Road Trip - Dragonflies - Photography - Geology

We made it home with only a few minor mishaps, lots of good memories, and ~4500 photos. Saw dinosaurs skeletons, a wooly mammoth dig (61 skeletons and counting), some fantastic dragonflies and a LOT of beautiful rocks and strata exposures.One of the best parts of the trip: we heard limited news. It was a nice break.

Uh, story please?Well after you unpack, and get settled...

What does a woolly mammoth use when it digs?

Glad you had a good trip, I'm jealous! Up thread you had mentioned the book "Planet of the Bugs" which my local library had a copy of. I really hadn't ever thought too deeply about bug evolution and this book was a good introduction to it as well as a good read. Thanks for mentioning it.

The story will come as I get my photos transferred to my desktop computer. Unpacking, lawn mowing, etc.I tracked the entire trip on my GPS and my cameras were synced to it. I have a program that will insert my lat/long position into the photo metadata and that makes it easier to remember exactly where my images were taken in the context of the whole trip.It will take a couple days to get every thing organized.

A big toothbrush.....

I'm glad you liked it. I finished it on the trip. The friends I met in Tennessee for a dragonfly survey all want to read it too.I liked the way he discussed the geological ages when different insect orders evolved and what their impact was on the evolution of the plants and other animals in those periods.

Yes I really liked that too. The realization that initially no organism was breaking down cellulose was an eye opener. I really wish Faith would read this book with an open mind and see how everything fits together rather than sticking to her dogma.

I don't understand. It has been almost 24 hours since your OP and still no pictures. How long does it take to do the wash and mow the lawn? Pfshaw. Organization is overrated. Just like facts. I think your priorities are skewed and you need to get a grip on putting up some pics. Soon. I want to see jar's woolly mammoth with that big toothbrush digging out these dragonfly skeletons.You didn't forget to take the lens cap off, did you?Edited by AZPaul3, : No reason given.Edited by AZPaul3, : No reason given.

Don't make fun of the woolly mammoth's brushes. With average 9 foot tusks and four molars each the size of a bread box it's a wonder they didn't go extinct just from daily tooth brushing. Then there was the hair; every morning it took like two days just to brush its hair. You try spending two days every morning just brushing your hair and still have to clean four breadboxes and two tusks.

Hey, it's really not fair to bait me on a thread where I'll only get accused of hijacking it if I answer you. Maybe you're familiar enough with my "dogma" by now to anticipate what I'd say anyway? (Wish it were so, actually...)I'm looking forward to the photos in any case.

It was not my intention to disparage anyone whose self-identity extends to woolly mammoth. In this, I assure you, I am a confirmed mammothist.

Ok, I am going to start with a few shots from early in the trip (Nevada).My wife came along on this trip and acted as navigator. She had not accompanied me on a long road trip for quite a few years, so we had fun reminiscing. She was great at finding interesting features and habitats ahead of us along our planned route. We changed plans often to check out interesting photo ops.We took Hwy 50 across Nevada from Carson City to Ely. I have traveled this route many times over the years and remember the first time in 1995 when I was on the way to a dragonfly meeting in New Mexico, by myself. There were signs along the way calling it the Lonliest Highway in America.Traffic is very light and the route passes through classic basin and range terrain; wide, open, sparsely vegetated valleys separated by rugged mountain ranges that are primarily oriented north-south. The basins often have dried alkali salt flat remains of ancient lakes.It is a starling contrast to suddenly see a large isolated sand dune seeming to have popped up from nowhere at the base of a surrounding mountainous area. This, appropriately is called Sand Mountain and is a national recreation site.This shot is a panorama made from 30 individual shots. It was downsized from 8274 x 3695 pixels. Zoom in to see more detail. People come here to ride dune buggies up and down the dune which tends to spoil the chance to get clean dune shots for photographers. This is a closer view from the above shot. The question in my mind was: where did all this sand come from?Wikipedia says:

quote:

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Sand Mountain is a Singing sand dune 20 miles east of Fallon, Nevada along U.S. Route 50. The dune is two miles long and 600 feet high. The sand originates from the ancient Lake Lahontan, that for the most part dried up 9,000 years ago.

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This satellite view shows that the sand must have been blown from a SW direction and piled up against the surrounding rocky outcroppings.

We just had a fast moving thunderstorm here so I am going to jump ahead to Oklahoma. We had a thunderstorm while we were in the Motel 6 in Clinton, OK. This makes it clear that even if you are in the middle of "Tornado Alley", if you are unfamiliar with the area around your vicinity, finding a good place to take storm photos is almost impossible. Where are good roads and places to park where you can watch storms approaching and position yourself where the landscape is photogenic? Is your camera going to get wet? Can you remain in your vehicle where you are relatively safe from lightning? Etc.When you are stuck at the motel shooting powerlines, rooftops, parking lot lights are likely to spoil the the scene. On a side note, we discovered that Motel 6s have mostly been remodeled and upgraded while remaining one of the cheaper lodging options. Super 8 and Economy Inn are overpriced crapholes that will no longer get my business.

We visited Canyonlands National Park in Utah and after spending a little time in the visitor center I walked over to the edge for my first look. Seeing vehicles going both directions on this road hanging a thousand feet or more above the bottom completely took my breath away and left me more than a little shaky. As we drove through the park we encountered this road numerous times. There were even people riding bicycles along it.