Photo Of The Week 2/21/11 – 2/27/11

Ice Chandelier

The day after a cold snap I was in Ogden and decided to walk down to the Ogden River and caught this masterpiece from mother nature. It is absolutely stunning! The branch was close enough to the rapids to start accumulating ice and it created something close to a chandelier. Just astounding! (2nd image is a digital zoom of the first)

Ph0to Of The Week 1/28/11 – 2/6/11

Floating Island Floating, but not the way that created it’s namesake.

The Wendover Area

 

My friends invited me out on a trip to what we all refer to as Wendover for a couple days of gambling and hanging out. I knew I did not want to spend 3 days in front of a slot machine, or blackjack table so I did a little research on some things to do during the day. And, well it’s me. I cannot take a vacation without taking a few pictures. :)

Pulling a few pictures from my “Drive-by Photography Album” I’d like to share some of the images I took doing somewhere between 65 and 75 (no I was not the driver.)

A particularly blustery day, The wind appeared to be blowing the snow off the mountain peaks.

The wind also appeared to be blowing something off of the Great Salt Lake. At first we thought the lake might be steaming (as in maybe there is a hot spot in it?) But we later decided it must be the fine beach sand on the shores.

A view from a rest stop before the landscape really flattens out.

The Tree Of Contemplation – AKA The Tree Of Life, AKA The Utah Tree. The first and Last are new to me, I always heard it was called the Tree Of Life. It’s frustrating, I really wanted to get out and take a proper picture of this, but they put up a sign just before it saying only emergency vehicles can pull over here. Why have they not built a pull out for this amazing piece of artwork?

The wind creates waves on the submerged salt flats. (more on this later) it’s actually kind of cool.

Wendover, UT, and its other (better) half West Wendover, NV are about 4 miles from the salt flats. We arrived to the hotel, did what you do in gamblin cities and had a great time. (I was actually doing quite good for once! woo hoo!)

The following day, after having the Rainforest Buffet for breakfast (the deal ends at 1, it’s WENDOVER people are just getting up at this time!) We stopped in to the visitors center to ask a few questions about the sights we were interested in. Unfortunately, the site I really wanted to see at the best route has a 5 mile dirt road. At the most convenient route: 8 inches of mud the whole way. Not to mention I severely underestimated my window of sun movement. Sigh. There is always June. So we headed out towards the Salt Flats.

Random channel on the northern tip. Smells like hot springs, but I think that's the salt and other minerals. Although it does have a nice pretty blue.

The drive down to the Salt Flats or the Bonneville Speedway is rather disturbing. The road seems to disappear into a lake.

The Salt Flats this time of year, turn in to a rather salty shallow swamp. Although, the combination of shallow water, and the rather light shaded bottom, create a rather perfect mirrored effect.

  Panoramic

The tradition of sneaking a picture of Landis held true hehe. However, I rather like this shot.

The salt coats EVERYTHING here.

Couldn’t resist taking a stereotypical car ad shot of my car. I think it looks quite nice.

mmmm Salty.

Unbeknownst Landis inspires me.

Back up north the water recedes and you get an interesting zebra effect. Rather stunning.

Wendover Will daytime

Wendover Will Nighttime. From the cell phone. I was rather paranoid with my camera in Wendover, it lived in the trunk during the night. Wendover Will used to reside on the south end of town, right on the border, pointing to the State Line Casino. Urban Legend had it that Utah freaked out and demanded the smoking cowboy removed from the border. I discovered that was not the case. The now non-existent state line casino went under new management and they donated the now Wendover iconned sign to the city, so they put it up where they could. I was told it now points at something remarkable, we never did stop but driving by I did not see anything remarkable. meh.

Rainbow Casino

Red Garter

Flat expanse of Desert

Considering Wendover is in the middle of nowhere I still managed to take a few awesome pictures. I will return in the dry season for some better shots.

  Inspired by a fellow photographer.

I am used to the whole horizon haze, but it is weird to see a reflection off of it. Wow.

All in all, I think this was the most fun I ever had in Wendover. Got to do some site seeing, did really well gambling, and had an amazing time with some of my best friends.