Grand Canyon of Tuolumne, Yosemite, Sierra Nevada Backpacking 2009

The Robinson Twins just posted a video about Rick's third backpacking trip to the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River in Yosemite National Park. He went hoping to show others the string of waterfalls down the Tuolumne River in this canyon, but a forest fire prevented him from going far enough downstream to see all of them. So, of course, that means we have to go again. This video is only about 20 minutes long, so enjoy! Here's the link: https://youtu.be/QHhMT0NjV40

Here is a still photo Rick took of the Tuolumne Falls on the trip shown in the video.

Remember, it's no just a picture (video), it's a story!

Robinson Twins - American River Parkway

Our first recreational video, The American River Parkway, was video-recorded in 1999 and released in 2000. This part of Sacramento is our home turf, so to speak, so we wanted to make it first. We went to college by walking along the American River, we've biked the parkway's length several times, go jogging along it, and have paddled most of it. For the video, we also flew over it in a small airplane. We hope you enjoy the adventure that's within easy reach of hundreds of thousands of people in Sacramento County, California. Here's the link to our video: https://youtu.be/gmbOhAckfc8

The picture is from our airplane flight and shows Discovery Park and the confluence where the cleaner American River joins the muddier Sacramento River. The closer bridge is Jibboom Street while the larger bridge is Interstate-5. Old Sacramento State Historic Park is nearby to the right of this photo (not shown).

Remember, it's not just a picture (video), it's a story!

Teton Crest Adventure (The "Real" Teton Crest)

We've put our video of the backpacking trip we took to cover the Teton Range in 1999 online. There is a Teton Crest Trail mostly in Grand Teton National Park, but the National Forest on the western side of range also had a Teton Crest Trail, which actually covers a longer stretch of these mountains. We backpacked on the Forest Service's trail but discovered after completing our trip that the Forest Service trail is no longer maintained. We had to do some route finding at the north end, so we had a little bit of a challenge starting out. We backpacked from the Hominy Peak trailhead in the Jed Smith Wilderness, Targhee National Forest to the Rendezvous Mountain tram at Teton Village. The trip was in September so we hardly saw anyone else and the weather was clear until the last day. The high point of the trip was at Table Mountain, where we could look across Cascade Canyon at the Grand Teton peak, only about 2 miles away.

Here's the link to the YouTube video: https://youtu.be/k3Sj6CJY4_Y

Remember, it's not just a picture (video), it's a story!

Half Dome reflected in the Merced River in September

This picture of Half Dome was taken in September of 2012 after the summer heat subsides and the weather cools leading into autumn. It was actually taken after the autumnal equinox of September 22nd. This is a very popular spot for taking a picture of Half Dome such that it is reflected in the Merced River. You can park next to Cook Meadow, then walk over to the Sentinel Bridge that crosses the river in order to look eastward at Half Dome. We tend to avoid Yosemite during the summer because of the crowds, but in more recent years we've decided to go ahead and visit during the summer anyway.

Drive over the bridge in the evening and you might find it packed with photographers hoping to get the reddish glow of the setting sun reflected from the face of Half Dome. The best time to get pictures of Half Dome is in the afternoon and evening since the face is in shadow throughout the morning. The face has a slight northeast to southwest angle, so it isn't lighted by the sun until afternoon.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

The Maze in Anza Borrego Desert State Park, east of San Diego, California

This feature is called "The Maze" and is within the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in California, east of San Diego. In some places, you have to turn sideways to get through. The last time I went through it, we encountered a couple of men racing up through the maze with their GPS units recording their hike. We had to pull over to one of the small pockets on the side to let them pass. We had parked near the upper end, where these hikers parked at the lower end and hiked up. We didn't make it all the way to the bottom since we had other places we wanted to see that day, so we turned around soon after encountering the other hikers.

This picture was taken at ISO 400, 18mm focal length, f3.5 and 1/60 second, vertically to emphasize how steep this feature really is.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Lexington Arch in the south end of Great Basin National Park in Nevada

Lexington Arch is a limestone arch in the southern part of Great Basin National Park in Nevada.  To get here you have to drive on dirt roads and then hike about a mile and a half on a rugged trail.  The fact that this arch is composed of limestone is very noteworthy, since most of the arches in the West occur in sandstone.  The fact that this rock span occurs in limestone may mean that it was once part of a cave that has eroded away.  Or it may be that the stream that carved Lexington Canyon carved this span when the canyon was much shallower, in which case this arch would actually be a natural bridge.

Remember it's not just a picture, it's a story!