The American southwest
is a perceptual region with few of the most enigmatic and isolated landscapes
in the world. This photo essay is based on part of an exploratory trip to the
region that included Las Vegas – ParashantNational Monument – Grand Canyon
National Park-Saline Valley- Bryce Canyon- Las Vegas, part of a summer field
course, offered by the University of Maryland – College Park.
Las Vegas, meaning
“the meadows” in Spanish, is situated in a basin in the Mojave Desert.
Known for its casinos,
gambling, bars and nightlife, contrary to the popular belief, the wilder side
of this ‘sin city’ is actually outside its city boundary – the rugged,
mountainous arid landscape is home to cougars, coyotes and a wide range of
semi-arid flora and fauna.
We had to stop our
vehicle to give way to this rattle snake.
Sightings of wildlife is very common.
This area is home to many wild species including wild mules, deer, elk, coyotes,
mountains lions and big horn sheep.
We travelled to the
Grand Canyon, through the North Rim, the more adventurous and less accessible
part of the park, camp sites and roads are only open seasonally due to weather
and winter snow pack.
Places here are remote
with no human settlement for hundreds of miles, cell phones do not work and the
only means to find your way around is with the help of topographic maps.
Joshua trees, a fast
growing species, dotting the desert landscape, with scrub vegetation on the
ground.Named by early Mormon settlers, these trees with unique shape reminded
them of a story in the Bible in which Joshua prays with hands outstretched to
the sky.
Parashant National
Monument is one of the most isolated areas in contiguous US and has the
International Dark Sky Park Gold-tier status. This means it has the highest
level of award representing pristine dark sky conditions. The site attracts
eco-tourists, researchers and scientists seeking to study astronomy under the
Monument’s optimal cloud free dark sky conditions.
Parashant National
Monument is a known site for petroglyps, images pecked on the surface of large
basalt boulders. These cultural artifacts of ancient civilizations are
vulnerable to erosion due to both natural and human factors.
This signage,put in
place by the park services lists the “dos and don’ts “of visiting an
archaeological site. In order to protect from heavy tourist traffic, many sites
are not widely advertised and their exact locations are not revealed by the
National Park Services. Gordon Panel is one such site for petroglyphs.
Following a rough sketch
map, we hiked around for a day and a half to locate the site. The image shows
the track of our GPS log through the entire day long hike.
After spending almost
two days, here we were; standing near the rock panel,face to face with the
footprints of some of the earliest settlers of North America. Someone from our
group declared that I might be the first non-red Indian to be able to make it
to the site.
The Gordon’s panel,
also known as the Shaman’s gallery is the oldest prehistoric evidence of man in
the Grand Canyon and is possibly the most important rock art panel discovered
on the North American continent.
While we managed to
find the site,we got lost a number of times, were dehydrated and busted our tires
several times until we received help from a lone Park ranger camping near the
camp grounds.
Author's Bio- Note:
Anupam Anand
is a Ph. D candidate at the University of Maryland. His research interests are
inter-disciplinary and relates to the science and policy of global
environmental change. He has worked on several NASA and World Bank projects
involving ecological applications of Remote Sensing and GIS. He teaches courses
in environmental geosciences, GIS and statistical methods. Anupam has
participated in numerous field works involving forest surveys, wildlife census,
environment assessment and participatory resource appraisal in United States
and South Asia. When not
busy with his research, he likes to share his passion for education and
environment with children. Travelling and photography are his other interests.
Contact
Info:
Anupam Anand
Global Land Cover
Facility, Department of Geographical Sciences
University of Maryland
College Park MD
Contact: anupam.anand@gmail.com
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