And Now For Something Completely Different...

This summer we took a little road trip and one of our favorite places was Arches National Park in Utah. If you've never been, you owe it to yourself to go, it's an amazing place. The small town of Moab is a very cool, hip place to make your home base, nice folks, good food, plenty to do. I took lots of pictures of course and ended up processing a few of them in a 'vintage' style, in an effort to emulate the original pioneer photographers and how they might have seen 'Arches' for the first time. (Click to make larger.)

Double Arches

The 'Courthouse' Rocks Reflection

Balanced Rock

Desert Spirit

Vision

(More photos on my flickr site) 

Mornings Are Great For Black and White Photos

We get up around 5 a.m. in the summer to go biking because it's nice and cool and there's hardly anyone in the park at that time of day. I noticed the morning light on the rocks around Ryan Mountain gets perfect right around 6:30 a.m., so I've been jumping off the bike to take pictures. Here are a few recent ones I think turned out well. Hope you agree.

Slice

Thrust

Recline

Moonscape

Another Dramatic Morning For Biking

We've been getting some great cloud formations and beautiful light in the early mornings, so I've been taking my camera whenever we ride now. I always get at least one good shot. Someone once said that 'Clouds always make the picture better', I agree. (Click on to make larger)

Spectacular Morning For Biking In Joshua Tree National Park

With the advent of summer, it's a good idea to get up early and get out to the park, because in the middle of the day, you're pretty much relegated to be inside, sitting directly under the cooler. The other day, we got up at 5 a.m. to go biking and I decided to take my camera, because it looked like there were some good clouds forming up in the direction of the park behind our house. As we began to ride, I was able to get some really nice shots, the light and cloud displays were quite dramatic as you can see. Ahh... another good morning in the park.

Pt. Reyes Vacation

People always ask us "Where do you go on vacation?", since they come to Joshua Tree for theirs. In June, when it starts to get hot, we always head up to Pt. Reyes in northern California. When we lived in San Francisco, we spent almost every weekend hiking at Pt. Reyes National Seashore, so it's a nice change of pace for us. Here are some photos from the trip which I gave a 'Textured-Painterly' treatment.

The view from our cabin on Tomales Bay

Early morning light on Inverness inlet

Inverness, water, sky and reeds

Black Mountain seen from Inverness

Spanish Moss at Limantour

Abbott's Lagoon

The Tule Elk at Tomales Point

Prince's Plumes

This is one of my favorite flowers in the park. I actually shot these a few weeks ago, but just found them nestled in the Lupines folder. Well, summer is here and the weather is warm, so you have to get up early and get out to hike or bike. Stay cool inside during the heat of the day, take a nap, read a book, do some computer work, then head back out around 6 p.m. until sunset. We call it being on 'Mediterranean time'. 

Lupines Are Blooming

Well, like I said, there's always something blooming... I went in to the park the other morning and found a wash loaded with Lupines in the Hidden Valley area.

There Are Some Flowers...

Not quite the year we were hoping for, but down at Cottonwood, there are flowers to see. You just have to look for them... We drove down to the Cottonwood visitor station and then on through the canyon another 5 miles to the '10'. There were Chuparosa, Mallow, Yellow cups, Canterbury Bells, Purple mat, Sand blazing star and Prince's Plume to be seen along the road. We stopped at a wash in the middle of the drive and walked back up to have lunch in the shade and take some photos of the flowers that were there. Here are some examples. We even found a rock with some Petroglyphs, cool! And, this cute lizard at the Cholla Gardens, who had just come out of his hole, posed for us.
The flower displays haven't really reached up to the Jumbo Rocks, Hidden Valley area yet. Mostly, what we've seen have been Claret cup cactus, Indian Paint Brush, Desert Dandelions and some Mallow starting to bloom. There's usually a progression of flowers blooming throughout the Park, starting in the South and heading North. In essence, there's always something blooming! (Click on photos to make larger)

Bighorn Sheep Family Gathering

We were hiking out by the Desert Queen Mine the other day and happened upon this family of Bighorn Sheep. Upon seeing us, they got a little nervous and moved on down the hill. I wish I would have had a longer lens this time. I see 12, how many do you see?

The First Sign of Spring

Took a walk in the park yesterday and came upon this bouquet of Indian paint brush clustered amongst a yucca. A nice start to the season.

Spring Equinox-The Sword of Light

A friend took us in to the park the other day to a spot where you can see this light effect of the Spring Equinox. The light appears as a small sliver on the ground and then shapes like a sword, then inches foward, and into the hole of an old indian grinding rock. Cool eh?!

A Return 'In Time' To The Wall Street Mill

 The other day we took the walk out to the Wall Street Mill, Bill Keys old property. It's a nice easy walk, only about two miles or so. I love all the old cars and equipment out there and instead of printing them in color, worked with them a little, to give them an old time feel. Hope you like'em.

A Little Walk Down the Canyon in Morongo

We'd always wanted to take this walk and our friends were in town, so we all said 'let's do it!'  We drove out to Big Morongo Canyon Preserve and took the 'Canyon trail' that heads down toward Desert Hot Springs. It's a beautiful trail, with all the Cottonwoods and grasses just beginning to leaf out. You walk down through the canyon with the stream on your left,  and gradually come to a small pond, where you cross over the stream and then continue on, as the canyon heads west. We only went about 2 or 3 miles, where we found a nice lunch spot under a palm tree (how'd that get there?) and after a nice repast, headed back up the trail. I couldn't stop taking pictures the whole way down and back, it was so beautiful. Here are a few from the day.