Today I’ve been looking at more of the pix from the first leg of our big North By Northwest (NxNW) adventure. Soon after passing Owens Lake we crossed into Nevada and took a rest stop at Tonopah (pix on my Photo Page and older posts here made during the trip) and then a lot more similar terrain until almost to Jackson Hole. I’d always imagined Nevada as flat and featureless, but there’s a lot of variation. Sure, it’s dry but there are plenty of interesting geological features.
8088 Wet & Dry
Anyplace there are people, there’s some evidence of water and sometimes it’s pretty striking in the vast arid landscape.
8106 Dry Squiggle
Sometimes you see evidence of untamed water that was there in some past wet season. The shapes and textures left behind really get your attention. Not that the rest of the terrain is uninteresting, but it doesn’t show well in photos because it’s so vast.
8121 Softly Patterned Hilltop
Sometimes we’d wonder about variations in the soils, like on this hill where something made for soft blotches of growth while other areas are bare. You can also begin to see how the smoke from all the wildfires elsewhere was mingling with any agricultural burning, to hang in the air and truncate the longer views.
8123 Oil & Water
Even with the smoke growing ever thicker, some large features were really striking. Here the effects of water combined with apparent oil exploration sites dotting the hillside road, create an unusual assortment of shapes and colors.
8128 Oasis
With little indication of human activity for countless miles, homes you do see are often distinctive. I like how the plantings and architecture here provide a creative contrast to the desolate surroundings. Nearing the Nevada state line we passed a green valley and the smoke seemed to be trapped by the rising mountains leading up to the Tetons. Here’s a photo I like of that area, because it shows how the green valley is lapping at the dry hills like waves on a barren shore.
8142 Grass & Smoke
John & Anne Wiley 
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