Photo Friday - PhotoTrice

Wilderness

Balanced Rock - Big Bend National Park — Balanced Rock – Big Bend National Park

Balanced Rock is one of the iconic spots to visit in Big Bend National Park. A short twenty to thirty minute hike is required to see the huge bolder more than ten feet across balanced neatly between two outcrops. It is a sight worth seeing.

Most tourists take snapshots of the balanced rock by itself or with someone pretending to hold the great mass above their head. Nice souvenirs to be sure.

This photo was made just before sunrise with my tripod setup underneath the bolder. Tourists generally wait until after sunrise to hike Grapevine Hills because mountain lions and bears are active in the hours just before dawn. I’ve never had a close encounter except one time seeing evidence that a big cat crossed my path. It left scat full of javelina fur on the trail right where I’d walked an hour before. That is my real wilderness experience.

Yuccas Whisper

Yuccas Whisper Among Themselves

The Big Bend National and State Parks are treasures that are largely unvisited. They are remote with few amenities that people find necessary for comfortable vacations. Conditions are hot by day, cold at night with some of the darkest skies in the lower 48 states. It frightens some people because there are only moon and stars for light and the sounds of nature. That is exactly why you might want to explore the thousand square miles of parkland for yourself. There is no other place where you can hear the Dagger Yuccas whisper in the breeze.

White Oil

Natural Gas Production Plant – Edwards Plateau

When traveling on the Edwards Plateau at night there are no lights to be seen. Except for the edges along the interstate highway it is nearly unpopulated. You can drive for an hour or more in the darkness and never pass another vehicle. During the day there are oil field service trucks and crude oil tankers on the plateau but at night nothing.

After leaving the town of Sheffield forty miles behind, I notice there is something lighting up the desert. Because there are so few lights on the plateau the glow looks like a city. There are no cities out here. On a hunch I turn off on a narrow strip of pavement towards the lights. After a few minutes I drive up to a huge natural gas production facility that is literally in the middle of nowhere.

As I get closer the ground starts to vibrate and the noise level becomes intense. This plant collects raw natural gas from wells and liquefies it using huge compressors. There is a row of stationary engines driving the compressors; each engine is as tall as a two story building. They are the source of the vibrations and sound. Liquefied natural gas is sometimes called White Oil. White gold more likely for those riding this petroleum boom.

My goal on that morning was to shoot sunrise along the border. Dryden Texas, my destination, was still sixty miles away but the opportunity to photograph the isolated plant was too good to ignore. I spent an hour walking and shooting and then hurried along to catch the sunrise.