Sunny Fathers Day
I took a little walk today with the camera. It was a beautiful day in La Jolla (again)
Be Happy
A little photo from a morning walk. I loved how the seagulls were flying in harmony – like a band singing a pretty song.
Take a Sunset Walk through San Diego
If you want a beautiful sunset, is there anywhere more beautiful to see it than San Diego? This view is a few mere steps from my front door. I come down to this beach every day I can to see what unfolds before my eyes.
Shooting Elk
It’s fun to shoot Elk. By shoot I mean with my camera and of course never with a gun. I knew a pretty bad guy once and that was his hobby – shooting and hunting Elk. He was so bad in fact that he was locked away in jail in Montana and called the worst Poacher in US history. He was actually accused of hunting Elk in Yellowstone National Park. That is pretty outrageous if you ask me. This guy, his name was Steve, was supposed to do a bunch of work on my house. He ended up taking a bunch of money from me and never doing the work. I knew he was pretty much a con-man and a crook but I never knew he was such an idiot to shoot and hunt Elk in the most protected National Park in probably the world.
In Yellowstone, while we were there. Keven spotted two Elk crossing a river and drinking from it. We were on a hike and it was a pretty amazing moment to be so close to wild creatures and they didn’t seem so afraid of us. I thought back to Steve and how he hunted perhaps these very same animals and how he possibly damaged the serene wild calm that they called home. I guess that is why he got locked up for the next 25 years. Good riddance. In any case I was really happy to come across these Elk in their natural habitat.
The Bubbling Mud of Yellowstone
In the middle of Montana, Yellowstone National Park sits on what is now considered the largest Super Volcano in the world. All around this park, signs of internal distress within the earths crust is evident. No where is this more evident than in the multitude of bubbling mud pots that collect almost everywhere within the park. Mud Pots are sorts of acidic hot springs that contain a limited amount of extremely hot water and lots of mud. What you get when these mud pots develop is a little bit of boiling water under the crust of the earth and lots of mud. The mud pots because they have various colors within the park are also called paint pots because they resemble artist pools of different colored paint. The only difference is that the mud pots are boiling and mud is flying everywhere. The mud pots produce this really cool steam but the steam smells like boiled eggs and actually makes your eyes burn. You want to stay around the mud pots, but the tremendous amounts of steam, fog and general bad smell make you want to leave after a little bit.
These mud pots spell trouble for dogs and travelers to the park. Just a couple of months ago, a dog jumped into the area where the mud pots were and cracked through the crust and literally boiled himself alive. The owners friend, jumped in the pot to save the dog but alas he fell to the same fate. One generally does not want to venture off the beaten path in Yosemite because it is quite easy to break through the ground and end up in one of these boiling mud soup pots. It is quite an amazing place, full of beauty and danger.
El Caro No Worko
Today marked day 2 of our stay within Yellowstone National Park. Call it luck of the Irish as my car broke down in just about one of the best places you could break down. Unfortunately today however we found out that they had to special order the part from another state and have it federal expressed by Monday to the location. Apparently Range Rover does not open on weekends so that is going to have Kevin and I stuck yet another day here in Yellowstone. I guess the word “stuck” is all based on your perception of the problem. Things could be worse but this means that Kevin and I will have to do some fast driving on Monday night to make it home by Tuesday. I think we are still on mark to travel over 3500 miles on the road in less than 7 days.
Kevin and I spent the whole day driving through most of the park – actually we drove all around the park and could probably now become Rangers since we know the park so well. We saw even more wildlife today – Bison, Osprey, Orange Bellied Beavers, Cranes, Elks and Ravens. We also saw some amazing waterfalls today – the most intense and large that I have seen in my life. The lower waterfalls in Yellowstone must be seen to be believed. They were loud and millions of pounds of water we pouring over the side of the cliff every minute. It was a pretty awe-inspring site.
We finished off the day watching 2 elk wade across Yosemite River and pause to drink water – now that was another great day.
A view of one of the great waterfalls at Yellowstone at a location called Artist Point. It could take your breath away it is so beautiful
Everywhere you look within Yellowstone is like a picture perfect postcard. This place is called the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Can you see why?
Kevin’s smile reveals the terror within his heart as he grips the railing to avoid plunging down through the raging waterfall.
Kevin slapped this surprised Bison on the Butt Cheek as we drove past him. The Bison literally walked right beside our car – close enough to touch, or in Kevin’s case, close enough to launch a butt slap on him.
This elk was slightly annoyed that we were watching him wade in the water and have sips of water. Eventually about 10 cars were lined up taking pictures and trapping the poor elk in the water.
Burned trees are everywhere in the park. That comes with the territory as boiling hot springs and mud pots spring up in random places and burn everything around.
Burned tree sticks create a barren landscape in some places. Barren but still so beautiful.
Kevin sits on one of the picturesque park benches in front of a waterfall.
The Tree
I was walking through the desert in White Sands New Mexico this week and I spotted this tree in the distance. It looked very interesting and a little scary so I went off the path to go take some pictures of it. The branches were dry and they sprouted in all directions towards the stormy skies. The sun began to peek out of the clouds and lit the branches and the trunk of the tree but everything else around it was still dark. It was a scary tree.
Traveling to the White Sands today
What a long day. I spent the day driving from El Paso to White Sands National Monument. What an unusual place in the middle of New Mexico – brilliant white sands in the middle of the desert. The white sand is created by gypsum deposits from nearby mountains which has formed over many thousands of years.
People come here to take photographs or to take sleds down the huge dunes of white sand that cover 250,000 acres. It sure is easy to get lost in the desert with all that sand around you. Spring is the windy season so when you go walking your footprints are erased almost immediately. You really have to keep your sense of direction to avoid getting lost. I was fortunate but they have to rescue people all the time here.
