Sand Mountain

[Tom Taylor]

Sand Mountain
US 50, Nevada.

Sand Mountain is a dune that originated from ancient Lake Lahontan which dried-up about 10,000 years ago. In the 1860's the Sand Springs Pony Express Station was established at the base of the dune as a relay station for riders delivering U.S. mail, messages, newspapers, and packages. The riders would travel on horseback for 75-100 miles, changing horses every 10-15 miles. To accomplish such a feat, the Pony Express had to establish over 150 stations along the path across the country. This link bring you to an illustrated William Henry Jackson map of the Pony Express route.

Shot on film with a Pentax 67II.

 

[Donald Qualls]

Pony Express

Major legend for only operating for a couple years.

 

[Pieter12]

View attachment 347208​

Sand Mountain
US 50, Nevada.

Sand Mountain is a dune that originated from ancient Lake Lahontan which dried-up about 10,000 years ago. In the 1860's the Sand Springs Pony Express Station was established at the base of the dune as a relay station for riders delivering U.S. mail, messages, newspapers, and packages. The riders would travel on horseback for 75-100 miles, changing horses every 10-15 miles. To accomplish such a feat, the Pony Express had to establish over 150 stations along the path across the country. This link bring you to an illustrated William Henry Jackson map of the Pony Express route.

Shot on film with a Pentax 67II.

Reminds me a bit of the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado, but on a smaller scale.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Tallest sand dunes in California.

 

[Daniela]

Beautiful work and interesting story, Tom!

 

[Tom Taylor]

Thanks Daniela! I hit it lucky and arrived on location when the lighting was at its best. But this image was captured during the winter, in January IIRC, and the lighting in the southwest is always good in the winter and that's when I usually take my long road trips. After seeing the Oppenheimer movie I set-up the projector and screen to view my old slides which I haven't done in a while and this one stood out. It is mounted in a cardboard mount which would seem to indicate that I didn't think it special at the time because I usually mounted my "best" slides in Gepe AN glass mounts and the rest in cardboard "Blair" mounts which costs about a quarter each back then. So don't throw your so-so's away! So far I have found several that should have been Gepe mounted.

 

[pentaxuser]

I agree wíth Daniela's sentiments

pentaxuser

 

[Vaughn]

Tallest sand dunes in California.

Good image. Driving by Sand Mtn, it seems to a serious destination for the dune buggy crowd...which is the selling point for the dunes of Death Valley National Park.