Mars on Earth

The landscape south of Green River, Utah, looking in the general direction of Arches National Park.

After some experimentation with the ISO settings on the camera, I got this shot, which is a pretty accurate match for what it looked like to the southwest where there was more sunlight.

Oil wells looking like launchpads, between Grand Junction and Glenwood Springs. Shortly after this, it became fully dark, and the dust storm turned into a near-whiteout blizzard from just past Glenwood Springs all the way through Vail and past the tunnel, finally clearing up just before we reached Georgetown. An all-around miserable driving experience, which made me glad once again that I wasn't the one driving.

Icelandic wasteland, or Martian plain? You decide! ( Original version here. )

Above Skogafoss. Oddly enough, this was a perfect image for the cover art for our Mars novel, "In the Shadow of Ares": www.amazon.com/dp/B004FV4YUM/

The "Karl og Kerling" rock formations in Jokulsargljufur Canyon. Note the profuse and random columnar basalt.

Eastern Colorado

A set of greenhouses near Hveragerði, South Iceland, oddly suggestive of a space settlement.

Texture

An intriguingly alien vista. (NASA facility in Longyearbyen, seen from Trollsteinen)

Another converted fire truck.

A rover made from a fire truck.

Park car on isolated scenic turnout. Spend two minutes setting up camcorder for time lapse. Turn around and find this. Stealthy. I honestly had no idea that all these people had arrived until I turned around. It actually startled me. Note another of the converted fire engine RVs in the background.

Vatnsfellsstöð hydroelectric station, near the south end of Sprengisandsleid.

Vatnsfellsstöð hydroelectric station, near the south end of Sprengisandsleid.

Vatnsfellsstöð hydroelectric station, near the south end of Sprengisandsleid.

I decided to go a short distance up F26, just until the first water crossing - my rental car was not all that high and I promised myself I wouldn't cross flowing water while solo. Well. I went so far north that I finally had to make the call to turn around. Never did find a water crossing, even though they were labeled on my map. This bred the false confidence in said map that got me in trouble on the north part of Sprengisandur later on...