Just before I left Santa Fe, I spotted a new addition to my google map. “Timmy” had added the Blue Hole, a natural wonder of sorts in Santa Rosa. It’s an 81ft (25m) deep, 60ft (18m) diameter hole in the ground filled with 61˚F (16˚C) water. The water comes in at the bottom from an underground river, fills the hole, then flows out the top at 3,000 gallons (11.4 cubic meters) per minute.

In other words, that’s a lot of cold, fresh water in a very big hole.

I went there at sunrise, but as is oft happening on this journey, the pre-dawn light disappointed. I actually set up a long time-lapse, but eventually got tired of that and gave up. These two shots are the first and last frame from that. I didn’t bother posting the time-lapse; it just isn’t that interesting sadly. I should have set up and started shooting when it was still completely dark; that would have been a bit more interesting.

Actually one of my favorite shots from the morning was made on the iPhone! Two photos merged into a pseudo HDR using the iPhone app TrueHDR—not too shabby. The results of that app tend to have a slight gree cast to them, so I pulled that out in Aperture before posting here. Of course if you want to know how to really make HDR images, head on over to Stuck in Customs. Trey does it right.

I headed back to the Blue Hole on my way out of town, and by then people were jumping in. I asked a lovely young couple, Rafael and Carolina, on their way to Colorado if they’d jump in for me, and they obliged!