Tricks of light and imagination: The Llama

Here's a photo that never fails to amuse me. It's a screen shot from the "Lone Ranger" movie (shot in 1949 for the TV series, edited into a feature film in 1952). You'll probably want to click on the photo to embiggen it. Now, you may not see the same thing I see, but I can't help but see a nearly perfect side view of a llama's head and neck. It's just to the left of the rider, hovering above the smooth white rock at the far left.

Here's a detail shot of the Llama.

That smooth white rock, by the way, is the Manta Ray. We call this area the Manta Ray's Garden, but it has been more commonly referred to as Silverland because it is the area where the Lone Ranger first saddled up on Silver. I'm pretty sure most of these rocks have been destroyed. If not, I'd sure like to get a look at that llama in real life.

Pixies at Iverson

I'm always finding faces in the rocks, and here's a pair of characters I spotted on a recent visit to the Upper Iverson. They're in the top left corner of the photo. These rocks are located in the South Rim area where much of the filming took place for the old Westerns. I've amped up the contrast here because the original photo is pretty dark. I always seem to be fighting tough lighting conditions at Iverson — I just don't get up as early as the old film crews did, what can I say? These rocks would be better lit in the morning, but then the faces would probably disappear too.


Here's a detail shot from the above photo — not that it adds any clarity. But in case you're having trouble finding them in the larger photo, these are the faces I'm talking about.

I haven't spotted these particular "characters" in any of the old movies, but they're probably on screen somewhere if one looks hard enough. For anyone familiar with the 1970s space rock group Gong, these characters and others at Iverson remind me of the Pothead Pixies from Daevid Allen's mythological drawings on the old Gong albums.


Here's an idea of what the Pothead Pixies look like on the old Gong/Daevid Allen album covers.