I was helping a friend set-up a new blog this morning and in the process forget how much effort it took; how much time I’d spent setting this one up. I also exposed myself to the WordPress tool-set for the first time in months and found it had undergone remarkable improvement in ease of use since last I had occasion to visit. Even so , Continue reading
Tag Archives: Parks
Day At The Beach
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Great Sand Dunes National Park
And then a few minutes later the storm hit…..
Sometimes the trail can be difficult to find but it’s almost always a rewarding search
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Akaka Falls State Park
Forbidden Bay
This One’s For Mo
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Iced Exotic
St John USVI National Park
This not the first park I’ve had to access by ferry – that would be Isle Royale – but it is the first airport I’ve flown into – St Thomas – that had a greeter handing out rum shots – I declined.
The two islands are in easy sight of one another and twenty minutes on the ferry makes the connection. Of you come here though allow a couple of hours total. You’ll figure out why. 
Pretty good first day. I hiked the Caneel Hill and Lind Point trails which combined create a loop from and back to the NPS Visitors Center. The 1100 ft of elevation was not a problem but these are the rockiest trails I’ve yet come upon in my tour. Real ankle twisting stuff. You’ve been warned. 
I learned my third trip lesson today: rain gear in the tropics does my keep you dry. It just shelters your ramped up sweat glands. So, forego it; take the drenching. You’ll smell better and be a damned site cooler. (This does not apply to your camera which should be protected at any cost.
The trail was not memorable and I’m guessing that will be a continuing theme. Running around the hills here is not the draw. The beaches are. And they’re gorgeous. To have something like this contained inside a National Park is truly spectacular. They’re on my list for the morrow. Until then.
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Rain, Rain, Have A Stay
I love my life in Los Angeles not least because of the excellent, civilized weather. But it’s hard to overlook the lack of rain. Months go by with nary a drop to be seen.
It Was A Day For Rocks
If you click the photograph you’ll see what I mean.
Taken mostly near Cade’s Cove in Great Smoky Mountain National Park although toward the end you’ll notice a few I along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina
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Fine Wine
I had just about reached the end of my first day along the Blue Ridge Parkway; the sun was setting; I could simply not find a shot I liked.
Then this vineyard appeared out of nowhere.
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Brandywine Falls
I had the opportunity to visit Cuyahoga Valley National Park last week and its Brandywine Falls of which I had snapped an iPhone photo and posted on Facebook. It received quite a bit of positive feedback so I thought you might also enjoy one of the photographs I captured with my Canon DSLR.
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PineRidge: Sunrise to Sunset
Mo asked me the other day how I go about selecting the photographs I post. Now I’d like to say that I diligently process the images as a I go along and attempt to post each one in chronological order replete with backstory. Obviously that’s not the case although I do occasionally give it some thought.
Recently I’ve been randomly culling through my archive and post-processing files that have languished all too long. And as I do that and see a few things I like I pull them out for the blog and beyond. You’ll notice too – I hope – that these are now click-through links to the SmugMug galleries I’m beginning to (finally) populate. If you don’t know what a click-through link is just put your cursor on the face of the picture and click. 🙂 And not to worry; your machine will not explode. This image comes from the PineRidge Indian Reservation that surrounds Badlands National Park in South Dakota. It was taken when I passed through there in August 2011. It was the first area I tent camped in on that particular trip. That was a big deal for me at the time. That was many tent-poles ago.
There are lots of ridges in this area of the country but I do not recall seeing any pines.
Along Merced Creek
On the outskirts of Yosemite Valley
Yosemite
Checked into Yosemite today in hopes of catching a shot of
this years Firefall at Horsetail Falls. It was a no go today – not enough melt to create the ‘falls’. So I ran up and took some shots at Tunnel View. Had I not left my laptop’s power cord in LA you would have seen some of those. But alas….. So here you have the iPhone shot and I suppose that’s all you’ll get until I get home and upload some stuff to Smugmug.
Mono Lake
A number of people were thrown off when I told them a principal waypoint on this trip would be Mono Lake. For the most, easterners haven’t a clue what Mono Lake is. Aside from being a very large body of saline water, it sits in the middle of what once was the western portal of a project of the early 30’s that was designed (and run by) the LA County Water Department. LA County Water still plays a large role in the control of this area since it depends upon the basin to supply its jurisdiction with water. Turn off the spigot up here and people in Santa Monica will get mighty dry.
The reason I wanted to visit here once again – came last September with the Green Tortoise group – was to record the place to a degree that was impossible last fall. I needed to be here early morning and early evening to get the right lighting. I was also hoping for a little morning glow to capture the image you see here. Didn’t get the glow but its still a decent shot.
Intermission
-rgh
Sent from my iPhone
A Wimpy Sort of Snow
Our first ‘significant’ snow yesterday afternoon was more a form of
traffic torture than anything else but this morning on my drive from
Reston to Lorton to check in with my orthopedist I noticed that we had
been left with a fine blanket of white in all the right places – not
on the roads and sidewalks.
down RT 123 I passed great shot after great shot because I had
forgotten about the appointment and subsequently was running behind
schedule. I had dashed out of the house at what I thought was the last
minute unshowered, barely dressed, brace on top of jeans and wallet
left behind. So the shots had to be passed over. The irony of all this mad rushing was I arrived 20 minutes early and
the doctor arrived 20 minutes late. I decided not to apologize for bad
breath. On the way home I turned into Burke Lake Park in search of something
that had not already been burned off. I found this tree. An hour
earlier I’d had literally thousands of these to choose from. But then,
I only needed one. I liked this one. It’s not quite as majestic in
this image as it was to my eye but it’s still quite noble. Don’t know
what type if tree it is. Don’t know it’s story. Don’t know how many
people it’s seen come by over the course of its life, snapping
pictures, carving epitaphs, climbing on its limbs. I just know it was
there to pose for my iPhone this morning. I may go back for another visit one day. But if I don’t the tree will
still have thousands of other humans to choose from.
RichardBeGone 