Badlands Residency Day 56

This morning I spent much time with photographs, and some processing.  Did a backup of my laptop and worked on some emails, too.  After lunch, I headed to John's hoping to be of assistance in his doughnut making process for Friday's branding.  In the end, all I contributed was separating a few eggs.  But I brought  along my computer and drawing materials, and managed to get the primary sketch done for two more buildings for the design guidelines project.  All that's left is to go over them with pen, get the shading right, and add enough texture in areas to pull together an interesting composition.  The hardest part is done.  For dinner I cooked some remnants from my kitchen and brought them over to Aaron's so we could spend some time going over my maps of Rocky Mountain NP, where I head this August as artist-in-residence.  Having just two weeks there, I don't have the luxury of exploring and discovering everything on my own as I have here.  Since Aaron grew up in Rocky, and his dad started the artist-in-residence program at the park, I figured he'd be the perfect person to suggest hikes and views, plus give me a good idea of what I'd find at some of the less visited places.  Ended the day with an early-ish bedtime.  I was planning to be up at 4am to go on a dawn patrol with the chief ranger, checking on areas in the south unit.  Alas, just before laying down I saw a text letting me know that plans changed and he has to stick around the office tomorrow.  Bummer, but that's how it goes.

Some of my building sketches

So much for sun today...

Walking to Aaron's, the deer were around.

Badlands Residency Day 55

Another windy, rainy, gloomy day...until late afternoon when the clouds began to break apart, pockets of blue sky emerged, and the sun smiled on the landscape with fast moving highlights of bright warmth.  So of course I grabbed my camera and headed out.  One of my first discoveries was a sad but inevitable one.  The nice window in the buttes across from the visitor center, which I climbed to just a few weeks ago, has fallen in the last couple days of rainy weather.  Fallen rocks and movement in the slumps are additional evidence of the quick erosion rate of this landscape.  I'm glad I climbed up to the window while it was there.  Earlier in the day I spent a little more time packing some things and cleaning, and did another sketch for the design guidelines project.  Spent the late evening keeping a good friend company after a most terrible day.  I read a book a while ago titled Ranger Confidential: Living, Working, Dying in the National Parks.  I highly recommend it if you're at all interested in the realities of what rangers give for the public.  The author's stories are similar to those I've heard from many different rangers from a number of parks.  National parks are really great.  Many, if not most, of the employees at parks are really great.  Government, however, does not always function in rational ways, and employees frequently are dealt a bad hand.  Too often it's the best employees who are most needed.  I've seen this happen to several people now, and can only say: stick with it, we need you, you're fantastic.

Harsh wind and rain in the morning.

With rain, the seemingly hard and harsh buttes turn to stacks of slick mud, causing one to wonder how they haven't already eroded to nothing.

Late afternoon sunshine out my front door.

Driving out of the housing area.

Looking back towards the visitor center along the Loop Road.

Looking back to the housing area, the Cedar Pass Lodge cabins, and the campground beyond.

A closeup.  Notice how nicely they were designed into the landscape.

Looking east along the Loop Road at Cedar Pass.

Looking along a ridge.

Turkey Vulture above Cliff Shelf Trail.

Buttes across from the visitor center.

Close-up, you can see where the window used to be. To the left of the middle of the back ridge, there is a very narrow and tall opening that juts down.