Ancient Skyline - Colorado River

[Steve Sieren]

Colorado River on the California - Arizona border.

Hey all, here is a view of the Colorado River along the California - Arizona border. I've been exploring the Mojave Desert alot lately looking for new icons, had to do a little bit of hiking and scrambling to get to this viewpoint. I planned on backpacking here but when I went to look for info on where to park I couldn't find any, so it was mostly just a guessing game which only added extra miles to the hiking. I did not account for the extra miles before hand so I didn't make it as far as I wanted. A lot of work for a scouting session, at least next time I know to start earlier.

Between the hour of dusk and moonrise I received a phone call from my roomates mentioning that the sheriff had been by my house looking for me because they found my car parked where no one backpacks, they just wanted know if I was ok. I decided to pack up and hike back through the ravines, sand dunes, and canyon narrows because I wasn't sure if I would be towed, there wasn't any services for miles and you can imagine how much of a problem that would create and I knew my cell phone would likely be dead by morning. Well, turns out the car was there so I had a lot easier time sleeping that night. You can find so much out there in the Mojave.

8 shot pano with 2 horizontal rows of 4 horizontal images blended in CS4's automerge. The focal length was 105mm at f16 iso 100. I usually do not process most pano work when I exposure bracket but this was just one shot so I figured it would be easy. My computer actually crashed once while merging a pano.

SS

[wfeller]

Nice position along the river there. Much closer up than the standard view of the Needles. I love the colors. My wife never believed they were like what she would see in my shots until I took her out for a sunset a few years back. Good work.

http://aeve.com/1/2010/777-r2627-v2.jpg

[Steve Sieren]

Watler, I've stumbled across your websites before, You have a lot of nice work.

And the amount of desert photographs you have is also impressive! That is a beautiful view, no real parking for that spot.

We need a boat Walter, I have a dryzone bag we could put are gear in, your wife could drop us off and pick us up down stream on the AZ side?

It's worth a try!

Steve

[wfeller]

Watler, I've stumbled across your websites before, You have a lot of nice work.

And the amount of desert photographs you have is also impressive! That is a beautiful view, no real parking for that spot.

We need a boat Walter, I have a dryzone bag we could put are gear in, your wife could drop us off and pick us up down stream on the AZ side?

It's worth a try!

Steve

Heheh,.. I had a boat up until last month. I bought it just for the river, but the last few years ... blah, blah, blah. It's great you got down in there like that. I don't get out that way enough to scout as much as I'd like. I think there's a way east of there at the next off ramp to park, but just would just about leave the water out of the front of the mountains. You ever been through Topock Gorge?

[Steve Sieren]

Walter, no I have not been through the gorge. Looks like there is a giant sand dune back inside of it? I stopped at both exits you have mentioned, since there is not much water in the Mojave the river is so nice to have in a photo. Let me know if you ever want to shoot sometime.

Steve

[wfeller]

The whole area is very intense. Topock Gorge is something else, and yes, there is a large dune back in there.

http://digital-desert.com/topock-gorge/

A shot of the dune is I think the 13th photo in the tour.

I had a friend that owned a canoe/kayak rental in the Topock marina a few years ago. He sold out since then, but I took a canoe trip down to Lake Havasu and did the tour linked above. Another time I took my then 13 year old granddaughter out before sunrise into the Havasu Wildlife Refuge and we did a morning shoot in the marsh. Back on track though, the Mohave warriors (Kwanamis) would live in that area in your shot and practice war separate from the population that lived near Laughlin at the base of Spirit Mountain (Avi-kwa-me). The Kwanamis lived for war didn't hunt. They were brought food by the people so they could concentrate on killing. Very heady stuff to me. I've done quite a bit of study on the Mohave.

An interesting side trip is the Topock, or Mystic Maze.

http://digital-desert.com/mystic-maze/

The maze was most likely made by the people that inhabited the area before the Mohave. There is/was some controversy regarding that though. The railroad claimed that it was made by Indian workers raking up rocks for the pilings on the bridge. They had no proof, and there is a fairly vague tribal memory of the maze being there long before white man came around. There's also a bat cave near by, but bats creep me out. They're about the only thing in the Mojave I don't find fascinating.

There's a lot of history in the area north of Needles. Explorers, pioneers, massacres, mining, the military and Indian suppression, even steamboats.

Anyway, I wish I had kept up my blog. I covered a lot of the above on it. Continuing briefly, the mountains from what I've heard are called the Turtle Mountains. Mohave creation tales/legends (I hesitate to call them myths because they are very real to the people) include a battle in the area between the progeny/descendant of the creator and evil outside forces. The forces were beaten back and as part of the truce that was made, the Mohave people were told never to live south of those mountains (the CRIT resevation is south of there now however). That's why the Kwanamis warriors favored the desolate area. That's all some very sacred ground. Maybe next year I can start getting back out that way.

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