Tag Archives: National Park

Save the sequoias

The news about the fires in Yosemite National Park has me concerned.  If you never been there, you might not understand why.  Isn’t it just a bunch of rock and trees?  I guess that’s true.

It took me to age 36 to get to a National Park.  Yosemite was my first.  I wish I had gone there sooner, as it changed who I am.

If you’ve never been there and seen the giant sequoias, you might not understand.  Unfortunately photos can’t begin to relay the enormity and grandeur of these monster trees.  At 200-300 feet tall, and hundreds to thousands of years old, it really puts one in their place in time and space.

Wait, stop, think…yes…thousands of years old.  These have survived much of history as we believe we know it.

We learned when we were there that fire actually helps the trees survive.  Fire causes the cones to open, spreading seeds for new trees to grow.  They say the fires won’t hurt the trees, but one can’t help to worry for them.  If you haven’t seen these, please add them to your bucket list.  I suspect they will change you too.

Photos below from September 11-13, 2007. (Click to enlarge photos/open slideshow.)

 

It’s little wonder how fires can start in California when it looks like this.  This was taken a ways west of Yosemite Valley.

The entrance to Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias.

With the rental car for perspective.

Some sequoia cones.

These trees look like they’ve survived a fire or two.

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Photo of the day 2/24/2012 – “Untitled”

“Untitled”
After giving out some tips to someone today about what to see and do in Alaska, I wanted to revisit what was the highlight of my trip…A two and a half hour flight-seeing trip that included landing on a glacier in the Sheldon Amphitheater at the hiking basecamp.

There is so much to tell about this photo. It’s probably worth at least a couple thousand words. I’ll have to save those for another time.

In the photo:
The 50+ year-old plane we flew in.
Huge glacier (name unknown)
Mount McKinley

Above Denali National Park & Preserve
Alaska
June 7, 2010

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Photo of the day 2/23/2012 – “Untitled”

“Untitled”
I have tens of thousands of photos that have been virtually piling up from years of travels. Kelli wanted to take some of them and hang them on her wall. Here’s one she picked out.

I have to admit I wasn’t too thrilled with it at first because the original just looked flat and unlifelike. But if you’ve been to this area of Yellowstone, you know it doesn’t even look lifelike when you are standing there.

So I took my novice photo processing skills and gave it a whirl. I think it’s OK for my level of processing ability. No, I didn’t add the rainbow; it appears for about 15 minutes a day if the sun is out.

Lower Yellowstone Falls, Yellowstone National Park
Wyoming
May 31, 2009

Original
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Processed
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Photo of the day 4/24/11 – “Foreign Landscape”

“Foreign Landscape”

Even after having been to seven other National Parks in the past three years, Joshua Tree National Park took me be surprise. Perhaps much of the reason so was because nearly every part of it was foreign to me. No evergreens, leafy trees, or anything remotely recognizable from where I live or the other National Parks I’ve been too.

About the photo:
While I botched up the shot, I still included here as it still gives a sense of the place, and it reminds me of my experience. This photo was taken at the end of what is probably a pretty untypical day in April; it was in 50’s with on and off light sprinkles to a steady rain. It should have been in the 80-90’s and probably clear. So to get this shot with the sun peeking through the dark clouds behind us it probably pretty lucky.

April 6, 2011
In celebration of National Parks week

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Photo of the day 4/23/11 – “Surprising Beauty”

“Surprising Beauty”

I guess I had seen photos of this place before I went there and must have dismissed them because they looked fake. And much like I wasn’t expecting the desert in Joshua Tree National Park to be so full of life, I really wasn’t expecting this place to be so colorful. After all, they only have a few months here when it is not covered in snow.

Turns out, the best picture I have of this place (until I get some panorama stitching and HDR software) just so happens to have me in it. So while I did edit some of the dullness out of the photo from the partly cloudy skies, I’m lucky to be able to say it really did look much like this.

About the photo:
This was taken from Eielson Visitors Center in Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska. To get here, one has to either get the very rare permit to drive in, bike or hike, or like we and most people did, endure a 66 mile ride (one way) to the Center in a school bus on a nearly all gravel road. But while we ended up riding 170 miles in 13 hours in the bus this day, the sights were so incredible that I really did forget I was in a school bus.

June 10, 2010
In celebration of National Parks week

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Photo of the day 4/22/11 – “Respect”

“Respect”

I think I’ve always appreciated nature, but never realized the impact that I’ve had on it. I started to realize it after first visiting Muir Woods National Monument and Yosemite National Park in late 2007. Having been to six National Parks since then, I have grown to appreciate how precious and fragile our small earth home is and made many changes to reduce my footprint.

So after hearing about the vandals that caused Old Faithful Geyser to become less regular, and witnessing teens poke and throw things in the thermal pools at Yellowstone (yes, I made them stop), it is no accident then today that I show my respect to someone who, 140 years ago recognized similar and reported to the Committee of Public Lands, “the vandals who are now waiting to enter into this wonder-land, will in a single season despoil, beyond recovery, these remarkable curiosities, which have requited all the cunning skill of nature thousands of years to prepare”, Ferdinand Hayden.

Hayden Valley, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
May 31, 2009
In celebration of National Parks week, and Earth Day

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Bonus Photo of the day 4/19/11 – “Contrast”

“Contrast”

It probably doesn’t jump right out at you, but the black mass on the right side is a glacier. It contrasts from the glacier on the right not only because it really is black, but because it is two miles wide and is receding, whereas the glacier in the left is white, one mile wide and is advancing.

Margerie Glacier (left) and Grand Pacific Glacier (right), Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska
June 5, 2010
In celebration of National Parks week

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Photo of the day 4/19/11 – “Chipping Away”

“Chipping Away”

By time you hear the crack as loud as thunder of the glacier calving, you probably missed it. You really have to pay attention to catch it.

Unfortunately the photo doesn’t do the grandeur of this amazing place and justice. One easily gets lost in the enormity of it all. To give some perspective, the ice you see above the water is about 250 feet high, which makes the part that calved about 20-30 feet high with the resulting wave about 5-10 feet high.

Margerie Glacier, Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska
June 5, 2010

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Location:

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