Cloud Cover, Edition Four

The deep dig into the archives has uncovered a zillion landscapes where the clouds packed a punch. Here are five more. It’s the fourth tranche in the Cloud Cover sweepstakes. Be warned. There will be at least more in the series.

Layers of Meaning. Somewhere in the Southwest.

As to the item called Layers of Meaning, the photograph is a complex number with layers of mesas, desert scrub, dramatic summer clouds, and a dark strip of low mountains on the horizon. The clouds are dark then bright and threaten rain. It feels like the Four Corners but may be the broad San Luis Valley or the Taos Plateau. Your guess is as good as mine. I can tell you it happened 17 years ago,

Desert Shores Yacht Club. Desert Shores, California.

Desert Shores Yacht Club has a pearlescent sky that complements the towering palms. The overturned rowboat completes the ensemble and is the difference maker. What the hell is that boat doing in the desert? You don’t see the Salton Sea 75 yards to my right.

Welcome. We're Closed. Rice, California.

Maybe 100 miles away in beautiful downtown Rice, California is the retired Standard Oil Station that beckons me whenever I’m in the neighborhood. The luminous sky makes the scene even more empty. And like the rowboat above the welcome mat in the foreground is the punch line to Welcome. We’re Closed.

Pyramid of the Silver Kings. Leadville, Colorado.

That’s a monumental pile of tailings looming like a Mayan temple in the Yucatan. Since it resides on the Route of the Silver Kings it must be the Pyramid of the Silver Kings.

Upper Oro Mine. Leadville, Colorado.

The Upper Oro Mine may or may not be a landscape. If it is, it’s a tight one. The peekaboo clouds and the rusting corrugated metal are in perfect harmony.