Last month, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced the retirement of Bob Wick, one of its most prolific photographers, after a 30-year career. Wick’s images of public lands across the American West have been seen and shared by millions; some of them became iconic symbols of the wildlife and areas being preserved. As a tribute to Wick’s efforts and keen eye, I wanted to collect some of my favorites from his body of work and share them here.
American Landscapes, Seen Through the Lens of Bob Wick
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![Blooming flowers cover a large, treeless hillside.]()
Read moreA flower-covered mountain seen during the 2017 "super bloom" event in California's Carrizo Plain National Monument. Photographer Bob Wick: "The Valley floor has endless expanses of yellows and purples from coreopsis, tidy tips and phacelia, with smaller patches of dozens of other species. Not to be outdone, the Temblor Range is painted with swaths of orange, yellow and purple like something out of a storybook." #
Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management -
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![A view of the large trunks of tall sequoia trees.]()
Read moreGiants in California's Case Mountain Extensive Recreation Management Area—a view of part of the sequoia-grove complex managed by the Bureau of Land Management, located near Sequoia National Park #
Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management -
![An angular, rocky mountain stands reflected in a nearby lake.]()
Read moreSukakpak Mountain, seen along Dalton Highway in northern Alaska #
Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management -
![A cow moose stands among pine trees.]()
Read moreA cow moose, seen in the Fortymile Wild and Scenic River Corridor in east-central Alaska #
CC BY Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management -
![Small sand dunes stand before a distant mountain range.]()
Read moreThese small dunes in the Cadiz Dunes Wilderness were formed by north winds pushing sands off the Cadiz Dry Lake in the Mojave Trails National Monument in California. #
Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management -
![A collared lizard basks on a rock.]()
Read moreA collared lizard basks in Colorado's Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area. #
CC BY Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management -
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![Low sunlight filters through a desert landscape.]()
Read moreLow sunlight filters through the landscape of Arizona's Sonoran Desert National Monument. #
Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management -
![Five harbor seals relax on a rock in a harbor.]()
Read moreHarbor seals rest on rocks at California Coastal National Monument, near the village of Trinidad. #
CC BY Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management -
![A foggy view of a rugged coastline.]()
Read moreSunlight and fog play along a stretch of Northern California's King Range National Conservation Area. The King Range NCA covers 68,000 acres and extends along 35 miles of coastline between the mouth of the Mattole River and Sinkyone Wilderness State Park. #
Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management -
![A rounded rock formation, striped white and red, stands above a scrubby valley floor.]()
Read moreA view of the painted hills of the Sutton Mountain Wilderness Study Area in central Oregon #
Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management -
![A large sage grouse puffs up in a display.]()
Read moreA greater sage grouse, photographed in the Bodie Hills in California’s Eastern Sierra region #
Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management -
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![A person sits on a rock looking toward a large nearby mountain.]()
Read moreA view of Ragged Top, a mountain within Ironwood Forest National Monument in southern Arizona #
CC BY Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management -
![Water rushes along an Alaskan river.]()
Read moreWater rushes along the Gulkana River in south-central Alaska, part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. #
Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management -
![Several bighorn sheep stand on a hillside.]()
Read moreBighorn sheep stand in Montana's Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument. #
CC BY Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management -
![A distant view of a tall, snow-capped mountain]()
Read moreMount Shasta, seen from the Pacific Crest Trail in Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in southern Oregon #
Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management -
![Two elephant seals battle in the surf.]()
Read moreElephant seals battle in the surf near the Piedras Blancas Light Station on California’s central coast. #
Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management -
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![Palm trees stand before rugged mountains.]()
Read moreA view of palms and the landscape of California's 20,000-acre Coachella Valley Preserve #
Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management -
![A rancher on horseback herds cows past a flower-covered hillside.]()
Read moreWildflowers carpet the hills of Carrizo Plain National Monument in 2019. #
Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management -
![A view of many tall, cone-shaped rock formations]()
Read moreA view of the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument in New Mexico. The cone-shaped tent-rock formations are the products of erosion affecting deposits left by volcanic eruptions that occurred 6 to 7 million years ago, dumping pumice, ash, and tuff more than 1,000 feet thick. #
CC BY Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management -
![Moss-covered tree trunks are seen among a very green forest.]()
Read moreMoss-covered trees stand in the 7,472-acre Headwaters Forest Reserve in Humboldt County, California. #
Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management -
![Wreckage of an old gold-mining dredge lies beside a river.]()
Read moreWreckage of an old gold-mining dredge lies in Alaska's Fortymile Wild and Scenic River. #
CC BY Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management -
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![A large mountain rises above a highway.]()
Read moreAnother view of Mount Sukakpak, along Dalton Highway in Alaska #
CC BY Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management -
![A view of the Milky Way above a single large tree.]()
Read moreA view of the Milky Way above Carrizo Plain National Monument #
Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management -
![Early snow lies on autumn-colored trees in a mountainous area.]()
Read moreA wintry scene in the Conway Summit Area of Critical Environmental Concern in Mono County, California. The backdrop is formed by 12,000-foot peaks of the Ansel Adams Wilderness and Yosemite National Park. #
Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management -
![A caribou stands in a wide-open field.]()
Read moreAn individual from the Teshekpuk caribou herd, photographed in the Northeast National Petroleum Reserve in northern Alaska #
CC BY Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management -
![Steep canyon walls tower above a narrow green valley.]()
Read moreA view from Wedge Overlook of the Little Grand Canyon in the San Rafael Swell in south-central Utah #
Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management -
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![A horse and rider gallop under a cloudy sky.]()
Read moreA horse and rider gallop along the Pony Express National Historic Trail in Wyoming. #
CC BY Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management
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