Brian Head
Brian Head, at 11,312 feet, looking down at Cedar Breaks National Monument.
Long Way Home
This is an 80 mile long road out of Great Basin National Park. We saw only 3 other cars during the drive.
Death Valley
One of my favorite National Parks.
Gold Butte
Gold Butte National Monument covers nearly 300,000 acres of remote and rugged desert landscape in southeastern Nevada, where dramatically chiseled red sandstone, twisting canyons, and tree-clad mountains punctuate desolate stretches of the Mojave Desert. The brightly hued sandstone provides a stunning canvas for the area’s famously beautiful rock art. per BLM
Virgin Flow
The Virgin river flows and slowly cuts Zion National Park deeper. It's interesting to look up the canyon walls and see the horizontal marks indicating how high up the river was. Per the National Park Service "Zion was a relatively flat basin near sea level 240 million years ago".
Porch Art
Key West porches are, to my eye, works of art.
The Long and winding road
Gold Butte National Monument is a wild geological wonder to explore. Numerous mining sites, rock art panels and outstanding colors, plants and quiet. A capable vehicle is highly recommended due to very rough roads. I carry a tire inflator when I'm in places like this so I can deflate my tires to about 1/2 normal pressure then re-inflate them when I get back on hard surface roads.
Ely Nevada
Nevada's National Historic Landmarks Committee granted unanimous support to nominating the Nevada Northern's East Ely shops complex as a National Historic Landmark. The nomination was approved by the National Park Service on September 27, 2006.
Canyonlands
Canyonlands National Park is a park located in southeastern Utah near the town of Moab. The park preserves a colorful landscape eroded into numerous canyons, mesas, and buttes by the Colorado River, the Green River, and their respective tributaries. Legislation creating the park was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on September 12, 1964. Wikipedia
State Fair
Amsterdam
FUJI2543_4_5_tonemapped2
Glen Canyon Dam
Glen Canyon Dam, rising 710 feet above bedrock within the steep, rust-colored sand-stone walls of Glen Canyon, was constructed in 1956 to harness the power of the Colorado River in order to provide for the water and power needs of millions of people in the West. BLM
Key West Harbor
From a birds eye, foreground: Joint Interagency Task Force South which conducts detection and monitoring operation . Left: Special Forces underwater training facility. Middle: Harbor used by both the Navy and Key West, music amphitheater, Eco Discovery Center & soccer field. Right: Hotels, condos and homes. Left island is Sunset Key with hotel and homes, the island on the right is unoccupied. Ships enter the shipping channel from the left, can proceed around to the right but must turn around and leave the same way as depth is very shallow except in the narrow channel. The 2 tug boats are probably waiting for either a military ship or a barge carrying jet fuel.
Badlands National Park
The rugged beauty of the Badlands in South Dakota draws visitors from around the world. These striking geologic deposits contain one of the world’s richest fossil beds. Ancient horses and rhinos once roamed here. The park’s 244,000 acres protect an expanse of mixed-grass prairie where bison, bighorn sheep, prairie dogs, and black-footed ferrets live today. per NPS
Trail Ridge Road
In Rocky Mountain National Park, the 48 mile Trail RidgeRoad more than lives up to its advanced billing. Eleven miles of this high highway travel above treeline, the elevation near 11,500 feet where the park's evergreen forests come to a halt. It winds across the tundra's vastness to this high point of 12,183 feet elevation.
Gunlock Reservoir
Gunlock Reservoir UT holds snowmelt water for future use downstream. In 2017 the water level got high enough that it overflowed like this for months. There is a large rock dam which is designed to hold back the water whereas this is the natural rock off to one side that acts as the overflow route.
Salt Lake Utah
The Great Salt Lake is the largest saline lake in the Western Hemisphere and the eighth largest in the world. The 15,000 square miles of various water environments, remote islands and shorelines, with 400,000 acres of wetlands, provide habitat for plants, brine shrimp, reptiles, amphibians, mammals, shorebirds and waterfowl. Birds rely on the lake, a critical link in the Pacific Flyway between North and South America. Every year 10 million birds from 338 different species come to rest, eat and breed during migrations of a thousand miles or more. With the decline of other lakes, GSL is increasingly important to these species.
True Patriot
Nothing unusual for Key West's Duval Street.
The Reef
Located in south-central Utah in the heart of red rock country, Capitol Reef National Park is a hidden treasure filled with cliffs, canyons, domes, and bridges in the Waterpocket Fold, a geologic monocline (a wrinkle on the earth) extending almost 100 miles. US Park Service
Big Sky Nevada
Gold Butte National Monument. I get out here often because it's close and is full of endless rugged beauty. Wikipedia: The monument consists of 296,937 acres and fills a gap between Lake Mead National Recreation Area and Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, creating a continuous swath of conserved land and establishing a wildlife corridor. Significant wildlife within the borders of the park include Mojave Desert tortoise, bighorn sheep, and mountain lion, as well as quail and partridge. Important cultural and natural resources include rock art and sandstone formations. Within the park, "weather-chiseled red sandstone is incised with ancient rock art, and the remains of rock shelters and hearths, agave roasting pits and projectile points" may be found.
Dark Valley
Entered Zion National Park 2 weeks ago just before sunrise. Shuttle bus to the end of the valley where we adjusted our stuff and zipped up our layers. The sun had just kissed the mountain tops but it was very cold on the valley floor. Ignoring the paths we headed down to the bank of the Virgin river which was moving dirty and fast. We hiked along the riverbank almost 8 miles to the lodge, stripping off layers as the sun rose, eventually warming the valley floor.
Say Cheese
Organic dairy farm in Stonebank Wisconsin. This farmer has quite the story but I didn't ask his permission to tell it.
Glen Canyon Dam Lake View
This is the Lake Powell side of the dam and when water levels are higher this area I'm standing on would be completely submerged. As of 9/1/2021 the lake is down 151 feet leaving it only 30% full.
Cedar Breaks
Cedar Breaks is a natural amphitheater, stretching across 3 miles, with a depth of over 2,000 feet. The elevation of the rim of the amphitheater is over 10,000 feet above sea level. Iron oxides provide the reds, oranges and yellows, while manganese oxides provide shades of purple.
Cedar Breaks National Monument
As seen from about 10,500 feet. This and Bryce Canyon National Park are unusual because the view is usually seen by looking down.
North Rim
Early morning Grand Canyon National Park
Architectural Tour
Ride a boat on the Chicago river as they point out the beautiful architecture that sprouted on each side.
Key West
This shot comprises the Western side of the city including the harbor (owned by the US Navy), old Ft Zachary Taylor in the foreground, and Sunset Key to the top left. Half of the rest of what you see is owned by some branch of the military.
Zion National Park
Utah - Taken at sunset
Virgin River
Zion National Park
Red White & Blue
Woke early and things looked unusually bright. Walking outside I realized it had snowed, a very rare event where we live. Grabbed the camera and began taking photos knowing it would melt fast. There was 6-10" on the ground but by 11am it had completely disappeared. The white/red/blue was a wonderful combination while it lasted. Here's the park's description per Utah.com:
SNOW CANYON STATE PARK - This place would be a national park in any other state.
Located in the red-rock country near St George, in southwestern Utah, this park enjoys mild winter weather and seldom receives snow. The park was named after early Utah leaders Lorenzo and Erastus Snow. It offers some 16 miles of hiking trails, technical rock climbing, biking and horseback riding. It features a very nice campground open year-round. People also enjoy nature studies, wildlife viewing and photographic opportunities galore. All of this is set against a stunning backdrop of towering sandstone cliffs colored red and white. A jumbled of black lava rock caps some ridges and tumbles down hillsides.
Sunset Sail
The people on the Jolly Roger sure got their money worth that night.
Badlands National Park
Neither the sky nor the landscape had much color that day so I shot it in black & white.
Bryce Canyon
Bryce Canyon National Park
Last colors of the day
Gold Butte National Monument is one of my favorite places because of the remoteness, diversity, colors and quite honestly it is close to where I live. It is especially photogenic, as most things are, in morning or evening light.
Red & White
Snow covered Navajo Sandstone at 10,700 feet in Cedar Breaks National Monument
Havana Shine
Truck Pull
Jefferson County WI Fair
Glen Canyon Dam
Supplying Colorado River water and hydroelectric power to 5 states located in Page Arizona
Dressed for tourists
Lady in Havana earning tips to take her photo.
Common Street Scene
I have not been to another city that is more street photogenic than Havana.
Unique Taxi
For those with US dollars one can take a cool taxi in Cuba.
Niagara Falls Canada
Lake Superior
This waterfall flowed into the lake about a mile downstream. It was in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.
Strange Landscape
Little Finland Nevada looks like took Play Dough, sugar and kale to make a strange hiking destination in the middle of nowhere in the desert.
Canyonlands
The 527 square mile National park is divided into four districts: the Island in the Sky, the Needles, the Maze, and the combined rivers—the Green and Colorado—which carved two large canyons into the Colorado Plateau. While these areas share a primitive desert atmosphere, each retains its own character. Author Edward Abbey, a frequent visitor, described the Canyonlands as "the most weird, wonderful, magical place on earth—there is nothing else like it anywhere."
High View
Key West Navy harbor, state and city parks, public spaces and a slice of the city in the foreground, Sunset Key on the left and Wisteria Island to the right.
Ready for School
Cuba
Watching the Street
Old Town Havana is very photogenic with its combination of crumbling structures and color.
Imperial Point
North Rim of the Grand Canyon
Capital Reef
Capital Reef National Park Utah
Point Edward Canada
This bridge extends behind me across the St Clair river to the USA.
Fort Ord
Fort Ord National Monument, located on the former Fort Ord military base, is currently run by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). They protect and manage 44 species of rare plants and animals that call the property home. The 14,000 acre parcel has more than 86 miles of trails that can be explored on foot, bike or on horseback.
Prague
Salesman
A garlic vendor and friend
Full Gas Tank?
Death Valley is the largest U.S. National Park outside Alaska at 3,422,024 acres. Nearly 1,000 miles of paved and dirt roads provide access to locations both popular and remote. Even so, 93% of the park is protected as officially designated Wilderness. That wild country includes low valley floors crusted with barren salt flats, rugged mountains rising as much as 11,000 feet, deep and winding canyons, rolling sand dunes, and spring-fed oases.
Germany
Unfortunately the town name escapes me. Back in 2015 when I took this photo I used a function of my old Nikon to give it an artsy look.
Fort Jefferson
Fort Jefferson was built to protect one of the most strategic deepwater anchorages in North America. By fortifying this spacious harbor, the United States maintained an important “advance post” for ships patrolling the Gulf of Mexico and the Straits of Florida. Nestled within the islands and shoals that make up the Dry Tortugas, the harbor offered ships the chance to resupply, refit, or seek refuge from storms. The location of the Tortugas along one the world’s busiest shipping lanes was its greatest military asset. Though passing ships could easily avoid the largest of Fort Jefferson’s guns, they could not avoid the warships that used its harbor.
Mount Rushmore
Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a massive sculpture carved into Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills region of South Dakota. Completed in 1941 under the direction of Gutzon Borglum and his son Lincoln, the sculpture's roughly 60-ft.-high granite faces depict U.S. presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.
Bryce Canyon
Bryce Canyon National Park is a national park located in southwestern Utah. The major feature of the park is Bryce Canyon, which despite its name, is not a canyon, but a collection of giant natural amphitheaters along the eastern side of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. Bryce is distinctive due to geological structures called hoodoos, formed by frost weathering and stream erosion of the river and lake bed sedimentary rocks. The red, orange, and white colors of the rocks provide spectacular views for park visitors. Bryce Canyon National Park is much smaller than nearby Zion National Park. The rim at Bryce varies from 8,000 to 9,000 feet. Wikipedia
Zion National Park
If you look close you can see the road through the park at the very bottom.
Bahia Honda State Park
Located about 40 miles North of Key West it's geography was changed during Hurricane Irma. Prior to that it always made the top 10 list for the best beach in the USA. When I visited in December 2021 the access road to the beach was still closed because of the hurricane. The South end of the Key has been restored and is actually better because many buildings and shorelines had to be replaced.
Havana Balcony
It's a very interesting and baffling country.
Grafton UT
Original Morman homestead from the mid-1800s. Parks Utah is trying to maintain 1/2 dozen structures on the property within a few miles from Zion National Park
Typical downtown Havana
Every street in the capital you look down looks almost exactly like this one.
Sunset lit
Zion National Park
Kolob Canyons
The Kolob Canyons truly are a unique area of Zion National Park. With soaring peaks of Navajo sandstone, canyon streams and cascading falls, and over 20 miles of hiking trails. NPS
Virgin River
This river cut Zion National Park. I took this on the deep floor of the canyon in winter.
Cuban Neighborhood
These are very small homes lining the cobblestone street. Traffic is mostly mules and horse drawn carts.
Cedar Breaks
The far peak is 11,300 feet. It's accessible by preferably 4WD vehicle a few months a year.
Santiago de Cuba
I would have a hard time finding a better place for street photography than Cuba
Zion National Park in Winter
Deep in the valley the sunlight barely made it to the bottom this time of year.
Cuban Street
Canyon Floor Colors
Early Spring in Zion National Park.
Chicago IL
Looking West
From the 10,500' rim of Cedar Breaks National Monument in Utah
Bookseller in Havana
Both Che Guevara and Fidel Castro are revered in Cuba.
Fort Jefferson
Fort Jefferson is a massive coastal fortress. It is the largest brick masonry structure in the Americas and is composed of over 16 million bricks. The building covers 16 acres. Among United States forts, only Fort Monroe in Virginia and Fort Adams in Rhode Island are larger. The fort is located on Garden Key in the lower Florida Keys within the Dry Tortugas National Park, 68 miles west of the island of Key West.
Red Rock Recreation Area
Utah park with multiple waterfalls and numerous dinosaur prints. You can maybe make out the chiseled foot holds and rope for climbing.
Joshua Tree in Gold Butte National Monument
Joshua trees are fast growers for a desert species; new seedlings may grow at an average rate of 3 inches per year in their first 10 years, then only about 1.5 per year. The trunk consists of thousands of small fibers and lacks annual growth rings, making determining the tree's age difficult. This tree has a top-heavy branch system, but also what has been described as a "deep and extensive" root system, with roots reaching down to 36 ft. If it survives the rigors of the desert, it can live for hundreds of years; some specimens survive a thousand years. The tallest trees reach about 49 ft. New plants can grow from seed, but in some populations, new stems grow from underground rhizomes that spread out around the parent tree.
The first time I "bumped" into one I thought I'd been stabbed thereafter keeping my distance.
A Beautiful Walk
Boca Chica Naval Air Station (Key West) is just over the far mangroves. I love to walk the coast here as the water depth varies from a few inches to a few feet depending on tides. There are birds, sea creatures, plants, coral and F18 Super Hornets to keep my interest as I walk.
Grafton Settlement
Historic Mormon settlement on the south side of the Virgin River, adjoining orchards and farmland; last occupied in the 1940s. The town contains five original, partly restored buildings plus pieces of iron equipment and other relics. Zion National can be seen in the background.
Cedar Breaks National Monument
This spot where I took the photo is about 10,500 feet. There's another peak behind me that goes up to 11,300 but the access road is only open for a couple months.
5 foot hole
In Valley Of Fire State Park in Nevada.
Glacier National Park
If you haven't visited this park.... bucket list it.
Coral Pink
While the dunes are estimated to be 10,000 to 15,000 years old, this state park was first opened to the public in 1963. A phenomenon known as the Venturi Effect created the dunes, which is when wind passes through a notch between the Moquith and Moccasin Mountains. It increases velocity through the notch, which erodes the sandstone and carries the grains to the dunes.
Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park is 3,730 acres of sand.
Interesting colored formations
Nevada's Valley Of Fire State Park
Downtown Las Vegas
a.k.a. The Fremont Street Experience
Arches NP
Arches National Park is in eastern Utah adjacent to the Colorado River, 4 miles north of Moab. More than 2,000 sandstone arches are located in the park which is the highest density in the world.
Mesquite Dunes
While sand exists throughout Death Valley, there are very few locations where large dune fields are created. In order to create sand dunes, there must be a source of sand (in this case, the eroding mountains to the north), wind to move that sand, and a barrier to prevent the sand from being blown farther (the mountains to the south). The conditions at Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes are perfect for the creation of dunes, and while individual grains move, and ripples form, the dune field remains.
Bahia Honda State Park
The stormy skies made for strong color contrast between water, grass and sand.
Think Blues Brothers
Chicago
Devils Island
In the distance is Devil's Island (Île du Diable), a French penal colony that operated for more than 100 years, from 1852 to 1953, in the Salvation Islands of French Guiana.
Opened in 1852, the Devil's Island system received convicts from the Prison of St-Laurent-du-Maroni, who had been deported from all parts of the Second French Empire. It was notorious both for the staff's harsh treatment of detainees and the tropical climate and diseases that contributed to high mortality. The prison system had a death rate of 75% at the worst, and was finally closed down in 1953.
Continental Divide
Rocky Mountain National Park at 10,759 feet.
Gunlock State Park
Just drove by this earlier today and the water levels are maybe 1/3rd of what's shown here. Water water water...it's a huge deal here in the West.
No need to explain
Casa Marina Hotel
On New Year’s Eve 1920, Casa Marina, A Waldorf Astoria Resort, opened its doors as Key West’s most glamorous destination. Conceived by American railroad tycoon Henry Flagler, the resort was intended to accommodate wealthy customers of Flagler’s Overseas Railroad, which spanned from Key West to the Florida mainland.
Frosty Zion
Utah's Zion National Park is beautiful year round but winter is special with the dusting of snow and very few people.
Paria Canyon
The Paria Movie Set: This set was located at the bottom of this towering, multi-colored sandstone canyon only a few miles up the Paria River from Paria Sage Casitas. The movie set was used to film western movies such as Sergeants 3 in 1961 and The Outlaw Josey Wales in 1976 as well as TV shows from 1963-1991. As a location, it was used for several episodes of Gunsmoke and Sergeants Three. Those willing to take the bumpy trip will be rewarded with interpretive displays and remarkable canyon views. While the movie set withstood gunfights and saloon brawls, it couldn’t withstand the ravages of nature. Flooding left a 20 foot gully running through the middle of the three-building town. Through a cooperative effort between local volunteers and the BLM, the buildings were dismantled and rebuilt on stable ground.
Chicago River Sunday
I love to go on a weekend because the city is relatively quiet. Sightseers vs workers in a hurry.