In the pho­to above, the vis­i­tor cen­ter sign is not so hard to see at the left of the entrance road.  To the right of the mid­dle of the pho­to, just below the peaks of rugged Indi­an Head and near the trees, can you make out the roof of the vis­i­tor cen­ter? See it? The design of the park vis­i­tor cen­ter is anoth­er superla­tive of the park that escapes the eye at first. Just as the Big Horn Sheep blend into the rocky ter­rain, the cen­ter bur­rows into a sub­tle rise in the desert floor where the ground has offered up a space for this earth-shel­tered habi­tat.  If we do not notice the struc­ture that is here, that is by design.  The flo­ra and fau­na, too, may seem unin­ter­rupt­ed by the flow of vis­i­tors pass­ing by.

Pho­tos by Bar­bara Swanson

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