The thing on the right is Mexican Mountain, an isolated remnant around which the San Rafael River makes a 180° loop. The Black Box is on the other side of the tree (or, rather, shrub) line. The mountain is made up of the same sandstones that form the walls of The Wedge.
This is the view looking almost straight west from the Black Box. The prominent peak on the left is Window Blind Peak, "one of the world’s tallest free-standing monoliths", whatever that means. (It's certainly a useful landmark.) It stands about 1800 feet above the flats.
This picture merely serves to demonstrate that I haven't figured out how to splice images together successfully yet, otherwise I could have presented a super-duper panorama shot. The road is the road back to Buckhorn Wash.
By the time these pictures were taken, it was early afternoon, very hot, and we'd run through most of our bottled water. We figured it was time to head back towards civilization, with just one more stop on the way...
Posted by David Fleck at 23 September 2006 05:39 PM
I am all commented out, but these last pics are very nice.
Posted by: Jonathan on September 25, 2006 02:37 PM
Now these are beautiful. Do you gotta walk to them, or is there a bus?
(I'm serious about the walking. My knees are capricious little beasts, and you never know when a tendon is going to snap, or a kneecap mischievously wander from its place. How far was it from the car?)
Also: do you have a polarizer?
Posted by: Angie Schultz on September 25, 2006 05:53 PM
Thanks, again.
Most of these places are quite near a dirt road and require little more than a 5 to 10 minute walk (or occasionally, scramble). Finding the road would probably be a little bit of a challenge to someone who didn't know the area, though I suppose there are maps available. The area around the Black Box would probably be a bad place to get lost.
No polarizer, just whatever the camera (Canon A520) does automatically... and then I enhance the colors... just a bit... really, just a little... well, maybe a little more...
Posted by: David Fleck on September 26, 2006 08:14 AM