These particular images were captured with my first camera with the capability to capture still images in “Raw” digital negative format. In porting this entry from previous social media, I have reprocessed the original Raw files and applied various presets, profiles, and AI-derived enhancements using my preferred tools in 2025.

I’ve compressed several days of hikes into one post here.

It’s all about frames of reference. The Red Rock “Country”, which is spread amongst two towns, a national forest, and at least one state park, is a relatively small imaginary nation, a roughly circular blob of desert terrain surrounded by higher ground and punctuated by several distinct monolithic formations of that gloriously sanguine sandstone. I didn’t have the time or the hot-weather-hiker’s fortitude to explore all the various “loops” around these formations, obviously. 

What struck me, during my brief explorations, was the multiplication of space. The same monumental group of crimson spires, captured assiduously by my camera, often seemed completely unfamiliar on the “return” portion of the loop, although my compass and map would indicate that I was only a mile or less from the point “on the other side” where I had parked my rental car. 

A turn of the path, or sometimes just a turn of the head, and a new, unpopulated, and potentially alien vista of glowing stone, sand, and twisted scrub would open up — only to vanish, sometimes forever, when I next lifted my gaze from the path.