Milky Way Over The Curecanti
by Janice Pariza
Title
Milky Way Over The Curecanti
Artist
Janice Pariza
Medium
Photograph - Photography Art
Description
The Chalk Cliffs at Curecanti in Colorado under the night sky and Milky Way.
The grayish white Chalk Cliffs emerge from Mount Princeton and are unlike any other mountains in Colorado. Though they look like chalk, they’re actually made of granite, which changed colors when other minerals leached out of fractures. Legend has it that gold was hidden in the cliffs’ crevices by 17th-century Spaniards and is yet to be rediscovered.
Curecanti National Recreation Area is a series of three reservoirs along the once wild Gunnison River. The reservoirs that make up Curecanti today are a destination for water-based recreation high in the Rocky Mountains. Best known for salmon and trout fishing, Curecanti also offers opportunities for hiking, boating, camping, and bird watching.
In 1922 seven western states, all of which contained some part of the mighty Colorado River or its major tributaries, signed an agreement to regulate the use of the vital waters of the river system. Allotments were made and each state was guaranteed a certain amount of water annually. To facilitate this effort, the member states were divided into upper and lower groups, based on geography. Recognizing their total dependence on the upper group states, whose mountain snow melts contributed the most water to the river system, the states of the lower group, California, Nevada, and Arizona, began to build dams, such as the magnificent Hoover Dam, to create storage reservoirs on their parts of the river system. By the 1950s, the upper states, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Wyoming, obligated to send a set amount of water downstream regardless of seasonal fluctuations in water levels, also began to see the wisdom of creating a system of dams and reservoirs. To grant the four states the authority to begin this process, Congress passed the Colorado River Storage Act on April 11, 1956. An important legal milestone in the tortuous history of the western water law, the Act created the Colorado River Storage Project [CRSP], and authorized four main projects, one of which was located on the Gunnison River in western Colorado, the fifth largest tributary of the Colorado River.[4] This project, originally called the Curecanti Project, was tasked with building three dams on the upper reaches of the Gunnison, approximately 27 miles west of the city of Gunnison. The resulting reservoirs, Blue Mesa, Morrow Point, and Crystal, would not only make possible water storage for transfer to the lower group states, but also for local agricultural use. Impounding this section of the river would also create new opportunities for flood control, the generation of hydro-electric power, and recreation. To help fulfill the recreation aspect of the project the National Park Service was given the responsibility to design and manage recreational opportunities on the three reservoirs. In 1965 the Park Service established Curecanti National Recreation Area, a new unit that would encompass all three reservoirs, as well as short sections of the river above and below, build campgrounds, marinas and lake access points, protect, research and interpret the natural environment and local history, and manage game and fish populations.
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Uploaded
January 21st, 2020
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Viewed 905 Times - Last Visitor from Beverly Hills, CA on 03/28/2024 at 1:41 PM
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Comments (18)
Larry Kniskern
Congratulations, Janice – your stunning scene has been selected as a Group Admin’s Pick from the Go Take a Hike Photography Group’s Night Photography photo contest! It has been placed in the Special Recognition thread in the group discussion board for archive.
James Hervat
Congratulations on your 2nd place win in the "Firmament" contest! Love this stunning image of our home galaxy with the appropriately otherwordly foreground landscape! L/F
Jan Mulherin
Congratulations!! This stunning image has been selected to be featured for the week in the “Art for Ever with You” Group Home Page. You are welcome to add a preview of this featured image to the group’s discussion post titled “2020 April: Stunning Group Featured Images and Thank-you’s” for a permanent display within the group, to share this achievement with others. Also feel free to post your feature on our group Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/296998814248643/ Thank you for your participation in the group! ~Jan (April 11, 2020)
Kathy Braud
Lovely! Wonderful sharing of our Milky Way! Congrats on your ABC art feature, Janice! L/f
Luther Fine Art
Congratulations! Your fantastic art has been featured on the Home Page of the ABC Group's H IS FOR HIGH themed week JANUARY 20- JANUARY 27. You are invited to add this wonderful art to the Features Archive Discussion in the ABC GROUP.
Dawn Currie
Congratulations on your feature in our group, Pure Nature Photography - celebrating the best of our natural world! You are invited to archive it in the 2020 Pure Nature Photography Thanks and Features Archive discussion thread for longer lasting visibility.
Michele Myers
This is awesome, Janet - how long of an exposure did you use to achieve the detail in the Milky Way? - L/F!
Dawn Currie
Congratulations! Your exceptional photographic artwork has been featured in our group, Artistic Photography! You are invited to archive it in the 2020 Artistic Photography Thanks and Features Archive discussion thread for more visibility.