I didn't know much about Glacier National park except for the fact that it is the only other national park in the lower 48 states that has Grizzly bears. Yahooing (but of course!) for more information revealed that it was the world's first international park and is contiguous with Waterton Lakes national park in Canada. And since I was planning on visiting the world's first national park - Yellowstone - during the trip, the prospect of going to the world's first international park seemed exciting. However, it was the park mascot that sold me Glacier - the Mountain Goat!

Now what does American Football, the Loch Ness monster and Glacier National Park have in common? They were all created for the consumer - spectators, audience or tourists. According to a well known source here's a history lesson: "In 1891, the Great Northern Railway crossed the Continental Divide at Marias Pass (5,213 ft/1,589 m), which is along the southern boundary of the park. In an effort to stimulate use of the railroad, the Great Northern soon advertised the splendors of the region to the public. The company lobbied the United States Congress, and in 1897, the park was designated as a forest preserve"

And so, Glacier National Park came into existence with catchy names for glaciers, roads, lakes and all. Thankfully the birds and animals were left untouched by the naming frenzy. The most famous of all roads in Glacier National Park is the Going-to-the-sun Road. It doesn't really go up to the sun (I didn't have to confirm that right?) and it is not all that high up in the mountains at around 6600 feet (2200 meters) on its highest point, but it is a civil engineering landmark nonetheless. You'll have to see and drive on the road to believe what an achievement it is. Really. Winter can dump eighty to hundred feet of snow on the road and it takes forever to clear out the snow when spring arrives. It wasn't even open in late June when I made the trip there!

With the Going-to-the-sun road closed on the west side at its highest point, Logan Pass, traveling to the east side would have to wait for another day. Glacier National park on the west side starts off pretty flat. With beautiful conifer forests, the magnificent Lake McDonald and Grand views of the high Rockies. Every turnout overflows with scenic beauty (and with cars of course!). There are countless trails leading to a lake shore or into the forest. Trailheads and turnouts have notes posted everywhere in bright yellow, orange or red warning tourists that they are now in Grizzly country. The poor animal even carries a scientific name as horrible as Ursus arctos horribilis (meaning Bear bear horrible. Ursus means bear in Latin. Arctos means bear in Greek. horribilis means... OK, you figure this one out). Anyway, the bear bear bear is known to be notorious in these parts and every conversation for hikers and campers revolves around how to stay safe from them... if you can that is. Hikers are seen carrying bells, whistles and pepper-spray when in Grizzly country. The park also has the smaller and more common Black Bears (which are quite large by the way). So, how does one know if the bear is a Grizzly or a black bear? Well, it is really simple. Just look for their scat. Black bear scat will have leaves, berries and such. Grizzly bear scat will have bells, whistles and pepper-spray cans.

It looked like I had taken the Crater lake weather with me as Glacier National park looked all cloudy and dull. The drive up to Logan pass was an uneventful one except for brief stops at a lake placid and a river wild. The Logan pass parking lot was an excited one. On one of the mountains near the pass, a gang of young male Big-horned sheep were honing their ramming skills on a patch of snow. A steady stream of tourists walked up a very, very, very slippery and steep trail to see the sheep from up-close. Blessed with a giant telephoto lens (compared to those pocket cameras anyway) that the tourists did not possess, I first took a shot of the sheep from down below. And then the greed for better shots took over my mind and I began going up the steep slope ignoring my awful mountaineering skills. I was doing OK uphill until I turned around and saw the near vertical trail (at least for my eyes and ability anyway). And the first slip happened and I had to stop almost immediately. I heard from tourists coming down that the sheep had gone away and now there was no motivation to do the last ten percent of the trail. Getting down was the priority now but not in the rolling down manner. After some circus and some nervous moments on slippery snow, I was finally down on the road with mud and ice on my back side. Did I mention that grass and small shrubs have strong root systems? :-)

The day ended with a long and bumpy drive through deep wilderness to Lake Kintla on the Canadian border. The road was rough with spectacular scenery and wide open meadows. It took several hours to cover the fifteen or so miles because of frequent stops and slow driving in the hope of catching a grizzly on the meadows or a moose among the willows, but it wasn't to be. At one point I wondered if I had crossed off into Canada by mistake. Now that would be illegal and a lot of trouble for me. Anyway, I was more slow than I thought I was and Lake Kintla itself wasn't a letdown. Besides being amazingly beautiful (and I'm running out of words to describe the parks other features) it had one of the most remote camping grounds I've been to. Unfortunately, I had already pitched my tent at another place called Fishing Bridge and I had to turn around for the night.

West Glacier was all about grand scenery and little wildlife. East Glacier was different and that story shall be told in the coming days. For now, here are the images from West Glacier.




Glacier National Park




( More images and a funny squirrel... )

I love blue and Crater lake is all about that color. It had been on my list of places to see for a long time and I finally got a chance to travel to the place this summer - on the longest day of the year in the Northern hemisphere. I headed out from San Jose several hours before dawn to beat the weekend traffic as I don't particularly enjoy driving in bumper-kissing traffic. I'm sure there are people out there who enjoy traffic and crowds and noise and such, but that's not me. Anyway, I had put in some good miles - bless cruise control - by the time I reached Redding in California when the first rays of the sun hit this part of the world. After a quick stop for fuel and coffee, the central valley of California had ended and the mountains had begun. Mountain roads are beautiful to drive on but they do need a lot of concentration as they are filled with distractions in the form of scenic places and wildlife. As the cloud cover cleared up a bit, a giant white peak was seen among the shorter pine-covered hills. It was the great white mountain of the Cascades - Mount Shasta. Traveling further north revealed that that mountain just rises out of flat ground and forms an incredible backdrop for the highways that run around it. I thought about going to the forests around the peak, but I had to decide between that and losing out on a camping site at Crater lake, so I decided to head on towards the lake.

I had imagined Oregon to be all rugged mountains but it started off pretty flat - with Mount Shasta looking over the land. By that time, distractions had taken control and I was on an Oregon birding trail near Klamath Falls. Nesting Sandhill cranes, courting Wrens and blackbirds and mud-collecting swallows were seen and though I could have spent hours and hours there, I had to move on. When I arrived at Crater lake, the first thing I needed to do was to get a campsite. Most campgrounds get filled up by noon on summer days. However, most campgrounds at Crater lake weren't even open and the few that were open still had some snow in them! And there I was for my summer vacation in shorts and sandals. After registering at the campsite, I pitched my tent and headed seven miles north to the rim of the crater lake. It was all foggy when I reached the rim and through holes in the cloud I could see the deep, dark blue waters of the mighty crater lake. It is one of the deepest lakes in the world and was formed when a volcanic peak collapsed and trapped all the water from the snowfall on the surrounding peaks, so it has a bit of interesting history.

The overcast conditions made me feel that I wouldn't be able to see the blue that the lake is so famous for, so I headed out to the trails nearby to catch some wildlife. I had to turn around soon though because it was obviously not a 'shorts n sandals' type weather and I had to head back to the campsite to change into something more appropriate - a layer of thermals and sweaters. :-)

The fog cleared up for a few minutes during the day and the breathtaking blue was seen at last, but I think the lake deserves to be seen on a clear day when three-fourths of the rim drive isn't closed.

The morning came early for me. I could hear rainfall on my tent and I dreaded the thought of having to get outside and pull apart the wet tent and dump it into the car. The sleeping bag had saved me from the bitter cold of the night and I only realized how cold it was outside after getting out of it. I quickly pulled apart the tent and started driving towards the lake from the campsite. It was still very dark outside and it was still raining. The car said that that outside air temperature was about 27F (or -3 Celsius) but since it was windy it felt a lot colder. When I got to the rim, there was absolutely no one there. And then I saw a shadow moving in the snow - a red fox in his gray winter coat was patrolling the village one last time before the sun makes an appearance. I put on my woolens and headed out to the rim to see what was happening on the lake. The lake was calm with clouds all around the rim and fog was moving in. I spent a couple of hours walking around the place till the sun broke through the clouds to show Crater lake one last time before I continued traveling north towards Seattle.





Crater Lake Blue




( More images from around Crater Lake and the road... )

The drive from Denver to back home in California was going to be a long one. I wanted to get back home before the holiday crowd takes over the national parks across the country. It is amazing how popular remote places and outdoor activities are in this country and for someone like me who prefers to be in places where there are no crowds, weekends and holiday weekends are time to stay away from national parks and such.

I left Denver early on the morning of the 2nd of July. Interstate 70 through the Rocky Mountains is an amazing road. Besides being very scenic there is a lot of wildlife next to the roads all through the mountains. I saw lots of deer and big-horned sheep. They could be traffic hazards, but it is always nice to see that they are around even if they are next to a winding freeway at 11,000 feet where vehicles speed in excess of 75 mph. I picked Monument Valley on the Utah-Arizona border as the place to stop by for the night. It wasn't exactly midway between Denver and San Jose, but I couldn't have picked a better approximate midway point.

When I got to the Navajo reservation, it was all cloudy and dark. The day was still young but I didn't have much hope to see the sun that evening. I went into the park and went for a drive on the valley floor. The overcast and low light conditions was interesting to make some photographs but when I saw horses for trail rides, I decided to go for it. Riding a mustang in the iconic western landscape can be wonderful experience but with the Navajo tour guide telling me things about Navajo culture, beliefs and tradition, it was just awesome. The weather played its part with an occasional drizzle as the Navajo horseman sung his rain song. Almost as soon as I had finished with the horse ride, the clouds opened up a bit to show the magnificent landscape of the Colorado plateau.

Here are some photographs from the Monument Valley.




Route 163




( Read more... )

The two weeks in the American west went very well. Some of you reading my (infrequent) updates on twitter may know what animals were seen, but here's a list anyway: 7 wolves, 4 grizzlies, 4 (wild) black bears (and 4 black bears in captivity), moose, coyotes, fox, badgers, beaver, muskrat, and countless elk, chipmunks, squirrels, pronghorn and bison. While Glacier National Park and Grand Tetons are very wild and perhaps untamed, Yellowstone is incredible. From geothermal features to meadows and mountains teeming with wildlife, Yellowstone has to be seen to be believed. Really. It is going to take a long time to put together the images and words from the trip, I guess. :-)

Meanwhile, Happy Independence day to all the Americans! This photograph is for you folks.



American Mustang. Monument Valley, Utah.

I'm going off on my annual summer holiday starting this weekend. Last year it was the fabulous south west and this year it is going to be the North West. Most of the roads I intend to take are still under snow even with global warming and all. Route changes depending on ever-changing conditions are something that I'm used to and even my usual rough trip plan needs to get a bit rougher.

A multi-week trip means packing in a lot of clothes. Here's how I do it: Go to the closet and pick all things green and brown I see and dump it into the bag! It works. Now that I'm done with the clothing department, I need to get to the more important things like checking my camping gear, the sleeping bag, torches, headlamps, backpacks, books and cameras.

Yay! One of my favorite movies, The Jungle Book, featuring Sabu is available on youtube movies (and in High Definition):
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2Zfz7elIt0

Awesome.

I did a short and hurried trip to Point Reyes this afternoon. The high tide came in early and I missed out on the tide pool shootout. And then I almost ran out of gasoline searching for a place to refuel. Couldn't have gotten worse right? It did. Near the light house, I saw a feral cat by the roadside with a kill. I first thought that the cat had gotten itself a ground squirrel, but it was later identified as a young Long-tailed Weasel! I saw an adult weasel later in the day, but it quickly ran away before I could pull over and take a shot.




An abandoned boat at Inverness

( Three more images )

Every once in a while you come across something unexpected on the trails. Dark clouds loomed in the east, and the Sierra in the west was behind a veil of fog and rain. Mono Lake was not blue, or green or turquoise like it is on an ordinary day. There was an ominous calm. The storm had arrived.





South Beach, Mono Lake.

( Larger + Color )

The day before I was supposed to fly to San Diego I heard that my dear old friend, Spike, had died back in Bangalore. I knew him since he was just a little, fragile, helpless pup, and I can never get over the fact that he won't be there to greet me when I make that visit home. This post is dedicated to his memory.

--

Captive animals and performing animals are not the kind of animals I'd like to see. I'd rather see them in the wild, when they are free and own their worlds. Once in a while a visit to a zoo comes up. I've been to zoos only a handful of times in the last decade and each time I've come away with mixed feelings. The answer to the question "Whether animals should be trained to perform or be held captive?" remains as hazy as ever. Zoos and performing animals are probably important for the people to look and take interest in the wonderful lifeforms that share this space with us...





( More images from the Sea World and the Zoo... )

Last spring we met at their home in the mountains, and it's hard for me to believe that I was supposed to meet him a few weeks ago but now will never be able to meet him again. RTM, you will be missed. This post is dedicated to his memory.

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I was in Yosemite during the weekend. This was the first time in several trips that I missed out on meeting a Coyote, but we did get to see other interesting critters in the mammal department - a bear, lots of marmots, lots of deer, squirrels and an awesome pika! The bird department had their usual suspects in attendance but the quails and grouse were absconding. With the skies constantly switching between blue, white and gray it was as beautiful as the place can get. Yosemite during thunderstorms is just spectacular.





( Pictures from the trip... )

It's been a crazy weekend. Traveling to Tahoe and Lassen National Park meant new places added to my list of travel destinations in the US, but spending so much time on the road meant that both places weren't satisfactorily experienced. There's always next time. However, this was my very first trip to an active volcanic area and I'm intrigued by Lassen National Park. The park still has a lot of snow and the main road through the park is closed, so maybe a trip in the summer is a must-do. Anyway, enough words, time for the pictures.




View from Emerald Bay in Lake Tahoe



( More... )

I was telling someone this morning to try HDR on one of their photographs and I realized I had never tried that myself since I bought my new Mac. Never too late to try, right? So, I downloaded Qtpfsgui and picked out one of the images I hadn't processed before just to try this out. I had never gotten around to processing pictures from the Yosemite trip in February, so I picked a photograph and began experimenting with the new software. I think I like the desaturated version of this coyote.





( Larger + color )

There's life all around and all you have to do is look. That's true even for a place named Death Valley which in the middle of a desert! One of the most amazing creatures that lives in this desert, popular because of its extreme temperatures, is a species of fish. There are a few species of pupfish that live within the boundaries of the Death Valley National Park. The Salt Creek pupfish or the Death Valley pupfish is the most popular of the lot because of easy accessibility to see the fish. The creek, no more than a few inches deep, seems to be full of them during spring. With males fighting over territory and the camouflaged females witnessing the battles. Here's some of the wildlife that I was able to see in the desert during last weekend's trip.




A male Salt Creek Pupfish




( More Pupfish and other wildlife... )

Since I had nothing better to do on a Friday evening, I began looking at more pictures from last week's trip. Death Valley is truly an amazing place. The place has seen so much action in terms of geography it is almost unbelievable. From a gigantic glacial age lake and being a feeding ground for mastodons and giant sloths, this place turned into a desert in the blink of an eye in terms of geologic timescale. It's got scars from the last time Yellowstone erupted. It's got mountains formed because of faults. Alluvial fans, fault lines, flash floods, Precambrian rocks, canyons, mountains, hot springs, sailing stones, playas, sand dunes and endemic plant and animal life - it's just got it all! What a place!




Racetrack Playa



( More pictures... 24 large ones )

I first thought it was a roadkill and I drove right by it. I then thought that such a beautiful creature shouldn't be left on the road - to be driven over by other travelers in a way that's unfit for the alpha reptile of the desert. I stopped my car and backed up and then got out to pick up a stick and as I walked towards the seemingly lifeless body, it moved! It was alive!! I wasn't sure if another car had gone over it before and disabled it, but I quickly ran back to the car and pulled out my camera. I saw another car approaching and I put on the emergency lights and signaled the car to stop to allow safe passage for this beautiful snake! I clicked a few quick shots and then pulled out my video camera. By that time, another car of tourists had stopped and they were all looking at it eagerly. While I videotaped the snake moving to safety, a couple of them got excited and wanted to hear the snake "rattle" and threw a stick at it. I told them that that wasn't the right way to treat wildlife and it was amazing how quickly they understood what they had done was wrong and were feeling bad for it! And soon the snake was out of our sights and had coiled up inside a bush! It is amazing how such a big snake had made itself so small! And after the other tourists had left, I moved on. Happy that I might have helped the snake in whatever little way I could. However, in less than 24 hours, I was to see another rattlesnake in a different part of the desert with a different outcome. A roadkill. It wasn't a baby Mojave or a Panamint like I thought it was, but it was a Sidewinder. I picked that one up from the road and let it rest for eternity beside the empty road...


( Pictures and video of the Rattlesnake )

Among the many interesting things that make a harsh desert their home, the Desert Horned Lizard is the only one that looks like a mythological beast - a dragon! Without wings of course.

They aren't as fast moving as some of the other desert specialist lizards. And they also aren't too shy because they think, and rightly so, that their camouflage works. And they look menacing too - with horns, spines and everything. This was the first time that I've seen a horned lizard and it turns out they are a common resident in the Desert Tortoise Natural Area and along with their superstar neighbors - the Desert Tortoise - these lizards make a trip to the DTNA an extremely interesting one.






( More Desert Horned Lizard photographs )

Yes, there is such a thing as California's state reptile. It is the amazing Desert Tortoise. I was hoping to see one on my previous trips to and through the Mojave, but it turned out I had to wait for the right time of the year to make the trip to see this wonderful creature. Desert Tortoise Natural Area is probably the best place to see them. There are a few short trails - trails beside burrows, and trails beside washes and flowers - which are good bets to find one. And I did find one there, just after I had given up on seeing one after more than a couple of hours of hiking in the desert sun!




Hello?

( Two more images... )

I went on my first real hike in a really, really long time. I better put in more of these before a longer trip, now that summer is lurking just around the horseshoe bend. It wasn't a long hike, but with an altitude gain of about 900 feet, it showed that I had slacked away from real hikes for a while. But I did reach the summit of the Flag Hill in the Ohlone Regional Park (in the East SF bay hills) and after that it was all downhill! Spring flower bloom, verdant hills, a gentle breeze and just the right temperature made it a rather pleasant outing. And it all took just a few hours of the morning which is a good thing because as soon as I got a cell phone signal I noticed a voice mail from office...

Anyway, here are the pictures for the day:




California Poppy in the California Sun!

( More flowers and wildlife )

I wrote a short DSLR starter post for WisdomTap:
    http://blog.wisdomtap.com/2009/04/digital-slr-buying-tips.html

That site is fun!

It's been a while since I actually went out to photograph birds and wildlife. I just realized how long I have been away from the bird books when I came across regulars and I was struggling to get their name right. I also realized how much I had been missing it. I spent the whole morning walking around and shooting anything I could spot and get close enough. I would probably still be lurking on those trails if I hadn't run out of camera batteries.

It all started because of news of Eared Grebes in breeding plumage. These birds breed up near the Arctics and winter around these parts. During winter, they have a comparatively dull black-and-white plumage. Turns out that some birds have assumed their breeding plumage before they start their long migration and I just had to go check them out. The other option is to go to Alaska or some place far north during late spring and summer. Driving 10 minutes is perhaps a simpler option for now?




Plumage comparison! Guess which one's in breeding plumage...

( Twenty+ pictures inside... )

So, it's been a while since I posted any photographs. I was looking through the pictures I had taken in the first two months of this year and I was surprised I had forgotten to post about the mysterious cloud that we saw at Yosemite in January. Well, it wasn't all that mysterious, but it did look like it was changes into shapes that looked recognizable.



El Capitan reflection






( The cloud )

Time to post more pictures from Yosemite. On what was mostly a skiing and snowshoeing trip, the camera somehow managed to make a few photographs of the beautiful place in the rain and snow. Just dramatic the place is.





( More... )

I finally got to see the famed Monterey Bay aquarium. It's actually much smaller than I thought it would be, but it still lives up to its fame. It's just awesome. I would have loved it if it were a little quieter, but at the same time it's great to see so many kids being so excited about things. Do they have adult-only library-like-silence days out there? :-)




Sea Nettle

( More pictures... )

All of us who've watched the Road Runner Show seem to love the Coyote. My case of trying get a decent photograph of the Coyote has been like playing the part of the Coyote and the Coyote being in the Road-runner's shoes. I didn't quite go through all the pain and trouble Mr. Wile E. Coyote endured, but the result's been the same: a few half-baked shots and multi-second views. Not good. On this trip to Yosemite, I wasn't expecting any wildlife sightings because of all the snow and ice, but I was in for a surprise when I noticed a mammal running across the icy meadow. I quickly took a lot of snaps from the distance with awfully bad camera settings without realizing my stupidity. And as I looked in disgust at the awful images I had made, the Coyote came up and sat three feet from the us and looked into the car. I quickly changed the settings to what they should be and the Coyote turned out to be not so Wile E. after all for he sat patiently and roamed around in the meadows as if he was modeling for me and the rest of the Yosemite visitors who lined up to snap up his photographs. Just an amazing, amazing experience. Thank you!



The Coyote moves in for the kill... :-)

( Nine more photographs of the Coyote... )

I finally got to go to see Yosemite in winter. Armed with tire chains and rigorous watching of youtube videos on how to put on chains, driving in icy conditions and all, I set out to cold, cold Yosemite. The roads were all clean thanks to the tireless efforts of the people who work to plough and salt these mountain roads. I've never seen Yosemite so desolate and so empty. It's a great time to enjoy the beauty in peace and the quiet that the place actually deserves. Hiking around is tricky as well with snow and ice, a slip and fall is just a footstep away all the time. And hiking for miles on in popular trails with nearly no other hikers was a great way to enjoy the scenic beauty that every part of Yosemite seems to be. Here are the landscape pictures I made on this trip to Yosemite.




( More pictures... )

2009 started with a trip to Point Reyes. It's an awesome place and I've had some good luck with wildlife sightings there. It was no different on new year's day - the elephant seals were back. There were a bunch of harbor seals in the water. The elks, the harriers and the coyotes showed up as well.



A starfish on the beach

( More Wildlife... )

Happy new year everyone.

Like I've done for the last several years, this year began with me spending the day in the wilderness! It was time to catch up with the Elephant Seals at Drakes Bay in Point Reyes. This male put on a nice show and I spent hours watching and shooting him as he rolled, rocked and moved around on the sandy beach. More on the trip later, with more pictures perhaps (as soon as my website comes back up from its unscheduled downtime - a problem others are facing with the service provider as well)



"Oh look... here comes another year!" :-)

I was at Yosemite last weekend and Sequoia/King's Canyon the weekend before that. Not a bad way to spend the first couple of weekends since I returned from India. I have a whole lot of photographs left to process from the India trip but I decided to finish up the smaller set of photographs from the short weekend trips.





Dense fog in the great Central Valley of California. The mountains in the foreground are the Sierra-Nevada and the mountains in the horizon are probably the coastal range.



( More... )

Yana is the name given to a bunch of limestone outcrops in the rainforests of the Western Ghats. In the sea of green, these dark rocks stand out. With spires and crevices, these rocks look as if they belonged in fairy tales.





( Nine more photographs... )

The two short weeks in India had to be sliced up into work, work-related travel and real travel. I only got to spend a couple of days in the wilderness, but it was an awesome feeling to be back in the jungle.




Typical view of the Western Ghats



( Photographs + Video )

Some random photographs from the roads of Karnataka.




Wind turbine farm

( Six more )

A few photographs from the Sunkadakatte elephant camp in Nagarahole.




( More )

When I was in Bangalore recently, I caught up with a whole lot of friends and had a chance to meet up with my former boss in his new startup. They've come up with an interesting concept of searching for products by using the power of reviews and ratings for products on the web and tweaks results for unique needs of a user. I played around with it during the short time I was there in Bangalore and after I got back to the US and I think some the results it throws at me are just amazingly accurate. Well, Thanksgiving is around the corner and if you're thinking of getting a camera, go ahead and see what recommendations Wisdomtap has for you ;) - http://www.wisdomtap/camera/

And if you do play around with it, please do send them some feedback: http://www.wisdomtap.com/feedback

Many weeks and days have passed since I last went out to photograph birds and yesterday was the day chosen to break that run. I headed out to the Palo Alto baylands to see what I could find and I was rewarded with the sighting of another flying beast which I had not expected. Among the real birds, the usual suspects were in their usual numbers in their usual places - ponds, the slough and the marsh.




A White-crowned sparrow

( More bird photographs... )

So, yesterday afternoon when I was walking along the Charleston Slough, looking for birds to photograph, I noticed a cloud patch on a pond. Now, it was a very clear day and I was surprised that there was a cloud in the sky blocking the sun when I noticed the "cloud" was moving - causing a lot of commotion among the gulls in one of the ponds. I aimed my camera at the gulls because I thought I could make some interesting pictures with sunlight and shadows - but then I noticed the shadow getting bigger and moving faster - like in the Tom and Jerry cartoons when a large object is falling from the sky! A little spooked, I looked into the sun to see a gigantic airship moving quietly. Wow! An airship! It was actually a real rigid airship - a Zeppelin! I never realized they still flew these things and for once a man-made thing took priority over the birds in the pond and I aimed my camera at the Zeppelin and took a photograph. And I had no clue that this was a historic event - because this was the first Zeppelin flying in the US in 71 years! More news on the flight here: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_10819919




( +1 close-up )

I must have taken hundreds of photographs of the same thing in Yosemite - the mysterious looking Half Dome - but I've never been tired of looking at it. I doubt if I will ever be. So, this was actually the first time I was there when a ranger was presenting the history of Yosemite at Glacier point. Among the crowd was an old man, who said that he was a little kid the last time he had been to Yosemite and they had a firefall rolling down the granite from Glacier Point. I'm sure it was spectacular, but all things spectacular cannot be good for the the place itself and it was banned before my lifetime. Here are more pictures of the same thing (for me they look different each time) :)





( Eight more photographs )

I was at Yosemite last weekend. It is always fun to hike around in Yosemite and all you have to do is walk away a few hundred feet from the road and you're surrounded by beautiful wilderness, with giant trees and a quiet, mysterious forest.




A Red Squirrel.

( Four more squirrel pictures )

Last weekend I went to Point Reyes for a short hike. I love the cool ocean wind, but it was extremely windy this time. And for the third time, I did a quarter Tomales point hike - that is turn around after about one-fourth the distance. One of these days, I will do the full trail and hopefully get to see the elusive mountain lion which is supposed to hang around in those parts. Anyway, here are some photographs from the trip for now.





( Seven more photographs )

Yosemite was the last national park on the summer vacation trip list. That also means this is going to be the last major post (or at least the public ones) about the vacation. The trip was like a dream, with so many grand landscapes and so much beautiful wildlife. I can never get tired of going to Yosemite and if I was a little closer, I'd probably be there every weekend.

I had hoped to see a bear each time I visited Yosemite in the past, but each time I returned without seeing them. Although the initial plan was to have two days in Yosemite, change of plan during the trip meant that I'd have just the afternoon in Yosemite. No chance of bear then. Not much chance of any wildlife then, I thought. And just to prove me wrong, the animals showed up. And just by the roadside too... :-)




The sun is all set to signal the end of day... the end of the trip.

( Ten more photographs... )

I had heard about the presence of free horses on the Eastern border of Death Valley but the two visits I made earlier during the year yielded no sightings. After the long trip through Utah, Arizona and then Nevada, coming into California and to Death Valley was almost like coming home. I wasn't expecting to see anything but fabulous sunset in Death Valley that day and I had just ignored charging my camera battery and had not realized there was no space left on my flash cards for any more photographs.

As we drove along the highway, I notice movement in a bush by the roadside and as I slowed down and pulled over I noticed a mustang! And then another one showed up on the other side and then a few more! I pulled out my camera from its lazy slumber and began to focus and all I see is a big red battery sign! While I continued to kick myself for the blunder, I had enough sense (just that little bit that I seem to have... sometimes) to put the battery to charge. Every second was like a minute and every minute was like the lifetime of earth. The horses moved about, eating, looking at us, communicating amongst themselves and doing all of it in the most beautiful light there could ever be.

We drove up the road to see if there were other herds but turned back after a mile and came back to the herd we had seen. After about fifteen minutes, the stallion of the herd started moving towards the Nevada side and walked away calmly into the distance. It was only a matter of time before the rest of the herd moved and I pulled out my battery from the charger and my camera came to life - just about. I had space for about twenty photographs and I knew I had to be less trigger happy than I usually am.

Like they say, All is well when...





A Stallion in the making! For now, he's one of the cutest things roaming the emptiness of Death Valley!

( Welcome to the world of Mustangs... )

Here are the final photographs from Arizona and Grand Canyon. Fascinating place that.




The clouds hide a sun on a fine day at the Grand Canyon

( Ten more photographs... )

Like I said in my previous post, the the south rim of the Grand Canyon is more crowded. The reason could be easier accessibility and good facilities year round, but the reason could also be that the views are much grander! The magnitude of this place is just unimaginable until you see it for yourself. I was there midweek and it was still very crowded, with people and cars everywhere, and after you've seen the place, you know why the millions go there each year to see one of the greatest sights the natural world has to offer - welcome to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.




The vista from "Desert View"

( Seventeen more photographs... )

Apparently, only 10% of the visitors to the Grand Canyon go to the North Rim and that was a huge incentive for me to go to there given that I like places which aren't crowded. The North Rim is much higher than the South Rim and there's no accessibility in winter when snow forces the roads (and the facilities) to be closed. And as I found out there North Rim is more forested, has rich(er) wildlife and quite different from the south rim, which is more of a desert. I did go to the south rim as well and I'm glad I did. The south rim will come up next, for now here are some images from the North Rim of the greatest canyon in the world.




View from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon

( Eight More photographs )

When driving from Bryce canyon national park to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, a detour to Page in Arizona takes you to one of the most photographed slot canyons in the world - the Antelope canyon. We had lost our way and it was almost time for the sun to set when we reached the upper antelope canyon. Antelope canyon is inside a Native American reservation and only registered guides can take you there and it requires them to drive through the deep sands of the Antelope wash to get to the canyon. When we arrived at the canyon, most of the good light had long gone and all I could do was admire the beauty of the canyon and take some documentation photographs.






A walk inside the Antelope Canyon


( Seven more Photographs )

Here's the last post from the Bryce Canyon. The morning at Bryce was a fantastic show of colors and natural history. Bryce was only an 'if there is time' in the trip plan and somehow there was time and I'm so glad I could make it there. I hadn't imagined Bryce to have so much wildlife and with so many lifers, it was a great experience to be there.




Aqua Canyon in Bryce National Park

( Eight more photographs )

The sunset and sunrise are much anticipated events at Bryce and large crowds gather at the viewpoints early to get the best spots. I can just say that you've got to see it for yourself!





( 18 More photographs )

The native inhabitants of the Bryce Canyon - the Paiute people - believed the hoodoos were once people, but then turned into stone by the Coyote! If you've been to Bryce you'll realize why they believed so.




( Ten more photographs )

10 days. Four states. 7 national parks. Just amazing.

Here's how my (road) trip looked like: Sequoia/King's Canyon National Park -> Zion National Park -> Bryce Canyon National Park -> Grand Canyon (north rim) -> Antelope Canyon -> Grand Canyon (south rim) -> Death Valley -> Yosemite -> Monterey Bay. The grand tour with mountains, trees, desert, canyons, rivers, plateaus and the sea!

I now have the crazy, crazy task of looking at 36GB of photographs from the trip. :-(




American Bison in Utah