#colorado bend

[wandering-jana]

Horseshoe Bend, in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Arizona.

[5bi5]

Gabe "winning" the cotton ball challenge

[thomaswaynewolf]

[fatchance]

Obligatory Horseshoe Bend photo.

At Marble Canyon near Page, Arizona.

Update: @amatkins reblogged my post and noted that Horseshoe Bend is actually located in Glen Canyon. Marble Canyon begins further downstream. Notations on USGS topographic maps seem to indicate that Marble Canyon begins at Lees Ferry, at the confluence of the Colorado and Paria Rivers. I'm grateful for the correction. Whenever I'm in canyon country I like to try to relate what I am seeing with John Wesley Powell's account of his 1869 expedition down the Colorado River.

On August 4 he wrote this about this stretch of the river:

"To-day the walls grow higher and the canyon much narrower. Monuments are still seen on either side; beautiful glens and alcoves and gorges and side canyons are yet found. After dinner we find the river making a sudden turn to the northwest and the whole character of the canyon changed. The walls are many hundreds of feet higher, and the rocks are chiefly variegated shales of beautiful colors – creamy orange above, then bright vermilion, and below, purple and chocolate beds, with green and yellow sands. ... At night we stop at the mouth of a creek coming in from the right, and suppose it to be the Paria. ... Here the canyon terminates abruptly in a line of cliffs, which stretches from either side across the river." From The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons, 1875

[whoreticulturebabe]

🌚✨🦇

[lappophotography]

Capturing end of the day sunlight at the Horseshoe Bend.

Portra 400

Olympus OM-ti4 & 35mm f/2

[eltristan]

TUNNEL #29

Looking at some random downloads, realized a common theme was that Tunnel #29 is The. Cutest. Tunnel.

The 2% grade from Denver up to the Moffat Tunnel crawls through South Bend Canyon (along South Bend Creek) with superfluous tunnels and a surfeit of sharp curves, thanks to the mandate of then-Chief Engineer H.A. Sumneso who surveyed the Moffat Route's well-nicknamed "tunnel district" at bountiful π/1 ratio of rail to "as the crow flies" distance as he tried every trick not to make it steeper than 2%

A blasted rock bore barely 78 feet in length, tight-clearance Tunnel 29 on the Moffat Route is at milepost 36.38 and sandwiched between one of Sumneso's super-tight 12° cruves and the "curved bridge with no name" over South Bend Creek (which is officially named "Bridge 36.45" after it's milepost location) The feature on the creek's right bank seems to be locally nicknamed the Gibraltar Cliffs, from whence railfans look down on the tiny trains below.

The cutest tunnel? Yep. Did I mention the Ski Train?

[black-salt-cage]

ଘ(੭*ˊᵕˋ)੭* ੈ♡‧₊˚

[terebelli]

Colorado River Horseshoe Bend

[beaujuniperbooks]

An Ode to Texas State Parks

In Texas state parks, Where the wildflowers bloom, And the rivers flow, Nature's beauty consumes.

From the desert plains, To the lush green hills, The echoes of time, And the peace it instills.

[dramoor]

“Observing water and its journey in nature is one of the most peaceful and fascinating diversions. It's interesting to see how streams decide where to go. There is no indecision, there is no hesitation, it simply flows. I find that water simply finds it's own way and path. It decides where it goes without force. Water find's its own way, it is its own force and moves around resistance. It journeys along the path of least resistance. It flows, it bends, it wanders on its own. It's flexible, spontaneous, evasive and goes with the flow. While water trusts its own journey, where it flows it knows not...

All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.”

~Martin Buber  

(Photo © dramoor 2021 Telluride, Colorado)

[aintquiteright]

Horseshoe Bend by moulin_photo

[spookykestrel]

Pleeeaaaaase will someone go to big bend national park with me to go stargazing I’m on the verge of tears just looking at the photos

[thomasottio]

Horseshoe Bend AZ by Thomas Ott

Via Flickr: How can you NOT go to Paige, AZ and pay the $10 to take this awesome photo.

[simonh]

It Really Breaks My Heart by Thomas Hawk

[watermeloname]