The ogre #wargaming #oldhammer #miniaturepainting #warhammercommunity #warhammer #oldworld #paintingwarhammer #nerdlings #terrain #dnd #dungeonsanddragons #ttrpg #fantasy

Archways to better planning: Lessons from Moab, Utah

Listed below are a number of planning lessons identified from glorious Moab, Utah. While reading these, some may sound rather critical. Pointing out flaws is not the intent. Like most people who visit Moab, they fall in love with the ruggedly stunning red rock landscape, as well as the charming town. Unfortunately, Americans have a tendency to overwhelm places they adore by literally “loving them to death.”

The Moab of 2025 is quite different than the Moab of 2003 when I last visited there. Personally, I miss many aspects of more innocent Moab. While there have definitely been some improvements, there are also a lot of concerns and challenges facing the city/area not the least of which is mass tourism.

The lessons listed below are similar to many of the conundrums facing tourist towns. We saw them first hand while living in Traverse City, Michigan. The big question is how to most effectively address them. Answers are not always easy, so it is likely to take an incremental approach. Researching and employing existing successful tactics learned by other tourist towns is a great approach — why reinvent the wheel when there are proven options already!

“Moab magic is made of Quiet Yeses and Small Wins over time…
If we could wave a magic wand and create the perfect world, we would. But reality is complicated. We know a healthy community is a ‘forever project’ maintained by passionate people doing what they can, when they can.”

Source: moab-solutions.org

Hopefully these will provide some useful insights and ideas. That being said, new ideas should never be dismissed. When tackling difficult and complex planning issues, there is no such thing as a bad idea. Furthermore, all stakeholders should have a seat at the table.

Here’s wishing Moab all the very best in its ongoing efforts to address the variety of community challenges facing it. Peace!

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• The Moab area may have more varied topographical, geological, and natural wonders per square mile than any other place in the United States. Protecting these unique and beautiful features at all cost should always be priority number one. That includes protecting them from poor decisions coming out of Washington, D.C. and/or Salt Lake City.

• At some point, there are only so many ecotours, rafting providers, and off-road adventures that can be accommodated before they begin to overwhelm a host community like Moab and harm the natural ecosystems that drew everyone there in the first place. At what point is enough ENOUGH?

• It is distressing to see hotel sprawl inch ever closer to Arches National Park. Some form of growth boundary is needed to maintain the visual and aesthetic integrity of natural areas surrounding the park, particularly between it and the city. At a minimum, zoning around the park should limit the uses that permitted to those which a conducive and complementary to the park itself. This should NOT include commercial, extractive, or industrial uses.

• For a town of 5,336 residents, Moab contains 3,070 hotel, resort, and B & B rooms at the current time (June 2025). According to information cited from April 2024 by Google Gemini, another approximate 700 lodging rooms are in the pipeline. These numbers do not begin to include commercial and public campsites, camping cabins, tiny house rentals, and guest houses/condos. Furthermore, according to AirDNA, Moab has 1,737 Airbnb and VRBO properties available. Needless today, during peak seasons, tourists far outnumber the local residents.

Based on the previous three points, Moab must continuously fight like hell to guard against the evils of mass tourism to keep it from overwhelming the community.

• Housing for locals and seasonal employees is increasingly expensive due to the popularity of living in a scenic resort community and as more residential properties become “pseudo-hotels.” According to Rocket.com, the median list price in Moab/Grand County Utah in May 2025 was $664,000. Not exactly attainable nor affordable for most tourism/service industry employees.

“Moab and Grand County, like many other places across the country, have struggled with housing scarcity for years. The issue is exacerbated in Moab and other resort towns, where tourism drives up property values, and many jobs essential to the local economy are relatively low-paying service industry positions.”

Source: utahstories.com

The Moab Area Housing Task Force was established by the city, surrounding Grand County, and Housing Authority of Southeastern Utah. They are working to address housing issues with efforts like a Housing Choice Voucher Program, subsidized apartments and homes, a Mutual Self Help Program, the CROWN Rent-to-Own Program, as well as a senior living facility. Meanwhile, Moab Solutions is addressing the city’s houseless population through street level outreach and an emergency needs fund. Last but not least, since 2010 Community Rebuilds has been constructing affordable single-family homes in the Moab and Spanish Valleys.

• Moab could use a truck route to direct semis and other big rigs away from downtown. U.S. 191 is a major route that serves as the northern part of the corridor connecting Salt Lake City and Albuquerque. The noise, pollution, and added traffic harms the aesthetics and appeal of the city’s core.

There are those in Moab trying to correct this issue, as well as noise coming from off-highway (OHV) and all-terrain (ATV) vehicles driving around town. Due to the narrow valley where Moab sits (see the geological map earlier in this post), practical options for an alternative truck route are limited. Regarding OHVs and ATVs, Utah bars counties from restricting OHV businesses. Furthermore, Moab itself has been challenged over the city’s noise regulations. A recent challenge was dismissed in November 2024.

• The historic tradition of Utah cities and towns to have uber-wide primary streets (first established by Brigham Young in Salt Lake City) can be detrimental to the community being pedestrian friendly. Traffic calming and road diets are likely the best options to address this topic.

• In a state with five incredible national parks (Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, and Zion), producing megatons of tourism dollars, it is frustrating to hear Utah politicians pissing and moaning about the size of newer national monuments like Bears Ear and Grand Staircase Escalante.  At some point, states like Utah need to learn that mineral dollars are fleeting, while tourism dollars are permanent. That being said, as noted above, there are definitely issues to contend with when a tourist destination becomes overwhelmingly popular.

Despite the difficulties arising from mass tourism, the UMTRA Project on the north side of Moab exemplifies the enormous long-term legacy costs associated with an over reliance on extractive industries. Technically called the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA), the project is removing 16 million tons of uranium tailings from 130 acres adjacent to the Colorado River. As of mid April 2025, more than 97 percent of these tailings have been successfully removed to a new permanent location. Most recent estimates from the Department of Energy indicate the total cost of this cleanup will exceed $720 million. What isn’t known, are the health, environmental, and similar costs that have accumulated since a uranium was first milled on the site in 1956.

• Moab has incorporated delightful and eccentric artwork (see photos below), unique benches, murals, and landscaped pockets in and near its main intersection in downtown. Hopefully, Moab can extend these tactical efforts throughout the city. They are great placemaking steps that appeal to locals and visitors alike.

• Even though Arches National Park has a reservation system to limit crowds during peak periods, it only applies between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. As the park is open 24/7, one can enjoy the majesty of Arches without dealing with the reservation process, the crowds, and also the hottest part of the day. Given the grueling temperatures in Moab during certain parts of the year, before and after hours options can make the spectacular even more enjoyable. Oh, and the angles from shadows and sunlight in the morning or evening can also create more vivid images of this geological masterpiece.

#arches #ArchesNationalPark #cities #environment #fun #geography #geogtaphy #geology #history #landUse #Moab #NationalParks #planning #terrain #topography #tourism #transportation #travel #Utah

Come visit the Highlands #wargaming #oldhammer #miniaturepainting #warhammercommunity #warhammer #oldworld #paintingwarhammer #nerdlings #terrain #dnd #dungeonsanddragons #ttrpg #fantasy

Stealth #wargaming #oldhammer #miniaturepainting #warhammercommunity #warhammer #oldworld #paintingwarhammer #nerdlings #terrain #dnd #dungeonsanddragons #ttrpg #fantasy

sphereland

#Sphere #Landscape #Abstract #Surreal #Rolling #Colorful #Terrain #Hills #Curved #Dreamlike #Sky #Clouds #Playful
#Img2img #AiArt #AiArtists #AiArtCommunity #StableDiffusion

want? have: https://aieris.art/featured/sphereland-eris-and-ai.html

I don't think I'll ever have enough of this. It's so cool what you can do with a bunch of noise functions.

Also, the terrain now uses an exponential distribution for the random of the gradient, which is a pretty cool and easy trick to make it more realistic.

#noise #terrain #shader #glsl

Forest Walkthrough Project done in 2021 as First Game Engine project with Code.
All 4 Parts Available on Youtube. Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZAdZ4ofDpWqDw0M-AI5hCyO1zPBdeJOw&si=5pcqRdb5wO24My2a
Created in Unity Engine in HDRP pipeline.
All the assets i used created with Blender.
Baked the texture maps.
Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/6bN3o0

#art #mastodon #mastoart #game #games #walkthrough #unity #unityhdrp #environment #environmentartist #programming #gamedev #sunrise #terrain #b3d #nature #landscape #gamedesign #gameleveldesign #steam

Druidic meeting #wargaming #oldhammer #miniaturepainting #warhammercommunity #warhammer #oldworld #paintingwarhammer #nerdlings #terrain #dnd #dungeonsanddragons #ttrpg #fantasy #celtic

Glacier Terrain

Glacier details with rock beneath the ice including some of the clay attributes on the top regions of terrain.
All details are in 2k for terrain & Textures.
I simply wanted to get the glacier look little with sub-erosional cuts beneath the branch path from top to bottom.
Check the whole story on Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/ZG8L8N

#terrain #terrain3d #quadspinnergaea #mastodon #mastoart #mountains #landscape #hills #3d #3dart #landscape #nature #naturephotography #glacier

Moss Terrain
Created another terrain Using Gaea in 2k resolution of textures and terrain.
Generally i had a wet environment in mind with these mountains.
Moss always exist in wet conditions rainfall, cloudy areas, foggy environments, lot more reasons and facts.

Check Story on: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Po3z0r

#quadspinnergaea #3d #3dart #terrain #mastodon #mastoart #procedural #terrain3d #mountains #hills #moss #mud #landscape #nature #naturephotography #game #games

Rock & Ice Terrain
Created Second Terrain with Gaea as Ice mountain.
It's really amazing to shape the terrains right from your own will.
Really impressed with quadspinner gaea and it's wokflow.

#quadspinnergaea #3d #3dart #terrain #terrain3d #landscape #mountains #hills #procedural #rock #ice #rockandice #mastodon #mastoart #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscape

Rocky Terrain Created in Quadspinner Gaea back in the day.
Still Gaea's fan. Simple easy straight forward workflow to generate beautiful terrains.
I really hope that sooner or later they release a version for Linux. As i love Linux.
Check the whole story on Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/nishant_neeraj

#art #artist #quadspinnergaea #terrain #3d #3dart #mountains #nature #digitalArt #hills #canyon #desert #landscape #mastodon #mastoart #game #gaming #gamedev #procedural

From Ikea plant to wargaming terrain #wargaming #oldhammer #miniaturepainting #warhammercommunity #warhammer #oldworld #paintingwarhammer #nerdlings #terrain #dnd #dungeonsanddragons #ttrpg #fantasy