(this caption is for the four Juxtaposition of Tree and Rock photos) What is it that distinguishes Earth from Mars? When we visit the dry landscapes of the Alabama Hills in the Eastern Sierra, or the vast deserts of the American Southwest, we invariably compare these inhospitable landscapes to the arid vistas on Mars traversed by our rovers. No... Unlike Mars, even the most arid desert on Earth is teeming with life. In every corner of every desert landscape in the Western U.S., shrubs improbably wage a war of survival, and trees rise in defiance to the harsh environment. Viewed from afar, Monument Valley is a collection of buttes sandblasted by millennia of wind... Within the valley itself, verdant nature asserts itself, in stark contrast to the radiant crags of the vermilial Southwest. Photographed August 2021.
A midday drive-by of the Vermillion Cliffs between the contrasting landscape of the north rim of the Grand Canyon we left in the morning and the towering buttes of Monument Valley, our destination. Photographed August 2021.
Thick clouds at sunset, thunderstorms at night, and a blanket of gray covering the sky from horizon to horizon at first light... Had I wished too vigorously for clouds, or was the local wish-granting genie in a mischievous mood? As I pondered these thoughts, with a bleary eyed Tadeh at my side wondering why he was up this early in the morning, the Sun finally broke through, briefly spreading light on a landscape as thirsty for color as it was for the water that the clouds refused to deliver... Photographed August 2021.
