How some things don't change - identical photos taken years apart

[dkerr24]

Compare this photo taken on Nov 24, 2000 (I found it while looking at Big Bend photos on webshots):



To this shot I took on Feb 13th, 2008:



The plant on the ground in front of the tree is still there, although the cactus are gone now.

[oldfatman]

A lot less soil in the newer shot.  Echo Canyon at Enchanted Rock has lost a lot of soil also.

[xseption]

A lot less soil in the newer shot.  Echo Canyon at Enchanted Rock has lost a lot of soil also.

Are you referring to Enchanted Rock State Park? If so, where in the park is Echo Canyon?

Thanks!

~ edd

[oldfatman]

Yes I am. According to the trail map I got a couple of days ago it is the canyon between Little Rock and Enchanted Rock.  Another way to say it is the canyon to the just to the left of ER as you face ER from the parking lot. It had been about ten years since I had been there and the difference is dramatic.  While I was gone from Texas for nearly 6 years a lot has changed. I am in the process of visiting all the state parks I used to go to for fun.  So far each one has shown a lot of wear on the terrain.  Even Bibe is showing the wear. We are loving our parks to death.

[cookch1]

If you like this sort of thing then you'd enjoy the book, "Texas Then and Now" by Richard Reynolds. It's a collection of photos taken from the late 1800's and early 1900's and then retaken from the same vantage points recently. It sits on my coffee table and has received many favorable remarks.
http://texana.texascooking.com/books/texas_then_now.htm

[dkerr24]

Noone would intentionally walk directly through a bed of cactus. 

I would think the wind up there (and drought) does a lot more to remove soil than a moderate amount of human foot traffic would.

[oldfatman]

It would seem to me that the multiyear drought would be the major culprit in the soil removal.  Once the sand is dry, the wind has a free run at moving it around.  A golf course I was a member of in the desert in Washington state had to replace the sand in the bunkers at least 3 times a year.  The strong winds would remove it all in a very few months. I doubt foot traffic moves enough dirt in a large area to matter.  Even on a trail most of the dirt is just mashed to the sides.

[Ay Chihuahua!]

I'd bet the reason for any soil removal was the incredidble rains last year in Texas.  I believe BB received more than normal.  Central Texas doubled its yearly rainfall total in just two months.  To give you some idea of what was coming down, look at what Marble Falls (not too far from Enchanted Rock) got in just a few hours - 19 inches.

[presidio]

If you like this sort of thing then you'd enjoy the book, "Texas Then and Now" by Richard Reynolds. It's a collection of photos taken from the late 1800's and early 1900's and then retaken from the same vantage points recently. It sits on my coffee table and has received many favorable remarks.
http://texana.texascooking.com/books/texas_then_now.htm

There are a number of 'rephotography' books out. Ones on New Mexico and the west in general come to mind, as well as several devoted solely to urban change in a number of cities.

One challenge, especially in the outdoors, is determining the exact spot a photo was taken from and matching the lens focal length to reproduce the scene. It would make a good hobby and far more intriguing than geocaching since there are few clues.

One of the easiest scenes to visit, and one that does not even take a camera to note the differences, is apparent to anyone who has traveled US90 across the Pecos River since the construction of Amistad dam. The elimination of a free flowing Pecos at its confluence with the Rio Grande, as the Pecos essentially became a still pool at that point with resultant serious sedimentation has reduced a great river that was nearly as wide as the canyon to a trickle that is choked with tamarisk and other invasive vegetation  on the huge mud flats.

The change at that point is one of the greatest you can find anywhere and has occurred in the span of a generation or so. It took quite a number of years for the silting process to become apparent, but it then progressed with remarkable speed.

Of course, once Amistad fills up with dirt as it is well on its way to doing, then the dam can be removed/breached as it will be a useless artifact and the downcutting can resume.

[oldfatman]

I agree that the Pecos has silted in a lot, but since the Lake has gotten some water back in it, things are different.  A bout five weeks ago the Pecos looked pretty good.  This best I have seen it in over 10 years.  It is not a trickle right now. With all the drought out here I doubt it will last very long until it is back to the trickle of the last few years. Six years ago at the highway bridge I watched the goats from the ranch on the north wade across the Pecos without getting their bellies wet.

[chuckyd]

I just love these before and after pictures...thx.