I know I’ve been living in Tanzania for 14 years but even to me this looks like a good road, no? Well the rental companies forbid to use non tarmacked roads. And the local Indian tour operators and guides try to rip visitors off, trying to convince them one needs a 4x4 jeep for this! Well f… them all. Here we were on the Monument valley dirt roads.
Monument valley.
Bryce Canyon under snow. It was in May 2010, some storms had burst in the area, lucky us.
An impressive thick arch.
On the superb scenic highway 12 in Utah.
Grand Canyon.
Near Zion.
Kodachrome was the 1st color slide film, produced in the 30’s, was the best film ever made and was unceremoniously dumped by some bloody short-sighted marketing or economist punks at Kodak a few years ago. My camera was a Leica M6.
The Kodachrome was the best film ever. The first color slide film to be used extensively by the great photographers, including the National Geographic Magazine. Then 2 years ago Kodak, among many weird decisions decided to cut its production. Sometimes you can’t help thinking the bankruptcy is not really a surprise. On top of it, the film department was the only one still making profits, quite a wonder after all the products they’ve thrown out…
Monument Valley.
Zion.
Arches NP, same view, different lenses, 28 and 90 mm.
On the road near Telluride, Colorado.
Grand Canyon.
Best film? Then one of the best cameras, a Leica M, was used for these shots.
Kodak, killing the golden goose again, stopped that marvelous film some years ago, that is the Kodachrome 64 (after the 25 and the 200). It was still possible to develop it through 2010, so I used some of my last rolls on a road trip in May 2010, the rest in Tanzania. All with a Leica M6, a 28 and a 90mm lens.
Monument Valley, Arizona. Dust storm coming on the top picture.
Just leaving Zion, Utah.
Bryce Canyon, Utah. Karine and I were lucky: snow was still hanging around
Arches park, Utah
Near Telluride, Colorado.
I’ve visited this incredible location twice and I wouldn’t mind to go gain. There were no many visitors which is perfect so one can nearly feel the place is deserted. The absence of tarmacked road also helps a lot. It’s not difficult to imagine this desert was the shooting location of many wild west movies.
Claudia Cardinale was briefly here for “Once upon in the West”. That strikes a cord more than for John Wayne…
I can’t help being in awe and surprised when I come across a tree in this harsh environment. Monument Valley post cards don’t help either: seen from far away, it seems the desert aspect is always put forward. So scrubs and small leafed-trees are common in here.
the place is a reserve run by Navajos, so the style is different, more basic than in government-run parks elsewhere. Which is not always a bad thing: except a stall or 2 for souvenirs and a dirt track, the landscapes and vista are left untouched.
horse riding trips are available. That would be awesome, right? My bloody horse and donkey allergies…
at the end of our visit, a dust storm approached, pretty impressive soon.
one drives on the long stretches of US roads and never gets bored (well you shouldn’t in my opinion….), specially in the West.
a superb national park. Local Indian natives run the place. I was surprised to see so many US flags, even if customized, after what the Indians have been and still go through since white men set foot in and invaded their territories… Some form of resentment wouldn’t be unreasonable…
John Wayne, John Ford…mostly Claudia Cardinale came here for shooting wild west movies.
one park, not that big but such a variety of colors and shapes. Not to mention the Hollywood historical past in those plains. Many wild west movies were shot here.
as much as I love B/W photography, it is sometimes hard to resist colors in America…
Monument valley. The rocks are called ‘3 sisters’. Many wild west movies were shot here.
We had left Sante Fe, New Mexico early morning, driving west. I don’t know why these 2 bikers chose the exact state line limit to stop, under a no parking sign…whichever way cops would come, the bikers could cross the other side under a different jurisdiction?
Each US state have a nickname, here Grand Canyon state of course. Land of Enchantment applies to New Mexico.
the scenery changed quite drastically from flat desert to this mountainous landscape. No wonder people like to drive on this kind of roads for hours. Just after entering Arizona, we took a north road towards Monument Valley. Rocks are getting redder and more dramatic. Once in a while a homestead lied at the foot of a rock crop. Spectacular scenery but a closer look usually revealed some junk in the yard, and derelict houses or trailers.
this area is under Indian jurisdiction. Here people have been given some autonomy after years of claiming their land back. Poverty seems the rule as it is wildly known and things don’t seem to change much over the years, seen from a tourist point of view that is. Poverty and alcohol were the most striking feats I encountered in a previous trip in the area in 1997. I had just got my flying license in Missouri in a shorter time than planned so a lot of free time and spare cash were available, I had bought an old Dodge to cruise around with no specific plans for a while so I had given a few rides to hitch hikers. Curious to meet people and hear stories.
Monument Valley showing on the horizon! Many films have been shot here. The fabulous Claudia Cardinale was here for Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon in the West”, one example out of many…
I had my stories…quite sad in this area. One hiker, quite drunk at 8am explained a legend about the origin of the beautiful turquoise stones. Some Indian women had preferred to die with their children instead of facing awful treatment under the white man’s rules. So they cried a lot while taking the decision, the tears fell down a river and transformed into turquoise. He was surprised that Custer, Wounded Knee, Little Big Horn, Sitting Bull…were not totally unknown names in Europe.
The man also complained heavily that the government had plundered the country, kicked the native people out, prevented them from living their ancestral way of life, even nowadays that Indians in theory could do it again it became an impossible mission…always 2 sides to a story but sure alcohol doesn’t help.
Monument Valley, always admired under a bright blue sky, showing off bright ochre colours…
…like this. The clouds seem never to burst into rain.
then the sky got obscured, the visibility dropped quite suddenly.
luckily we had finished our visit by the end of the afternoon.
outside the valley, dust kept on spreading for miles.
isn’t the same very old model, without modifications, of the Fall Guy?
a small Indian homestead.
nothing compared with the serious dust storms Arizona experienced a few weeks ago but for a European couple, even though living in Tanzania, this was a bit of a novelty.
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