Pronghorn Antelope feeding at north Yellowstone, close up

When we entered Yellowstone National Park from the north, from Gardiner, Montana, we saw a herd of about 14 pronghorn antelope grazing right by the road. Some other antelopes not part of this herd were grazing on the other side of the road close to the town of Gardiner. When we saw them and watched for a while, they approached the buildings of the town and even crossed over a parking lot to search for edibles. We took pictures of them in that position, but didn't think to include them in our blog, since you could see roads and buildings in the image, along with the animals.

Rick used his Canon PowerShot to get this 24x zoom image, with an ISO setting of 400, f8, 1/1000 second.

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

Little Gibbon Falls, in Yellowstone NP, along the Gibbon River

We were hiking out from Wolf Lake in Yellowstone and saw a sign for a side trail to Little Gibbon Falls, along the Gibbon River. We figured it would be worth the time to go take a look and we weren't disappointed. This image is the view from the trail, which has a steep dropoff in this area. The water falls over rocks that have a stair-step pattern, which matches the sedimentary rock layers in the cliff face next to them.

We spent quite a bit of time here and were joined by dayhikers. We discovered from the map, that this waterfall is only about two miles from the road. But we were approaching it from the wilderness area, having backpacked in to Wolf Lake the night before. We also realized that we could've hike in to Wolf Lake from the main road on this trail and would've had less distance to cover. Backpacking in from the Ice Lake trailhead was a little bit longer. Something to keep in mind for next time!

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

Pigeon Point Lighthouse and beach

The Pigeon Point Lighthouse is fifty miles south of San Francisco along the central California coast near the town of Pescadero.  At 115 feet tall, it's one of the tallest lighthouses in America.  It was first lit in 1872 and, although the lighthouse tower is no longer active, the point is still an active Coast Guard station.

The lighthouse is in need of restoration and has been closed since 2001 when pieces of the brickwork near the top fell off.  The grounds are still open, but the area around the base of the tower is fenced off.  The park used to have an annual lighting of the historic lighthouse event in November to commemorate when the lighthouse was first lit, but discontinued the lighting in 2011.  The historic lighting may resume after the restoration project on the tower is completed.  The 2000 pound first order Fresnel lens that sat atop the tower and cast the lighthouse's light out to the sea is now sitting in the fog signal building.  It's 16 feet tall, 6 feet in diameter, and consists of 1008 prisms fastened to a brass framework.

Bob took these photos of the lighthouse in 2010 on the day of the historic lighting event and posted his night time shot of the lighthouse lit up in an earlier posting.

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