• Russell Baker.

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Many places in the united states take pride in describing themselves as an alien landscape. I have been quite lucky to visit a few of these places, but none of them fit the moniker better than the Blue Mesa in Petrified Forest National Park. A short trail winds through a truly alien-looking landscape and an overlook that affords the mesa to contrast with the rest of the landscape.

My visit did not coincide with the best light, and this being a flat desert, the effect of the harsh light was brutal. But even in an unforgiving light, the landscape didn’t lose any of its strange charms. I was spellbound, and in my mind, I knew I would return here one day and photograph this beautiful, peculiar landscape in light that would do it justice.