Here's a video using photos I've taken during trips around the Southwest. Mother Nature does some AMAZING "architecture"!!! One of the more incredible experiences I had, was in the "Valley of the Gods" near Monument Valley. Valley of the Gods is an almost UNKNOWN area of land, where you can camp in the desert, and be TOTALLY by yourself. It's also one of the VERY few places where you can experience total SILENCE. That's almost impossible to experience in today's world. So on my most recent trip there, there was a time period of 20 hours where I didn't hear a SOUND in the vastness of this deserted desert . . . not a bird, not a car, nor jet, or bug flying around. . . NUTHIN' . . . it's one of the most surreal experiences you can have in Mother Nature, where you can just sit and look out at the vastness of the desert mountains surrounding you, and have NO noise . . . your ears eventually get so "fine tuned" that they literally start hearing the blood flow around your ears. Anyway, I digress LOL, so yeah, the last two photos in this video were taken at that area of the desert at my campsite, nearing sunset. It's as if you're the only person in the world, having total freedom, peace and tranquility, as you watch the sun setting on these incredible natural "sculptures".
The cliff dwellings in the photos were abandoned around 1250 A.D. as a drought forced the Native Americans to move to lands with better water access. The average life expectancy during those times was 35 years for males and only 25 years for females (due to the extra problems associated with chil
dbirth complications). It's difficult to imagine a time where those were the average lifespans! We take for granted that we will probably live at least into our 70s. The song is "Bonny Swans" by Loreena McKennitt. She's a Canadian singer, of Irish/Scottish descent . . . there's somethin' about t
he "haunting antiquity" sound of Celtic music that just seems to go really well with photos of rugged high desert lands, and this song is an interesting blend of "rock" and "Celtic" sounds . . .

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