Cody Redmon - Photoblog

Crouching along an alpine pond, I took this image in the Beartooth Mountains over Labor Day weekend. Though I’ve been to the area a number of times in the past, this was my first trip solely to camp and explore about on foot. Home to the highest peak in Montana, the Beartooths offer the full spectrum of wilderness geography - from technical mountaineering to languid alpine meadows. If not for the temperament of weather at 11,000 feet, one might imagine it as a peaceful place.  And it was, for about 5 minutes…

On a side note, two close friends camping just across the range from us had a large grizzly walk into their remote lakeside camp at 2 o’clock in the afternoon.  Shouting did no good, and only after discharging a firearm into the air at 25-30 yards did the critter back off.  Luckily, it was spooked enough to swim across the lake…though they were surprised by its speed and said trying to outrun one in a canoe would be futile. Gotta love the wilds.  

I thought I had posted this previously, but upon digging around through my archives I was unable to locate any trace - but forgive me if it is a dupe!  Taken last fall while on a drive back down from Porcupine Cabin in the Crazy Mountains, I was struck by both the subtlety and starkness of various elements within the scene. This one might appear a bit dark but it was intentional; the full spectrum is represented.

The Russian-olive does very well in Montana, and though it’s not a true olive tree it lends wonderfully to the landscape.  Thick and thorny, they were planted by settlers in the region to act as windbreaks and natural fences.  An abandoned grove along the Yellowstone River made for a great stop…

From roughly 400-1,350 A.D. the Fremont culture populated regions throughout Utah, growing corn and other crops, hunting game, establishing mysteries for later generations to unravel. Though not as famous for architecture as their Anasazi neighbors, they did leave behind a scattered trove of granaries, pit houses and other minor stone structures.  Rock art seems to have played a big part in their culture, with petroglyphs and pictographs lasting to serve as their voice.  Despite all that is known about these ancient people, many more questions have remained unanswered.  A ‘recent’ discovery, however, might change that - Range Creek (video), a particularly unique location, was acquired by the State of Utah in 2001.  It is thought to be the largest and most pristinely preserved concentration of Fremont sites in the southwest, with an estimated 6,000+ in one 15-mile canyon. The following images are not from Range Creek, but are indicative of the culture.

**UPDATE: More videos links…
Time Team America, PBS - Range Creek Episode
Time Team America, PBS - Range Creek page - video snippets and background info
Scientific American Frontiers - The Secret Canyon

After first hiking up the wrong canyon, we finally located the above granary just off of the Burr Trail in what is called ‘The Gulch’.  A few pictures and some mediocre directions from Flickr were all that I had to go on, but it was definitely worth it.  Just 50 yards away were a couple of stash boxes the Fremont had dug down into the sandstone, one full of dirt, the second exposed and intact.

Same granary as previous image, just closer.  Finger markings were still very evident in the clay used to mortar the stones together, sealing out rodents and weather.  Interestingly, when I tried to take an image of what was inside, the sensor on my camera started acting up and hasn’t been the same since.  Time for a new camera, I do believe…

This structure was located high above the canyon floor near Coyote Natural Bridge, south of Escalante, UT.  Portions of the structure had fallen down the steep face it’s perched on, but the remaining walls were about four feet tall and seemed quite stable.   A sign was posted saying ‘Stay Out!’, but it was located at the exit rather than where you enter.  Ersh…

A section of corn, likely 600+ years old, rests upon a piece of mortar that has fallen from the wall.  Fremont corn was much smaller than what we buy commercially today, as this piece was no more 2cm in diameter. The mortar was very interesting as well; at first I thought the grooves were similar to those used by later Native American tribes to straighten arrow shafts.  However, almost all of the mortar that had fallen from the walls looked like this.  Some had sticks forced through the clay when still wet – maybe for stability, or ventilation.  The grooves on this piece have clearly been manipulated by fingers, I’m just not sure what for. Anyone?

An outside view of the stone structure near Coyote Natural Bridge.  The approach was difficult in that you had to haul yourself up over a chest-high lip, slick from a natural seep and with no shortage of Poison-oak and thistle all around (not visible here).

Above most things in life, I am captivated by the landscape of Utah.  The geology is often beyond description and even a camera tends to fall short of conveying scale as it keenly exists.  Time loses meaning, ‘being lost’ is suddenly idyllic and the concept of ‘necessity’ becomes stripped of vanity to expose the pure roots of what it means to be alive; to eat, to drink, to want and to refrain. It paints quite starkly the illusions we pursue for emotional ‘satisfaction’ as futility in disguise and marrow for our discontent.

The desert will stop such waste, eat it for breakfast, then steal your water to watch you squirm.  It forces you to be a better person because the alternative is, quite honestly, a pile of bleached bones.  Of course, we have the conveniences of today – vehicles, cell phones, GPS, freeze-dried meals, engineered outdoor gear…and helicopters to come pick us up when all of those things fail.  But reality is still the bones, the greatest of common denominators.

If I were truly honest with myself, I would just move there.  This last trip was a sure sign, as I hardly even photographed.  Instead, I wandered around in utter contentment at just being there, not having to ‘capture’ anything, not having to think to ‘capture’ anything.  What began as my 4th photography trip to the region in 3 years soon became the most therapeutic vacation I’ve ever had, something I hadn’t anticipated.  With another photographer, a painter and a third, close friend along, there was no shortage of artistic appreciation going on, I guess I was just appreciating it more internally than externally on this go…

I think this is the longest I’ve gone without posting since I started my blog.  I also think it’s the busiest I’ve been with other projects!  After starting a web development company recently, things are off to a fantastic start and I’m grateful for both the work and the opportunity to help others with their online presence.

Though today I am posting a winter scene, I promise to make this my last ‘cold’ endeavor until October or November.  In part…I’m finally heading back to the deserts of Utah for about 8 or so days here the first part of May.  Exactly two years since having been there last, not a day has gone by that I haven’t wished to sneak away unseen, camera in-hand, sleeping bag in the back seat, more lost than found and intentionally so.

Until that colorful landscape with all of its trappings, I present the softest of winter dawns as an appreciative welcome to spring. You’ll notice a strong yellow cast over portions of the frame, achieved by stacking circular polarizer filters…quite an interesting experiment.

**Update - Compared to other recent posts, this image is dark…but that was my intent. Also, my hope of not posting anymore cold weather images might not actually stand…yesterday it was 77 degrees, today it’s 26 with driving snow. Ersh…spring in MT.

Taken on the first day of spring, I thought this would be an apt title.  There are a number of images I made this day that I’ll be posting in the future, but displaying more than one at a time takes away from the minimalist feel of each.  I could have spent a day lost in this fog…