LIFE Magazine in their "Year in Pictures 2003" on page 71 quotes: "So Close, yet Still So Far In the summer, Mars was to draw as close to Earth as it had in 59,619 years. Backyard astronomers and the pros behind the Hubble eagerly examined surface features through their telescopes, but a photographer form Long Beach, California, set himself a different mission. 'I wanted to shoot Mars from a place that looked like Mars' said Wally Pacholka. 'I made the 700-mile round trip to the incredible scenic Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada six times.' This image, with Poodle Rock in the extreme foreground, was his reward."