Texas & New Mexico

  • Finding Light in Guadalupe Mountains National Park

    Bymichael

    Every photographer eventually builds a list of landscapes that exist in genuine geological relationship with each other. Guadalupe Mountains National Park and Carlsbad Caverns National Park are the above and below of the same ancient story — the Capitan Reef, a massive coral reef that grew at the edge of an inland sea 265 million years ago and now forms both the cave systems of Carlsbad and the mountain mass rising from the Chihuahuan Desert in West Texas.

  • The Light at Carlsbad Caverns National Park

    Bymichael

    The caverns sit beneath the Chihuahuan Desert of southeastern New Mexico, and what is underground there is not a modest geological curiosity. The Big Room — the main chamber of Carlsbad Cavern — is one of the largest cave chambers in North America, covering 8.2 acres at its widest and reaching 255 feet at its highest point. It contains stalactites, stalagmites, columns, draperies, popcorn formations, and cave pearls in a density and a variety that makes Laurel Caverns, wonderful as it is, feel like a preview of what a cave can actually be.

  • Chasing Light in Big Bend National Park

    Bymichael

    Big Bend National Park sits in the southwestern corner of Texas where the Rio Grande makes its great southward bend before turning north again — 801,000 acres of Chihuahuan Desert, the Chisos Mountains rising from the desert floor to 7,800 feet, and 118 miles of river forming the international boundary with Mexico. The nearest commercial airport is four hours away. The nearest large city is farther than that. There is one gas station inside the park. Cell service is essentially nonexistent beyond the Panther Junction visitor center area.