Almost Wordless Wednesday

Tags

grand canyon, photography, postaday, sunset

In a few hours I will be going to Viet Nam, the country of my birth, for about three weeks. During that time, I will not be posting or viewing and commenting on your posts. Until then, I hope you will enjoy the following shot of a glorious Grand Canyon sunset taken six years ago.

Grand Canyon sunset

Pelican Formation

Tags

brown pelicans, garrapata state park, photography, postaday

One more shot taken in the spring of this year at Garrapata State Park south of Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA. This one is of a flock of Brown Pelicans flying in formation over the park where spring flowers were blooming in abundance.

Brown Pelicans flying over Garrapata State Park.

Updates: Jackie and Bougainvillea

Tags

bougainvillea, golden retriever, photography, postaday

Jackie, the puppy Golden Retriever, has been with us almost four months. She went from 9 lbs (4 kg) to 30 lbs (14 kg), but she is lean, very fast, and excels at tennis balls retrieval. Here’s how she looks today.

Jackie at 5 months.

Jackie at 5 months.

The Bougainvillea plant I posted about a couple weeks ago are now blooming. In the following photo, the flowers are small and whitish surrounded by pink bracts, which are actually a kind of leaf.

Bougainvillea flowering.

Long Trip Coming

Tags

atsion, Black-crowned Night Heron, cassidy arch, curlew, garrapata, marked godwit, photography, postaday, potash

Busy preparing for an upcoming long trip, I have not had a chance to go out and take any photo. The following images were taken many months ago, but have not yet been published on these pages. There is no rhyme or reason to them, just interesting shots of landscape and wildlife that I have seen.

Long-billed Curlew on Moss Landing beach in California.

Marbled Godwit at Moss Landing, CA.

Eagle taking off at Garrapata State Park, CA.

Controlled burn at Atsion, NJ.

Cassidy Arch at Capitol Reef National Park.

Black-crowned Night Heron at Ocean City, NJ.

Unidentified flower at Sayen Gardens, NJ.

Potash mine ponds at Dead Horse Point State Park, UT.

Wordless Wednesday

Tags

capitol reef national park, photography, postaday

View from Sunset Point at Capitol Reef National Park.

Moonrise at Capitol Reef National Park.

Autumn Splendor

Tags

fall foliage, glacier national park, Great Basin National Park, photography, postaday

Most of us can never have enough of the vibrant colors of fall foliage. Throughout the years, I have tried to capture its beauty with my camera. Last year, while travelling through Glacier National Park and Great Basin National Park in late September, I finally felt like a kid in a candy store. With the following photos, I hope you too can feast your eyes on the wonderful colors of autumn.

Great Basin National Park.

Glacier National Park.

Great Basin National Park.

Great Basin National Park.

Great Basin National Park.

Great Basin National Park.

Great Basin National Park.

Lighthouse and Sanderlings

Tags

barnegat lighthouse, long beach island, photography, postaday, sanderlings

Barnegat Lighthouse at the north end of Long Beach Island in New Jersey is well known and usually looks pretty much like in the following photo.

Barnegat Lighthouse

Today, I stood at its feet and pointed my camera up toward the top of the structure.

Barnegat Lighthouse, a different perspective

Half a mile away, Sanderlings were congregating on the shoreline, flying in and out as the surf pushed them around.

Sanderlings

Sanderlings in flight

Sanderlings landing

Bougainvillea: Vera

Tags

bougainvillea, photography, postadfay

Vera is the name of a small bougainvillea plant that we have been growing in a pot for five years. It does not flower every year, and in the fall and winter it has to be brought inside the house to survive the cold. The flowers are small, the bracts surrounding them are colored a pale purple, almost pink under good sunlight. This year there were many flowers, and I took that rare opportunity to take a series of shots under a bright afternoon sky.

Bougainvillea: Vera

Bougainvillea: Vera

Bougainvillea: Vera

Bougainvillea: Vera

Bougainvillea: Vera

Weekly Photo Challenge: H2O

Tags

glacier national park, H2O, kootenai falls, niagara falls, photography, postaday, weekly photo challenge

The link for this challenge is: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/h2o/

Photos of water make a good chunk of the shots I have taken since 2010 when I started doing digital photography. In the following series, the shots are of water from its sources high in the mountains, to waterfalls, and finally as part of the giant ocean mass around our globe.

Small brook in Glacier National Park.

Kootenai Falls near Libby, MT.

Kootenai Falls.

Niagara Falls, from the American side.

Close up of Niagara Falls.

Wave crashing on Jersey shore near Barnegat Light.

A Favorite National Park

Tags

great sand dunes national park and preserve, photography, postaday

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in southern Colorado was the last national park that we visited last year on October 5th and 6th. For me it was also the best spot of the entire trip.

The dunes come from sand at the bottom of a lake that evaporated some 440,000 years ago. Over time the winds picked up the sand and drove it toward the Sangre de Cristo mountains, where counter winds blew it back. The shifting winds created the dunes, moving them back and forth day in and day out against the mountainous backdrop.

Great Sand Dunes at sunset.

Great Sand Dunes at sunrise.

Today the Great Sand Dunes is a great playground for everyone. Young families let their children play on the sand by Medano creek, a shallow stream that flows at the lowest point on a side of the dunes. People of all ages camp in the well-maintained park’s campgrounds, and hike on the dunes or on the wilderness trails that take them into or around the mountains. The only minor disadvantage, but one that could be considered a plus, is that there is only a bare minimum of businesses and services to cater to park visitors. There is only one nearby restaurant and one lodge, while the nearest town, Mosca, is 23 miles (37 km) away. So if you want to leave all that urban and commercial stuff behind, go to the Great Sand Dunes to see and enjoy nature at its best.

Young woman in a contemplative pose at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.

Fall Foliage Along Highway 550 II

Tags

highway 550, photography, postaday, telluride

Here are a few more shots along Highway 550 in Colorado last year on October 2nd.

Highway 550 in Colorado.

Sign on Highway 550 near Telluride, CO.

Trout Lake under a waning moon.

Mountain side near Telluride, CO. Note houses at bottom left corner and ski slope on the right.

Fall Foliage Along Highway 550

Tags

colorado, highway 550, photography, postaday, uncompaghre

Fall arrived early this time last year in the Uncompaghre mountains along Highway 550 south of Montrose, CO. Aspens were a vivid yellow for large swaths on mountain slopes and along the highway, one of the most beautiful in the world. It passed by towns with famous names like Telluride, Hermosa, and Durango. Every few miles I wanted to and did stop to capture scenes like the ones below.

Along Highway 550 in Colorado.

Along Highway 550 in Colorado.

Crystal Forest

Tags

crystal forest, petrified forest national park, photography, postaday

At this time last year, a highlight of our visit to Petrified Forest National Park near Holbrook, AZ, was Crystal Forest, an easy hike through a rolling landscape adorned with many chunks, and even entire tree trunks, of petrified wood. But before entering Crystal Forest, the view of the butte across the parking lot was quite amazing.

Looking across highway at entrance to Crystal Forest, Petrified Forest National Park, Holbrook, AZ.

I am promising myself to some day going back and taking the time to hike around that butte and look at the back of it.

Petrified wood.

Petrified wood.