Black and white view up the columnar basalt cliff of Devils Postpile with a pine at the rim.

Organ Pipes

Devils Postpile National Monument, California

Devils Postpile from directly below, 35mm aimed straight up the columns. The hexagonal jointing is so regular it photographs like architecture, so I treated it as architecture: monochrome, hard geometry, one pine at the rim for the organic counterargument. A ten-minute detour off the JMT the morning we dropped into Reds Meadow for burgers, ice cream, and the third resupply.

Nikon Z 7_2 · 17-35mm f/2.8D · 35mm · f/5 · 1/500 · ISO 180

July 15, 2025

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