Postcard from the Santa Rita Mountains

My Sunset

As the sunsets
I realize how quickly time passes by
I think of all the things I could have done
and all the things I wish I had done

After each sunset
I remind myself that there's always tomorrow
there's always time to catch on things I missed out on
but somehow, as fast as a new day comes
I find myself in the same place;
watching the sunset and thinking of all the things
all the things I should have done
all the things I could have done
continuously going to and from

Tomorrow?
tomorrow never comes
so all my plans for tomorrow may never be fulfilled
never be drilled.......killed

Unless I start today
today before the sun rises and today before the sunsets
before the darkness consumes all humanity
before the shadows are my only pity

Days without sunset, are days I hardly met
I've always been granted the favour
by the savour
to admire this wonderful creation
such beautiful attraction

A sunset
a sunset of light, of hope, of peace

Chantelle T C Huggins

(To see a larger version of this photo, just click on the image)

To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com

Postcard from Goblin Valley

By now you have probably heard about the three boy scout leaders (AKA idiots) who toppled over an ancient rock formation in the Goblin Valley State Park in Utah. They were leading a troop of Boy Scouts on a weekend campout. They also photographed themselves destroying the rock formation, then put it on Facebook. (See the video they took on CNN Website)

They claim to have done it as a public service as the rock was supposedly loose and they were worried that it would fall and kill somebody. They probably would have gotten away with it if they hadn’t posted their video. As a result, they may face felony charges…and are definitely being thrown out of the Boy Scouts of America.

I thought it would be interesting for you to see one of my photos from that incredible area. I spent a day there a couple of years ago and this photo is of my favorite rock formation. There are hundreds of balancing rock formations throughout the park, one of which these clowns destroyed.

Despite these idiots, the park is still full of amazing rock formations that date back to the Jurassic period of earth’s history (200 million years ago). The park sits in the middle of nowhere, and visitors are encouraged to walk down into the valley and explore the oddly shaped rocks and even climb on some of the bigger ones.

The park was only discovered less than 100 years ago. The guys who found it called it “Mushroom Valley.” Goblin Valley State Park is a showcase of geologic history. Exposed cliffs reveal parallel layers of rock bared by erosion. Because of the uneven hardness of sandstone, some patches resist erosion much better than others. The softer material is removed by wind and water, leaving thousands of unique, geologic goblins. It became a state park in 1964.

The photo is in black and white as the rocks are all one color…brown. I purposely used a filter to darken the sky so the rock formation would stand out.

Even though the men destroyed one formation, there are still hundreds of other fascinating sculptured rocks to see.  You should make it a point to visit the park if you are ever in that area.

Postcard from San Francisco

One lovey San Francisco day, after hanging out at America’s Cup Park, down on the Pier 26, I grabbed one of those famous “F” Line streetcars and rode it all the way down the Embarcadero to the Ferry Building, then around the bend and down Market Street to Powell.

Powell and Market is where you pick up cable car that goes up and down the hills of San Francisco all the way to Fisherman’s Wharf. By the way, there is another cable car run that begins on California and Market Streets and doesn’t have long lines like the Powell Street line. The two lines meet up on Nob Hill where they cross paths in front of the Mark Hopkins Hotel and the Fairmont Hotel. Just a hint for your next trip to SF.

But on this day, the object of my excursion was not to ride a cable car (nor to photograph one), something I have done many times in my life, starting when I was a small boy. Nope! I wanted lunch, but not just anywhere, I wanted to eat at Lefty O’Doul’s Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge up on Geary Street near Powell, very close to Union Square.

Lefty O’Doul’s is a San Francisco landmark…just as Francis Joseph “Lefty” O’Doul is a San Francisco sports legend. The restaurant and bar opened in 1958 when I was a young lad…and is still going strong. The story goes that Lefty opened the place so average folks could hang out with great sports stars. It may be one of the first sports bars ever opened. I wanted to go there on this trip because in all my years of being in and out of San Francisco, I had never been inside.

Now, I said Lefty was a legend and it is quite true. He played baseball originally for the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League. Later, he moved up to the majors and played for several teams over the years, including the New York Giants. In 1929, he hit an amazing .398 for the Philadelphia Phillies.

After retiring in 1934, he eventually became manager of his old team, the San Francisco Seals from 1937 to 1951. Over the years, he became the most successful manager ever in the Pacific Coast League.

But he wasn’t done, not by a longshot. He introduced baseball to Japan, serving as the sport's goodwill ambassador before and after World War II. The Tokyo Giants, sometimes considered "Japan's Baseball Team," were named by him in 1935 in honor of his longtime association with the New York Giants; the logo and uniform of the Giants in Japan strongly resemble their North American counterparts.

So Lefty left his mark on baseball and on San Francisco. I had a very nice lunch as the restaurant now resembles a Hof Brau. The roast beef was outstanding. But, the highlight for me was looking at the hundreds of sports photos and memorabilia that cover the walls of this old-time San Francisco establishment. One could spend hours there just looking.

Sports, especially San Francisco sports, have been intertwined with my life since I was a young boy, barely able to walk. While they don’t dominate my life as they did in my youth, I still have great nostalgia for the days of baseball and football, when they were just games. If you are old enough, you may remember those days, long before money became the driving force of all sports.

And while I still enjoy baseball and football games, today’s players are not my legends nor are they so intertwined with my life as the people in the photos on the walls of Lefty O’Doul’s.

Postcard from Lee’s Ferry

You may notice from my blogs and other places that the Southwest is filled with interesting rock formations, all shaped by forces of Nature. It goes hand-in-hand that this same area is filled with great photo opportunities.

This formation is located just above the small (and I mean small) settlement of Lee’s Ferry, right on the Colorado River. Located just 9 miles south of the Arizona/Utah border, it has the unique distinction of being the only spot within hundreds of miles where one can easily access the Colorado River. Naturally, it is the starting point of all rafting trips down the Colorado River and through the Grand Canyon. 

To get to it, you take Highway 97A, off of Highway 97 (97A is the highway to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon). Just go a few miles down 97A until you see the sign to Lee’s Ferry. This rock is near that turnoff.

Lee’s Ferry gets it name from  John D. Lee, who built a ferry across the Colorado in 1873. But there is much more to this story…much of which the LDS Church would rather forget.

In 1857, Lee took part in the Mountain Meadows Massacre, in which a group of Mormons and Native Americans attacked a passing non-Mormon wagon train from Arkansas, killing about 120 people. The ill-conceived attack was the result of animosity toward Arkansans after the murder of Mormon apostle Parley P. Pratt near Van Buren, Ark. Years after the massacre, the LDS church sent Lee to the remote Colorado River crossing to shield him from the law as part of an attempted cover-up.

Lee was eventually tracked down and arrested by the U.S. government and tried for his role in the massacre. He was found guilty and executed by firing squad on March 28, 1877. He was the sole scapegoat for the more than fifty Latter-day Saints and Native American men that had participated in the massacre. It is strongly suspected that the highest officials of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints pointed the way to find Lee to minimize damage to their reputation.

The ferry continued operation until 1928, but was shut down after the federal government build the Navajo Bridge above the river on Highway 97A. Many years later, they built a bigger bridge and today the two bridges now exist side-by-side above the Colorado.

Postcard from San Francisco

So, I can hear you asking, “What the heck is this?” Well, I am here to tell you it is a sculpture of a bow and arrow. See? You were right…it is a bow and arrow.

But not just any bow and arrow. Oh no…this one is special. This is Cupid’s bow and arrow. It is located in Rincon Park, a very small park located along the Embarcadero in San Francisco…which means it is right next the bay.The sculpture is 60 feet high and about 143 feet long and was designed and built by two Swedish sculptors (I omit their names as they are long and would drive my spellcheck crazy).

If you walk around and away from it, you will notice how "Cupid's Span" changes aspect with viewing angle and distance. Up close, its taut bowstring and vertical arrow relate to the cables and towers of the Bay Bridge.

From a moderate distance, the bow, arrow and string suggest the hull, mast and rigging of a Spanish galleon…the vessel of the colonizers. But what does that have to do with San Francisco? Well you should ask.

In doing a little research, turns out that San Francisco is the home port of Eros, the Greek god of love (his Roman name is Cupid). I was born and raised in this city and I never knew that. Must have been before my time.

But, I think it is proper that The City pay tribute to Cupid and love. Why? Because Cupid’s arrow of love is designed to pierce your heart. And where did I leave my heart? In San Francisco, of course. Just go with it!

(To see a larger version of this photo, just click on the image)

To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com

Postcard from Central Washington

This is one of many views, high above Dry Falls, in Grant County, Washington. 20,000 years ago, this was the site of one of the largest and greatest waterfalls in history. The lakes you see here are all that’s left of this incredible event. It is quite a story…and the best way to tell it is from this excerpt from Wikepedia:

“Dry Falls is a 3.5 mile long scalloped precipice in central Washington, on the opposite side of the Upper Grand Coulee from the Columbia River, and at the head of the Lower Grand Coulee. At five times the width of Niagara.Dry Falls is thought to be the greatest known waterfall that ever existed. According to the current geological model, catastrophic flooding channeled water at 65 miles per hour through the Upper Grand Coulee and over this 400-foot (120 m) rock face at the end of the last ice age. At this time, it is estimated that the flow of the falls was ten times the current flow of all the rivers in the world combined.

Nearly twenty thousand years ago, as glaciers moved south through North America, an ice sheet dammed the Clark Fork River near Sandpoint, Idaho. Consequently, a significant portion of western Montana flooded, forming the gigantic Lake Missoula. About the same time, Glacial Lake Columbia was formed on the ice-dammed Columbia River behind the Okanogan lobe of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet. Lake Columbia's overflow – the diverted Columbia River – drained first through Moses Coulee and as the ice dam grew, later through the Grand Coulee.

Eventually, water in lake Missoula rose high enough to float the ice dam until it gave way, and a portion of this cataclysmic flood spilled into Glacial Lake Columbia, and then down the Grand Coulee. It is generally accepted that this process of ice-damming of the Clark Fork, refilling of Lake Missoula and subsequent cataclysmic flooding happened dozens of times over the years of the last Ice Age

This sudden flood put parts of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon under hundreds of feet of water in just a few days. These extraordinary floods greatly enlarged the Grand Coulee and Dry Falls in a short period. The large plunge pools at the base of Dry Falls were created by these floods.

Once the ice sheet that obstructed the Columbia melted, the river returned to its normal course, leaving the Grand Coulee and the falls dry. Today, this massive cliff can be viewed from the Dry Falls Interpretive Center, part of Sun Lakes State Park, and located on Route 17 near the town of Coulee City.”

(To see a larger version of this photo, just click on the image)

To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com

Postcard from America’s Cup Park

I first saw these magnificent boats while riding a streetcar back from the Giants/Red Sox game at AT&T park. At the time, I was only vaguely aware that the America’s Cup races were being held on San Francisco Bay. After seeing them from the streetcar, I was hooked.

I watched most of the races on TV from the comfort of my temporary home in Walnut Creek.  The TV coverage was amazing as they used computers to show you who was ahead, how the current was running, distances and wind velocities...plus they had on-board cameras and microphones on both boats. You couldn’t ask for any better coverage for any sport. 

On two occasions, I watched the races and pre-race activities from America’s Cup Park. It was a special time for me, and it turned out to be one of the most monumental comeback wins in any sporting event in history. If you weren’t following it, let me fill you in.

When I first arrived in the Bay Area, the Emirates Team New Zealand boat was racing the Luna Rosa Challenge boat (Italian) for the Louis Vuitton Cup and the right to face the defending champion Oracle Team USA boat, built and sponsored by billionaire Larry Ellison of Oracle computing fame.

The Kiwi boat handily beat the Italian boat in every race I saw. It was almost no contest as the 72’ New Zealand Boat flew up and down the course reaching speeds approaching 50 miles per hour.

These boats are more akin to airplanes as their twin catamarans often come out of the water, leaving only a pair of small foils touching the water.  I still don’t understand how these boats can go twice as fast as the wind that powers them. Amazing designs, I guess.

But back to the races…I thought the Kiwis had an excellent chance to beat the Americans… and my feelings turned out to be true for quite awhile. Without going into great details on all the rules and the two race penalty suffered by Team Oracle, the first boat to reach nine victories and wins the cup (because of a penalty imposed earlier in the year, Oracle had to win 11 races).

The Kiwi won eight races and led the American boat 8-1.  They were beating the pants of the Americans, especially on the upwind third leg and were on the verge of total victory. But, even though the Kiwis were within one race of the win, the Americans never gave up. They changed their on-board boat tactician and made some small design changes.

Next thing you know, team Oracle USA started winning races and were suddenly much faster than the Kiwis…and before you knew it, the score was tied 8-8. It was down to a one, winner-take-all race.

It was an exciting race with the lead going back and forth for the first part of the race. But, suddenly, the Oracle boat took charge and wound up winning the deciding race by 44 seconds…capping off one of the most amazing comebacks in sports history…and I was there for part of it.

Competing in this race is not for the faint of heart or those with lightweight wallets. These boats cost millions to design and built and supporting facilities and crews in SF also runs in the millions. I wondered if it might be cheaper for Larry Ellison to buy an NFL team. But he is a born sailor, and although he was not on board for any of the races, his money and enthusiasm made it all possible.

For me it was an exciting time to watch the races and to use my new Sony NEX-6 camera to record the images. The photo here shows the two boats side-by-side just before a race. If you would like to see more of my photos from the America’s cup, just click on this link.

(To see a larger version of this photo, just click on the image)

To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com