano that soared to 17,500 feet, high enough for a permanent crown of snow. They built a ski lodge at the snowline, mostly a bar serving brandy and hot toddies, plus maybe four small rooms for overnight guests. Nobody in their right mind would actually try to ski there, as the surface was much too icy and rocky. The road to the lodge took you to nearly 16,000 feet, and the kind of view that's usually reserved for mountain climbers. I drove up there twice, in 1973, and again in 1974, and always remembered it fondly as an extraordinary place.

My friends and I knew the mountain was a volcano, but it was dormant, so we didn't think much about it, and perhaps we should have! Ten years later, the Nevado blew its top, and the eruption caused a mudslide, a lahar, that roared down the mountain in the middle of the night and buried an entire town, killing 26,000 people as they slept.

My truck is just visible in the lower left corner, parked in a place that no longer exists!

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...iz-10-74-7.jpg

US Navy Seals (in-training) running down the beach after an arduous 4 hours ocean trials in rough seas.
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...Run-home-1.jpg
Del Coronado Hotel, March 2024
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Interstate 70 traversing the San Rafael Swell.
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...319242_HDR.jpg
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Megan Edwards (co-founder RTA) at Cedar Breaks NM
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...eaks_Megan.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rick Quinn

My truck is just visible in the lower left corner, parked in a place that no longer exists!

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...iz-10-74-7.jpg

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Wow! That's a dramatic photo and an equally dramatic explanation!

Mark

And I have posted similar ones in the past, but this is still pretty darn striking.

Lake Manly in Death Valley NP in February, 2024
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...ater_jpg-1.jpg
This is just SE of Badwater.

Mark

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mark Sedenquist

Lake Manly in Death Valley NP in February, 2024

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...ater-Llama.jpg


Mark

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You were missing the llama, so I fixed it for you.

Rick

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...e-la-Cocha.jpg

This was taken at the Lago de La Cocha, near Pasto, Colombia, at an elevation of 9700 feet. My friends and I used to drive my truck out there for the weekend and stay in a lovely lakeside hotel. We'd go out on the lake and fish for trout, and whatever we caught, the hotel restaurant would clean and cook, and serve it to us for dinner. Without a doubt, the best trout I've ever eaten!

Rick

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rick Quinn

You were missing the llama, so I fixed it for you.

Rick

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Oh, that's funny!

mark

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...an-Agustin.jpg

The first Sony Walkman didn’t go on sale until July of 1979, and yet here is a prototype version, carved in stone, no less, that predates the official release by at least 1,000 years. Ancient aliens? Who the heck knows!

When I was tooling around Colombia in my Powerwagon (circa 1973), my sister and two of her friends flew down to join me for a few weeks. Quite naturally, we took a road trip, and toured some of the most interesting parts of that wildly diverse country. The photo was taken during one of our stops, at the San Agustin Archaeological Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the Huila Department of Southwestern Colombia, a mountainous region near the headwaters of the Magdalena River. Within the park is the largest complex of funerary monuments and statuary on the South American continent, hundreds of monolithic statues, carved from blocks of volcanic rock, standing as much as twelve feet tall. (The statue in the photo above is about six feet tall). The complex includes dozens of burial mounds, hundreds of standing stones, and an assortment of elaborate mausoleums built with massive stone slabs. The statues represent gods and mythical beings, and were erected to adorn and protect the tombs of elite members of a society that flourished in these fertile intermontane valleys for more than two thousand years, beginning ten centuries before the time of Christ.

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...n-71-2-blk.jpg

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...tin-8-71-9.jpg

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...in-8-73-12.jpg

Here's another odd bit of ancient history, closer to home:

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...ez-MS-4-79.jpg

Photo taken in Natchez, Mississippi in the Spring of '79. At that time, from the perspective of a couple of long-haired young folk passing through in a Volkswagen bug, the deep south felt like a foreign country (where we were not entirely welcome).

Rick

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...ep-02-2016.jpg

The "arrow tree," formerly located alongside US 191 (formerly US 666), south of Alpine, Arizona. This pine was a favorite target for bow hunters passing by on the highway. The tree died (duh), and the last I heard, it was felled in a thunderstorm. So much for THAT silly tradition!

Rick

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rick Quinn

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...ep-02-2016.jpg

The "arrow tree," formerly located alongside US 191 (formerly US 666), south of Alpine, Arizona. This pine was a favorite target for bow hunters passing by on the highway. The tree died (duh), and the last I heard, it was felled in a thunderstorm. So much for THAT silly tradition!

Rick

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That is just bizarre. I had never heard of this before. I can't even imagine walking anywhere within 100 yards of this tree--seems like the chance of being hit by an errant arrow would be extreme.

Great capture.

Mark

Do you know what this structure is? Or where it is located?

It is in the ghost town of Standardville, Utah and is a coal storage tank.
I was going to do a field report about this canyon and the ghost towns, but I don't seem able to find the time.

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...654763_HDR.jpg
(September 30, 2024--Mark Sedenquist)

This sweet teddy bear is chuffing at her two-year old cub who is wandering up to our car on the Bow River Parkway near Banff, Alberta.

Shortly after I shot this photo, this Ma Grizzly turned toward the car and chuffed at us a couple of times. Mildly intimidating to being this close to a Grizz and having her dumb cub walk up to our car.

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...wRiverPkwy.jpg
(May 30, 2023)

As you can imagine, we weren't opening any windows or doing anything to cause her any grief. She and her cub were about to go and check out the garbage dump at a nearby campground.

The reflection is on the inside of the windshield.

We hadn't intended to get this close. But the bears crossed the road in front of us and then the silly cub swung around and approached our car. Ma Grizz also turned around and headed in our direction.

But she snarled a tad at the cub and he reversed direction and joined his ma in the trees. We drove on by and left them in peace.

That's a bodacious bear! (And a bit too close for comfort!)

My next pic was taken along the Alaska Highway, just west of Liard Hot Springs. This Canadian Bison was big enough and close enough to my Jeep to be a threat, but he was too busy eating flowers (fireweed) to so much as notice me.

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...n-Browsing.jpg

Rick

That is an awesome photo of a bison bull. Yeah, I don't know how close you were, but that seems a tad closer than ideal.

But a magnificent beast, none-the-less!

Mark