Entering Badlans NP is what it must be liketo enter another world. The harsh climate of South Dakota and severely eroded soils limits plant growth to very few areas. It is mystical, pretty, and alien.

Taken from the ‘Observation Deck’ at Paradise Lodge. The mountain is directly behind this view and you don’t get a view of the volcano fromthe lodge even though you are on its base. Views in some of our most beautiful national parks have become inconvenient. Meadows resplendent with flowers hav e been overgrownn by trees and block views of the volcano because we prevented the fires that maintain4d them Glaciers recently easily viewd have rapidly retreated because of climate change.

Suburbs of Albuquerque spread like a virulent skin cancer over the arid land. I fear that they will be allowed to engulf the remnants of cultures that predate the source of this disease by centuries. Others will interpret the brushland in the foreground and the unseen mounds of basalt rocks behind me are the Inconvenmient Landscape

Spindly eed trees appear naked, gangly and function only as a token to satisy harvesting regulations.

Rio Grane Gorge Bridge, nr. Taos, NM

Much more than evidence of humans in the landscape, this mine has created the landscape. The depth and size of open pit mines is overwhelming.

Inconvenient perhaps because it is not “pretty”but there is a lot to see here. If we look closely we can catch a glimpse of the river as it was when I clicked the shutter. Most of the picture is also of the river, its flood plain, that is only watered during flood season. However this nutient rich, well watered ground is covered with vegetation and supports an ecosystem that is more poductive than anywhere else withun many many miles. Remnants of human activity reveal that some people are taking advantage of what nature has provided but are not abusing it.

Regrowth Alder Forest, Whidbey Island, WA

Inconvenient Landscapes are all too common in the Pacific Northwest with single spindly trees left among acres of devestation that looks like remnants of a war zone. In tis one clouds race as if beng tossed by an explosion and only one pathetic tree left standing. Did he loggers leave it as a joke? It is not even a nascent timber species but something they would consider completely useless.

I was surprized to see so many potential tree portraits in south western South Dakota but shouldn’t have been. Most were cotonwoods a favorite of mine. This is, to me, a quintensential landscape. A meaningful portrait, a true sense of prairie landscape and sadness. The evidence of a plugged colvert under a road that resuted in a water loving tree flailing its branches as if was drowning a and calling for help. A road acting as a dam when there is more precipitatation than the ground can exam

Frenchman Coulee was formed by ice age floods thousands of years ag. The backwall and side cliffs are hundreds of fee deep. In the distance the cliffs bordering the Columbia River at the back end of Wanapum Reservoir are visible. Inconvenient for many it is a wonderland for rock climbers, and the occasional photographer.intreped hikers.

A farm pond tops its banks. In arid country too much water is seldom a problem.

This canyon was cut by theice age floods that carved the larger coulees in Washington State. It drains into the Snake River above its confluence with the Columbia River.g

The landscape portion is inconvenient, the impending storm is eerie, the power lines and road guard are a reminder that it is difficult to get away from human intervention.

Clouds make false promises of rain for desperate land but only create false hope, brief shadows and perpetual drought.

The tragidy here is that this lost residence and ranch are citty corner from the fire station.

7 Survivors, Vales Crater, NM

On a sunny day with a gentle breeze and few people, Cannon Beach is suitable for photographs that could grace postcards or adorn walls – a convenient landscape. But most of the time because of its easy access and natural beauty, it is overrun by crowds of people who are eager to escape the crowds where they live taking millions of pictures of themselves, the haystack and the glorious sunset. On a gray day with periods of high winds and rain it is still choked with people huddled against the elements. Here is an all to often “convenient”landscape that is inconvenient because of the number of people in it. [The mood in this scene is set by the person in the lower left trudging in his black clothes with the hoodie covering is bowed head. The structure is found in the repeated shapes of the tent in its’ rain coat’ mimicking the hay stack.]