Wupatki

Posted on October 8, 2007 in Photos Vacation Fall 2007

The speck attached itself to the ramparts of the red sandstone pueblo and stayed there. I stood in the parking lot, waiting for the good picture moment, when the cerulean dot would move behind the ruin. But it darted about, an icefly intent on destroying the mood of desolation and isolation that I was trying to convey. Ruins must do that. It is not proper to have someone hanging from them or otherwise obstructing the view as this senior citizen insisted on doing. She was as in my face as a frat boy on Spring Break. Had she drunk deep of brewed spirits and burped loudly, I don’t think she would have annoyed me more.

In the end I had to wait her out. I got the shot and then put up with a brash fellow from who knows where with a butt that waggled and begged to fill my frame. He moved only when his wife climbed down from the ruin and discussed the image he’d just taken. I photographed his white and black-striped butt as possible future revenge.

I don’t know why they’ve never combined Wupatki National Monument with Sunset Crater as a big national park devoted to the impact of geology on human society. As laid out since the 1950s, the two government tracts lie within nineteen miles of each other, separated by empty juniper forests and sage prairie.

We roamed all the “name” ruins, me trying to find the eye I thought I had lost with the death of my old camera and Lynn patiently coming along. She read every word of the trail guide to the main ruin as I fiddled with angles and cursed the midday light that faded the intense red of the rocks to a fizzled bloody pink. It wasn’t until we got to the third pullover of the day — at the fortification called The Citadel that I began getting a feel for the land. Most extraordinarilly, I realized that we were surrounded by miles and miles of open prairie with not a tree in sight. The sky, too, held nothing other than the blue of filtered space. I captured this landscape from the rim of the butte and called it the best and truest of the day.

Here is the album in my gallery (9 pics).

Click on more to see important notes.

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