Posted by John Mumaw on October 1, 2011 at 11:59 PM
This morning I took a ranger guided hike down into Square Tower ruin at Mesa Verde. A real rare opportunity to get up close and personal with one of the most attractive Anasazi cliff dwellings in the Park, if not the entire Colorado Plateau. Josh Hardin and Bob Falcone have been two other RMNP members who have taken advantage of this special trek.
Even though the autumn colors in the San Juan Mountains are 'late' this year, the blooming of the high desert rabbitbrush is right on time.
Posted by Bob Falcone on October 2, 2011 at 12:10 AM
Glad you also enjoyed the tour, John. It is indeed a very special opportunity that I hope continues on next year!
Posted by Howard Cihak on October 2, 2011 at 12:18 AM
My kind of place, John. (I manage residential high rises for a living.) I don't suppose they let you get an up close peek inside? I'm guessing they used ladders fashioned from trees to get from floor to floor.
Nice image. Is this a tour you have to pre-register for? I suppose it's an additional fee as well.
Posted by John Mumaw on October 2, 2011 at 9:16 AM
Mesa Verde has been offering backcountry tours to lesser known cliff dwellings for a few years now. These tours vary from the simple climb down to Square Tower ruin to 8 mile round trip hikes. The backcountry rangers enjoy these as much as the participants, and it shows in their relaxed, joking demeanors. They aren't heavily advertised, but you can get more info. and be placed on the mailing list at the Mesa Verde Institute website. And yes, there's a fee involved to help defray the expenses of the guides.
Posted by Todd Caudle on October 2, 2011 at 11:05 AM
Very cool shot, John, and excellent info!
Posted by Joshua Hardin on October 2, 2011 at 12:46 PM
I'm also glad you enjoyed it John. I went on Thursday and had a fantastic time as well. Had some great reflected morning light to work with. This was one of the best tours I've ever had at Mesa Verde. Well worth the travelling and modest fee for ticket. I need to post a few of my photos too once I get some time to process. I think I took something like 200 shots there.
Awesome comp, John! Love the fg/bg split--and quite a bg! I'll get super picky here cause i think this could be a real winner if you get it as good as you can--the flowers look a tiny bit soft, im not sure if its motion blur or processing, but it theres anything you can do to eek out some more clarity there--go for it!
Excellent contrast in texture and color, John. As well as new life in the presence of ancient life. I also like the split comp and the color combo. Very well done!
Beautiful image, John. The composition makes it very interesting and I also love your natural looking processing.
Posted by Kalin Wilson on October 3, 2011 at 1:41 AM
Great image and great info, that sounds like a lot of fun!
Posted by Doug Koepsel on October 3, 2011 at 10:40 AM
John,
I like the combo of the yellow flowers, varnish streak and ruin.
My first thought was that the rabbitbrush flowers were soft too as Stan noted, but their leaves look OK. Perhaps web compression is not allowing the detail in the mealy flower heads to show. My other thought was that the amount of rabbitbrush was overbearing the tower ruin and naking this a 50/50 image- perhaps a crop off the bottom third to half of the flowers may help, if you are so inclined.
Posted by Joshua Hardin on October 3, 2011 at 12:20 PM
BTW, this is a unique comp John. The rabbitbrush makes a fantastic foreground with the tower as a background. This is an image I didn't see the same way. I bet you, Bob and I had totally different perspectives even though we took the same tour.
I don't mind the amount of rabbitbrush on the bottom, if anything perhaps cropping some of the snags on the left side and turning this into more of a vertical panoramic might be interesting to see.
Discussion
14 repliesEven though the autumn colors in the San Juan Mountains are 'late' this year, the blooming of the high desert rabbitbrush is right on time.
I like the combo of the yellow flowers, varnish streak and ruin.
My first thought was that the rabbitbrush flowers were soft too as Stan noted, but their leaves look OK. Perhaps web compression is not allowing the detail in the mealy flower heads to show. My other thought was that the amount of rabbitbrush was overbearing the tower ruin and naking this a 50/50 image- perhaps a crop off the bottom third to half of the flowers may help, if you are so inclined.
I don't mind the amount of rabbitbrush on the bottom, if anything perhaps cropping some of the snags on the left side and turning this into more of a vertical panoramic might be interesting to see.