Technology, Books and Other Neat Stuff

One of the best known features of Monument Valley are the Mittens, two eroded buttes that look like hands reaching up to the sky. At sunset they glow yellow red, the bright stone of the Arizona and Utah deserts catching the sunlight.

Things are very different on a snowy cold day, from down on the valley floor. A dirt track takes you around the many monoliths, winding through the rocky desert floor. In summer it's crowded, in winter, almost empty. Pulling over at one of the view points you're on your own, bundled up against the elements and skidding on the desert snow.

Under a heavy sky the Mittens wait.



Monument Valley, Utah/Arizona
January 2009

Pup time at Piedras Blancas is a noisy experience.

Sea elephants aren't the quietest of creatures at the best of times, but at the end of January the big bull males are just coming ashore, while the females struggle to wean their pups. It's a dangerous time to be a pup, as the males don't pay any attention to the struggling young seals, often just days old. If dominance need to be asserted, well, nothing gets in their way. Sadly that can mean the end of a short life, crushed under the hefty bulk of a bull sea elephant.

It's no wonder that the turkey vultures are on patrol, cruising up and down the dunes, skimming to spot any young seals that will never make it to sea.



Piedras Blancas, California
January 2009

For various reasons we end up driving over Hoover Dam quite often. The busy road and the narrow dam make it something of a bottleneck (especially with the TSA-style security checks on the way down the canyon), and much of the traffic has to make a 90 mile or so detour around the area. That's led to a massive construction project, as a huge new arched bridge is being built to bypass the dam.

It's going to be absolutely spectacular when it's finished, one of the highest single arch bridges in the world.

Recently work began on the arches, with concrete forms being extruded by massive moving moulds. We drove under it at night recently, the floodlights on the new concrete making in ethereally beautiful - thousands of tonnes of concrete and steel appearing to be almost nothing in the dark of the winter night.

The project web site now has a web cam, with panoramic view of the construction site.

Well worth a look.