Colorado National Monument, Great Basin National Park and Humboldt National Forest in Nevada and Medicine Bow National Forest in Wyoming.

Colorado National Monument: This is a cliff wall on the border of Colorado National Monument viewed from outside the park. It is typical of the surroundings.

Golden Light: This is another photo of Colorado National Monument from within the park. At this early hour, the rockfaces were very colorful.

Wheeler Peak: This was taken at Great Basin National Park. in Nevada. The high point in the background is Wheeler Peak which is the highest point in the Snake Range. There is very little surface water in the mountains and this small lake was certainly a rarity.

Great Basin Stream: This is the typical size of a stream in Great Basin National Park. I only saw one other stream and it vanished into a hillside after I followed it for a few hundred meters.

The Great Basin: The is the view from the top of Wheeler Peak (13063ft=3982m). It looks approximately north into the rest of the Snake Range in Nevada and perhaps into parts of Utah. Two lakes are visible in the image (a greenish one on the lower left and an aquamarine one in the lower center). The one on the left is the one in the earlier photo. The hike to the top is 8 miles round trip. It is very easy at the beginning but the last mile is pretty steep. I reached the top at about 8 am which helped me avoid any hot Sun on the way up.

Lehman Caves: This is also at Great Basin National Park. It is inside Lehman Caves which is where most of the tourists go when they visit the park. It is just a typical photo of the cave's formations.

Another Snake Range Stream: This is a photo of Deadman's Creek in the Snake Range north of Great Basin National Park. Although the national park gets many visitors, the section of the Snake Range outside the park (and on the other side of US 50) is rarely visited. This creek is a side canyon in much larger Smith Creek Canyon.

The Deep Creeks: This picture was taken in the Deep Creek mountains of northwest Utah. They are slightly north of the Snake Range and very isolated. The high point (Mount Ibapah) reaches about 8000 feet above the surrounding desert. I explored the beginnings of Indian Farm Creek Canyon. It doesn't really have a trail but it is quite pretty. The rocks here are very white and that is shown in the photo above. There was a lot of good rock scrambling in the area.

Ruby Marsh National Wildlife Refuge: This was taken soon after sunrise at Ruby Marsh National Wildlife Refuge in Nevada. This marsh lies on the eastern side of the Ruby Mountains and borders the national forest. There were an enormous number of fish and birds here.

Inside a Glacier Carved Valley: This is a view from the road into Lamoille Canyon (see below) in the Ruby Mountains in Humboldt National Forest.

Lamoille Canyon: This is a view of Lamoille Canyon (a classic glacier carved U-shaped valley) from a couple miles up a trail and near the boundary of the Ruby Mountains Wilderness. This trail (The Ruby Crest National Scenic Trail) runs for about 40 miles along the crest of the range.

Alpine Nevada: This is the view in basically the exact opposite direction from the previous image (well you probably can't see both at once but you wouldn't have to walk far). This is Liberty Lake - the second largest alpine lake in Nevada (which doesn't mean it is all that big). However, it was large enough that it wouldn't fit in my camera's field of view at a focal length of 35mm.

Medicine Bow Mountains: This is a view of the Medicine Bow range (also known as the Snowy's) in Medicine Bow National Forest in Wyoming. It was taken just a short distance up the trail to Medicine Bow Peak. The trail leaves from the Snowy Range Scenic Byway. Medicine Bow Peak itself may be visible far to the right in the image, but I am not sure.

View from Medicine Bow Peak: The is the view from the top of Medicine Bow Peak (12013ft=3662m). The trail is quite easy in comparison with most that I take. I was only in this range two nights and I got hailed on both nights. That ever interesting mountain weather.

Alpine Flower: This is a columbine that was along Medicine Bow Lake (the lake visible in the previous image).

A Difficult Life: This is an "island" in Medicine Bow Lake with an interesting tree growing on it.

A Harsh Life: The Snowy Range Scenic Byway reaches elevations of 10847ft (3306m) so it is well above treeline. This is what some of the trees near the road look like. They have branches only opposite the normal wind direction and they are growing as much horizontally as vertically.

July 14, 1999 - ( milsom@physics.arizona.edu)