Someplace over the mountain, from my little Wind River Canyon cabin, there's a weird and strange landscape.  It's not like visiting the Moon.  I'd say it's more like our time on Mars, punished by horrendous winds and never rain; only torrents have flowed through here.  The ground is a smooth swirling white, strewn with beautiful round stones.  But that's not what brought me to this otherworldly place.  

     The odd formations are truly extraordinary in this forgotten landscape.  A professor would go crazy here, as we did ten days ago.  We wandered around with our mouths open, amazed that such a place exists; a place time obviously has forgotten.  This fascinating and forgotten landscape is not in the middle-of-nowhere, but we're sure that you could get there from this spot.  We felt like aliens visiting this Wyoming Landscape, like we awoke in a favorite sci-fi movie.

     This alien landscape is extremely fragile though; like priceless art it cannot be touched.  The slightest nudge of a finger can damage these weird formations.  Let me emphasize just how very fragile this place really is----I cannot, I will not blog the directions to this fragile ecosystem.  A few will know of this place, most will not, and it needs to be kept this way.  This fascinating and forgotten mountain landscape should be famous, yet it's lost in a 21st age that looses places like this.  

     Being able to photograph this place must be like the first man on Mars with a camera in hand.  I walked around with a smile, unbelieving what I was seeing.  Over a hundred and fifty digital frames never captured what we experienced that day.  As I wandered around this Weird Wyoming Landscape there was only one moment of clarity.  This one mountain scene hit my creative hemisphere like one of the round little stones my significant other picked up.  It was beautiful, but otherworldly, with the snow-covered mountains framed between some alien world.  And here it is, the photograph worked in my usual software; DPP and Lightroom.  I'm glad I brought along my camera. Weird Wyoming LandscapeStrange Wyoming landscape near Thermopolis.       This ecosystem was a beautiful and strange land, and I will return to this place in the future.  Maybe by then I can get over the strange nature of this wonderful and fragile land, and get another moment-of-clarity.  Till my next visit to this alien world, let's keep it a secret.    

Blog, photography, digital darkroom and website by Michael John Balog

Wind River Canyon - Wyoming

Hogbats Photography - HogbatsPhotography.com