Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Florida

I went to st. augustine Florida for a week in early November. Had great weather and did lots of beach walks. When I woke up the first morning and had coffee on the rooftop deck this was the sunrise that greeted me.... nice!
Man o War jellyfish on the beach - this one was about a foot across.

Some BIIIIG scary spiders on the trails.


Another good sunrise.



This is a reddish heron fishing. I didnt get him with a fish in his mouth, but got him in his dance trying to scare one up. When he got one he looked pretty happy.




I didnt know that insects knew anything about piggy-back rides!





Some wind patterns in the beach sand.






Sea oats at sunrise with an impending storm







Pelicans diving for fish in the ocean.








A cool old door in st. augustine.









Sunrise on the st. augustine pier (i didnt do such a good photoshop job on this one, but is still pretty)










Sunrise on the newly refurbished drawbridge in st. augustine - Flagler college in the background (originally a very high end hotel in the 1800's)











Castillo de San Marcos - the citys fort in the middle of St. Augustine - it is made from a rock called coquina which is just ocean shells cemented together - it was the best rock against cannon balls in its day.












Wednesday, October 6, 2010

More Glacier in the fall

We had beautiful fall weather so I took (another) trip to Glacier. Saw this cute guy and some of his buddies right in the many glacier parking lot as i started my hike.
Sorry for the messed up text locations- not sure how to fix it.
View across swiftcurrent lake.


A lot of the colors were already gone, but there were a few good spots - this was on the Grinnell Glacier trail.



Same area as previous picture on the Grinnell Glacier hike.




Saw this young moose and his mom right next to Many Glacier Hotel.





A waterfall and colors above Medicine Grizzly Lake






Thursday, September 16, 2010

Glacier in the fall

Me and Ma went up to Glacier for a weekend - first day was windy, wet and some hail stinging our faces as we tried to hike above Logan Pass, so we smartly abandoned that attempt and drove down lower where it was still raining on us, but were able to get a good picture of St. Mary Falls.
Sunrise on Rising Sun Mountain.

On our second day we did a 11.5 mile hik to Cobalt Lake - it was quite windy and chilly particularly in the morning on the lake.


Rockwell Falls



Mountain ash leaves




Near end of the hike we saw this moose.

















We saw this momma black bear and her two cubs right next to the road.



















Sunrise on St Mary Lake and Wild Goose Island








































On our last morning, the wind finally quit and the skies turned blue.



























Siyeh Creek









Monday, August 30, 2010

Yellowstone Lake Paddle

Took a four day trip around the southeast arm of Yellowstone Lake. This is the second morning. No pictures from the first day as I was too traumatized by the 3 foot waves we encountered on the way to our first camp site.
Brenda and Brandi

Scott and Janice





Connie










Happy hour at the Promontory camp














Sunset at the Promontory camp











We had this guy and his two does in our last camp - they liked to chew on stuff like gloves, hats, water bottles....






The gang (Eric, Connie, Brandi, Brenda, Janice and Scott) at the top of the Promontory (Tetons in the distance) on our last morning of the trip.







Table Mountain hike

Hiked up table mountain on the west side of the tetons (4,000 feet eleveation gain to over 11, 000 ft - not quite as strenuous as Jenny's recent summitting of the grand teton). Saw lots of wildflowers.
View of the grand from my lunch spot

Wildflowers just below table mountain





Deep blue lupine in a huge wildflower meadow










This is the view of the grand teton and table mountain about 2 miles from table mountain.







Saw a nice field of fireweed near sunset





Yellowstone in the spring

This trip is out of sequence. Me and Ma went to yellowstone for our annual spring trip. We went just after a snow storm, but our day was mostly sunny and cool. This little bluebird greeted us on our hike down Blacktail Canyon
We saw recent wolf tracks on the trail, which would explain why we spooked a heard of elk when we were over 300 yards away from them

Me and Ma at the Blacktail Cabin


Buffalo being cute



I think this is the best picture of the grand canyon of the yellowstone I have ever taken.




Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Turquoise Lake

I took a great hike up to Turquoise Lake (near Lindbergh Lake) in early august.
Beautiful rock outcrop near the top of the hike.

There is a huge rock outcrop on the trail that has features such as ripple marks, mudcracks, and this one that shows scratches in the rock gouged out by glaciers during last ice age (geologists drool over this stuff - oh OK I drool over a lot of things (usually my pillow), but this is definately one of them).






This is another lake near Lindbergh Lake called Crystal Lake.