Casa Grande

August 12, 2009

Another view of Casa Grande from Chisos Mountains Lodge. The restaurant building is in the lower left corner. This photograph is also used in Big Bend Vistas.
The caption to the photograph in the book reads: “Casa Grande rises in wooded slopes to a tremendous square-topped monolith of bare rock with sheer, towering cliffs overlooking the [...]

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The Chisos Mountains from the South

August 8, 2009

One of my favorite Big Bend National Park photographs is this one of the mountains from the south. I have used it in Big Bend Vistas and the 2010 Mountains of the Big Bend Calendar.
Nugent Mountain is in front with the Chisos Mountains creating a panorama on the skyline behind it. South Rim (7,400 feet) [...]

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Green Gulch

August 8, 2009

Another favorite from Big Bend National Park and used in Big Bend Vistas and now as a postcard is this view of Casa Grande (7,325 feet) from the Tree Zone Exhibit at Mile 4.3 on the Basin road. The madrone tree, Arbutus xalapensis, on the right is one of several that grow in Green Gulch.
The [...]

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Persimmon Peak

July 18, 2009

One of the best expositions of the structure of the Santiago Mountains is given by Persimmon Peak just before the entrance to Big Bend National Park. Conglomerate and coarse sandstone of the Glen Rose Formation at the base of the Cretaceous are wrapped round an overturned anticline on the left. Within the anticline, a thrust [...]

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Alpine Depot

June 2, 2009

The Amtrack Sunset Limited route between New Orleans and Los Angeles stops at the homely Alpine depot. Trains come through weekly in each direction on Sunday, Wednesday, Friday and provide a steady flow of visitors to the Big Bend.

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The Paisano Caldera

May 30, 2009

One of the most dramatic sections of road in the Big Bend is between Alpine and Marfa in which the highway cuts through the Paisano Volcano and the three-mile diameter Paisano Caldera. The caldera is mapped as chaotic terrain and has sunk about 1,000 feet in its northwest corner and less elsewhere. Volcanoes are terrifyingly [...]

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Alpine from the North

May 30, 2009

This view of Alpine from the north (the Fort Davis road) shows Hancock Hill (4,925 feet) which rises about 500 feet above the flat in front of the camera. Some suspect that the hill has an intrusive core but no evidence has shown up in water wells drilled around the hill. It is most [...]

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Chinati Peak

May 2, 2009

This photograph of Chinati Peak (7,330 feet), taken from the Marfa Lights Viewing Center at dawn and one of my favorites from River Road Vistas, has just been made into a postcard.
The mountain is built up of many trachyte and rhyolite lava flows of the Chinati Mountain Group, erupted from the Chinati Volcano 31.9 +/-0.7 [...]

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El Paisano Patio

April 30, 2009

The Paisano has a beautiful patio which has been recently renovated with a new fountain and paving stones. It is not easy to photograph; this is one of my better efforts, showing the two-story entrance into the lobby which echoes the front portal.

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Brite Building, Marfa

April 23, 2009

One of my favorite Marfa buildings is the Brite Building, home of Marfa National Bank and of the Ayn Foundation. The building was designed in 1926 by L.G. Knipe, a well-known Phoenix and Los Angeles architect who began his professional career as a structural engineer. He was recruited to Marfa by Luke Brite, rancher and [...]

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