#337: Otherworldly

Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness Study Area

A friend of mine has been raving for years about a BLM-managed area in northwestern New Mexico called Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah. A group of us finally got up there earlier this week; the photo below shows my first glimpse of it.

My first view of Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah, from above

But for the blue sky, I honestly might’ve wondered if I’d secretly been transported to another planet entirely. Once we got down into the wash, it seemed even more otherworldly.

A few of the many hoodoos in Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wash

There were countless hoodoos towering above us. There were also numerous smaller formations that I can only describe as rock mushrooms.

A handful of rock mushrooms in the wash

It’s extremely dry and barren in the wash so I was delighted (but not entirely surprised) to see a few spring flowers blooming there.

Bulbous springparsley (Vesper bulbosus), according to iNaturalist (their spelling)

Each of the flowers above is pretty small — probably no more than 6-8mm in diameter — so it wasn’t until I got home and looked closely at my photos that I realized bulbous springparsley is an exceptionally pretty flower. Even the leaves, which looked vaguely fern-like from above, seem unusually detailed and beautiful.

An up-close view of bulbous springparsley

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Thank you!

Thanks so much for jumping right in there last week to let me know which of the last two Window Rock photos you preferred. I was quite sure, when I asked, that half of you would like the first and the other half would prefer the second — that’s how it usually works.

This time, though, every single one of you who commented on the post preferred the second image.

Several of you contacted me in other ways with your thoughts. With one vehement exception,¹ those of you in the second group preferred the first image.

My own preference is this image as well (I’m grateful I’m not totally alone). It too has leading lines in my opinion — it’s just that they don’t lead to the window.

Thank you again for letting me know what you liked and why.

1. “All those straight viga lines sat on my last nerve!”