The Black Mountains aren’t like other ranges you might know. They’re not the soaring peaks of the Rockies or the dense, forested slopes of the Sierras. No, these mountains have a different kind of majesty – stark, dramatic, and absolutely breathtaking in their isolation. Stretching for about 75 miles along the Colorado River, they form the backbone of northwestern Arizona, standing sentinel over some of the most spectacular water features in the American Southwest.
There she lies, eternal and unchanging, her profile etched against the azure Arizona sky like a painting that’s been there since time began. Sleeping Princess Mesa, as we’ve always called her, rests peacefully in the Black Mountains of Mohave County, watching over the desert landscape like a guardian of ancient secrets.
I’ve spent more than seven decades exploring these rugged terrains, capturing their beauty through my camera lens, and there’s something about this particular formation that keeps drawing me back. Maybe it’s the way the afternoon light catches her features – the gentle curve that forms her nose, the subtle ridge of her brow, the flowing lines that could be her hair spreading out across the rocky pillow. Or perhaps it’s the stories these mountains hold, stories that I’ve been collecting like precious stones since I was just a boy running wild on my father’s ranch.