A beautiful bluebird day at Lake Tahoe last weekend, following the 68 inches of new snow that fell throughout the preceding week. The ski/board conditions were phenomenal, especially for this early in the season. The snow is dry and fluffy (no sierra sludge last week, at least), and there was great coverage (tree skiing was the best I can remember in a very long time).
We're heading to Tahoe soon to get in some skiing, so I'm posting the most recent snow photo I have from up there. This was taken last March (2014), when there is typically a lot more snow. From the snow reports and pictures I've seen, the conditions are good for this time of year. Looking forward to getting up there!
This was taken from Hoover Dam, looking northeast at the Colorado River as it flows from Lake Mead. When full, Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the U.S., but you can see in this photo the low level of the water. Just 20 or so miles from Las Vegas, Hoover Dam is a great place to visit to see the amazing architecture of the dam, as well as the Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge that spans from Nevada to Arizona over the Colorado River.
Here's another shot of the beautiful scenery along the Alaska Seward Highway. If you make the trip to Alaska, be sure to take a train ride or drive along the Seward Highway for some spectacular views.
Just south of Tillamook Bay is Cape Meares, which is home to the inactive Cape Meares Lighthouse. A cool place to visit, the original lens that was created in Paris in 1888 is on display. There is a lot to explore along the upper coast of Oregon, and this is a highly recommended quick stop during your travels!
I shot this one in the neighborhood just after a rainstorm. The clouds were clear in just the one area of the sky, and the sun was shining through casting rays.
I've been thinking about things for which I am thankful, and Darcy tops the list. Bailey is up there, too, of course. And I'm also thankful that we are still actively skiing. Then I remembered this shot that I took last summer of Darcy and Bailey on the ski lift at Boulder Lodge in Heavenly, so this is my Fun Photo Friday. May the snow be with you!
I shot this while camping at the coast a couple weeks ago. It was just a crescent moon, but with the long exposure it created a nice effect.
I love Bryce Canyon. I've repeated it many times here and on my Facebook page. This park is absolutely amazing at sunrise, morning, during the day, sunny or cloudy, at sunset, and at night. The variance in colors is just beautiful. Visit Bryce Canyon National Park.
Here's my Fun Photo Friday for this week. Taken from my GoPro while on a hike up near Lake Tahoe.
Last summer (2015), we did a lot of hiking around Lake Tahoe. One of our most rewarding hikes was to Castle Rock, where the view of Lake Tahoe is incredible from the top of the rocks. It's a moderately easy hike, accessible from a trailhead that starts not far off of Hwy 207-Kingsbury Grade and No Benjamin Road. This was shot with my GoPro Hero 3 Silver.
Arc de Triomphe as seen from the Eiffel Tower. I took this on my trip to Paris in 2002.
Last summer, Darcy and I went on a hike with our friend Eric to Lake Winnemucca. The trailhead starts at a parking lot off the Carson Pass (highway 88), and winds along a creek through pines and huge patches of wildflowers. After about a 1200 foot rise in elevation, you find yourself at the beautiful lake, which is a great place to lunch, hang out, skip stones, and chill. This is one of the big wildflower areas from the hike.
This one is from our 2012 trip. We were at Yellowstone National Park at the end of May / beginning of June, and a storm was just passing through. It left snow in the surrounding mountains, which made for a beautiful contrast in what is already incredible scenery. Awesomely beautiful place to visit.
The Old Point Loma Lighthouse is no longer in operation, but you can tour through it as it now serves as a museum. One very interesting note is that while it was in operation from the mid-1850s until early 1900s, it had the highest elevation of any lighthouse in the U.S. (thanks wikipedia). Of course, this caused problems sometimes, because sometimes the light could not be seen by ships.
If you live in or visit San Diego, take a trip to Cabrillo National Monument to check out this San Diego treasure!
Then there's also this in Montana: The Miracle of America Museum (http://miracleofamericamuseum.org/). An amazing museum that has a big of *everything* Americana, including UFOs (maybe not uniquely Americana). I'm not sure what these were used for (movies, likely), but there are a few of them there, some different shapes than this. It felt like an appropriate Fun Photo Pre-Halloween Friday!
Montana is huge. And it's beautiful. Scenes like this are everywhere in Montana. Giant prairies bordered by mountains. Lots of lakes, roaming bison, and great towns. If you haven't already, I suggest you take a road trip through Montana.
Here's one from our 2012 trip that included Zion National Park in Utah. I loved everything about Zion (except that it isn't pet-friendly, but most of the national parks are the same in this regard). Great scenery, great hiking, and the camping is supposedly great as well. We stayed just outside of the park at an RV/campground.
Last summer, Darcy and I decided to explore parts of the Tahoe area that one or both of us had never visited. I went skiing at Sierra at Tahoe when I was younger, but Darcy had never been there, so we took a walk around there. We've been talking about our plans (hopes?) for skiing this winter, so I pulled this photo out to post on Fun Photo Friday. Let's hope there's some snow to celebrate there soon!
I love Bryce Canyon. The limestone appears to change colors throughout the day. This shot was taken at the Amphitheater just after sunset, when the dark orange and pink colors work their way throughout the canyon.
Here's another shot of the beautiful view you can see when traveling by rail in Alaska. This was sunrise along the Turnagain Arm, shortly after leaving Anchorage on our way to Seward.
A while back I asked if posting flowers was ok, and I got some positive feedback, so here's one for Fun Photo Friday. I shot this at the International Rose Test Garden in Portland, Oregon, in 2014 when Darcy and I visited for our 15th wedding anniversary. I did the selective coloring using SilverFX.
While on our vacation a couple weeks ago, Darcy and I took a drive from Ferndale, heading south along Mattole Road to the coast at Cape Mendocino. It was a very slow-going road, but absolutely beautiful. This shot was take just south of the western-most point of the continental United States.
This one is from about 10 years ago, when we went to New York to celebrate my 40th birthday with our good friends the Fienes, Adlers, and George Thomas. I can't recall exactly where we were located when I took this, but I know I didn't have a tripod with me at the time, unfortunately, because it would be much better if it was sharp. At any rate, I really like the way the lights on the building matched the colors of the sunset.
Tenaya Lake us a beautiful place to spend an hour or two while visiting Yosemite National Park. We stopped by before and after taking a long hike, and Bailey decided to cool off in the water for a bit.
We got to see some spectacularly beautiful sunsets during our short stay in Pismo Beach a couple weeks ago. On our last night, we went up to Margo Dodd Beach, and spent the early evening being entertained by a whale (more on that at some point in the future) while we waited for the sun to set. From the photo, you can see that even the bird's enjoy watching the sun go down beyond the horizon.
Here's one for Fun Photo Friday of Bailey checking out the scene at Washburn Point in Yosemite National Park. That's Half Dome in the background.
Here's a shot from the recent trip, taken near Klamath. We drove along a not-so-paved coastal road to High Bluff Overlook. On the return part of that loop, we found ourselves at the Klamath river mouth, where at least 100 people were salmon fishing.
Here's another shot from our weekend camping up at San Clemente State Beach. We will definitely return there frequently!
Here's a shot from our weekend in San Clemente recently, where we camped at San Clemente State Beach. We took a nice walk into town from the campground.
Here's a sunset shot from last year down at Cardiff. I'll have news soon regarding my proximity to Cardiff, and, no, it's not camping information. More soon.
Mammoth Hot Springs is just a few miles in from the northwest entrance into Yellowstone National Park. It is such a great place to walk and hike, and to discover the very cool colors that have been created by thousands of years of hot water getting cooled and deposited onto the yellowstone rock.
These Tulips were in prime bloom in New York when I captured them in April 2011.
Here's a shot I took above Emerald Bay, while hiking around the rocks (in search of a good shot!). Such a great place to spend the day. Check that...such a great place to spend the summer. Check that...such a great place.
Ahhhhh, Yosemite. We are now merely weeks away from our first big trip with our travel trailer, and Yosemite is a featured part of the journey. This is one of the shots I took of Bridalveil Falls from our 2012 visit there. We were there early in the morning, so I was able to get some very nice lighting, as well as the half-moon, into the shot of the falls. I'm not sure if there will even be a trickle there this year, given the drought, but Yosemite offers a ton of great hikes and views regardless. And, apparently, The Plague as well...we'll try to do our best to avoid that!
Well, if you're only looking at my photos, then this is as close as you're going to get to see the Perseid meteor showers. Sorry, that's all I've got this time around.
I never get tired of going through my photos of Alaska, and I look forward to Darcy and I getting back up there some day. This one was shot around sunrise in Denali National Park in early September 2009...the "fall" season.
On my trip to Paris in 2002, I took a photowalk around the city. I've been working on some of the digital photos I took from my Minolta Dimage camera. This shot is of the La Madeleine, a Roman Catholic church that was designed as a temple to the glory of Napoleon's army.
Another featured treasure off the I-395, the small town of Markleeville is a quaint town that was established in the early 1860s. Although it isn't "just off" the I-395, it's not a long drive, and it's definitely worth a visit. Take a walk around the small town, and go up the hill to where the old schoolhouse and jail are located. They've been kept in very good shape and are really interesting to see. This is the General Store, which may not have changed in the past 150 years, other than I noticed this summer when we visited that it is now painted red instead of white.
One other interesting note of this town, the namesake of the town was killed in a gunfight, apparently, before the town was established on his land.
