Nevada Falls and rainbow in Yosemite National Park, California

We were on a hike in Yosemite National Park and were between Vernal and Nevada Falls when we saw this view of Nevada Falls from next to the Merced River.

Nevada Falls is 594 feet tall and was gushing with water during our visit after a good snowfall year.  This flow of water kicked up a huge mist in front of the falls and produced this brilliant spectrum.

Vernal and Nevada Falls are both in Little Yosemite Valley, which, like many of Yosemite's features, was carved out by glaciers.

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

Pronghorn buck at the North Entrance to Yellowstone National Park

During our recent trip to the Tetons and Yellowstone, we encountered a herd of 14 pronghorn outside the North Entrance at Gardiner, Montana.  This buck seemed to notice the lenses we had aimed at him for photography, so we got this head-on shot.

Pronghorn are unique to North America.  Like other horned animals, their horns have bone at their core, but unlike others ungulates, their horns are covered in sheaths that they shed every year, much like antlered animals shed their antlers annually.

Pronghorn are the fastest land mammals in North America capable of hitting 55 miles per hour.

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

Butler Wash Ruins in Bears Ears National Monument

This is one of the amazing and interesting features in Bears Ears National Monument, Utah. We stopped for a short hike in Butler Wash, within the Bears Ears, on our way to Natural Bridges National Monument, in southern Utah. At the head of Butler Wash is an Anasazi ruin estimated to be at least 800 years old. The hike to the overlook is only about a mile, where there is a railing to protect hikers from the cliff that drops into the wash. When you're there, you wonder how those ancient people could move around from level to level for one thing and get all that material brought in to do the construction of the walls. It's a fascinating site.

It's sites like this that are why this area deserved protected status as a National Monument.

If you enjoy this and other photos in our Robinson Twins online photo gallery, please Follow us.

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

El Capitan and a leafless oak in silhouette, Yosemite

April showers in Yosemite led to this formation of clouds that has the peak of El Capitan looming above and below the clouds, while the lower cloud provides the proper background for a bare oak tree's silhouette. This picture was originally taken in April of 1984 with slide film, specifically Kodachrome. Rick stood in El Capitan Meadow to get this photo.

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

Yosemite Falls reflected in a seasonal pond in Cooks Meadow

This is Yosemite Falls as viewed from the Sentinel Bridge parking area. During the spring and early summer, Cooks Meadow fills with meltwater and runoff to become a temporary pond. If you stand in the right spot and crouch down a bit, you can get the falls and its reflection in one shot. We've also taken multiple shots from this perspective and combined them, but this one was taken in one frame with a film camera in 1992. The trees have had another 25 years worth of growth since this was taken and are noticeably taller now.

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

Delicate Arch in Arches National Park, Utah.  This free-standing arch is perched on the edge of an amphitheater.  We hiked about a mile and a half on a mostly uphill trail to get to this view point.  The opening under the span of rock is 64 feet high and 45 feet wide.  This arch has had a number of names in the past including "Cowboy's Chaps," which it kind of resembles.  The snow-capped La Sal Mountains are visible to the left of the arch.

Much of this park consists of Entrada sandstone, which is a relatively pure sandstone that lends itself well to the formation of arches.  Over 2000 arches have been documented with Delicate Arch being the most famous.

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

Lehman Cave in Great Basin National Park, Nevada

During the 2017 Spring Break, we went to visit the Great Basin National Park in Nevada. It's not nearly as well known as many other parks, but it's the biggest National Park unit in Nevada. It used to be called Lehman Cave National Monument, but it was enlarged and made a National Park in 1986.

The Park Service offers cave tours to help show the features of the cave while also protecting them. The natural entrance is no longer used for entering and exiting the cave, instead, you enter and exit through separate tunnels that are sealed with doors at both ends. We tended to be the last ones to move along the tour since we took lots of photos.

Remember, it's not just a picture, 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!

Female Elk Walking Into the Madison River in Yellowstone National Park

This female elk had just crossed onto the opposite bank, and after a while looking around, decided to come back to the near bank. There were a couple of young elk and another female in the area hanging out while a huge crowd stood by the side of the road photographing them. Later on they decided to lie down in the tall grass and almost disappeared from view.

Taken at ISO 100, 1/250 sec, f/8, and 118 mm focal length. roughly about 660 mm (35 mm equivalent).

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

Undine Falls in northern Yellowstone National Park

Undine Falls in the north of Yellowstone National Park about four miles east of Mammoth Village.  In three separate plunges Lava Creek falls about 60 feet over a cliff of basalt lava flows.  These falls can be viewed by a short hike from the park road to an overlook.  If you look closely, you'll see a trail passing by the falls on the other side of the canyon.  During his college years, Bob hiked on that trail past Undine Falls on a backpack trip from Mammoth to the Black Canyon of the Yellowstone River east and north of these falls.

This image was shot at 1/4th of a second to create the silky appearance of the water.

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

"America's Next Top Lizard", a sagebrush lizard at Dante's View, Death Valley National Park

While in Death Valley during this year's "superbloom", we went to Dante's View to look down on Death Valley from a high vantage point and managed to find a photogenic lizard. This little guy stayed on the top of this rock for over half an hour. We got closer and closer to it to get pictures and it didn't seem to mind at all. Eventually, we even put on close up lenses and got pictures of its face. The lenses came to within an inch of its face, but it still didn't move. Rick started calling it "America's Next Top Lizard", because it turned out to be such a good model for us. We pointed it out to people passing by and they were able to get their smartphones close to it for close up images, too. It finally left after we saw an insect land on the rock below it and the lizard dropped down quickly to snatch the bug in its mouth, then it scampered off to the ground and continued on its way. We wished we had a camcorder running to catch that action, but we missed it. This was the same cluster of rocks where we saw the chuckwalla shown in our earlier post.

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

Chuckwalla lizard in a rock crevice at Dante's View, Death Valley National Park

While visiting Death Valley to enjoy their "superbloom", we saw a chuckwalla lizard out in the open, near the Dante's View parking area. Then it moved into a rock crevice when it felt threatened. Some of the other visitors thought it was a pregnant lizard, but that's just how they look normally. This species is the largest lizard in Death Valley. It stores fat in its tail and along its sides. When threatened by a predator, a chuckwalla can work itself into a flat crevice and inflate itself in order to be completely wedged into the space such that the predator has no chance at pulling it out. You can also see that it blends in very well with the rock.

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

Cascade Creek Falls, lower end of Yosemite Valley, below the junction with Tamarack Creek

The waters of Cascade Creek and Tamarack Creek, in Yosemite, meet after flowing down the mountainside then falling over the brink at Cascade Creek Falls before ending up in the Merced River. You can drive into Yosemite Valley, from the Merced direction, and park near the base of these falls and hike over to them. This view, however, is from an area above the Tunnel View and involves hiking down a long slope of granite to a drop-off where you can see these falls from above. A little closer to the edge and you can see the road, as well, but we didn't want to include it in this image. Above the falls are 2 bridges that pass over Cascade Creek and Tamarack Creek. This road leads over to Highway 120, which is the most direct drive westward to San Francisco. Or, you can drive eastward on Highway 120 over the Sierra crest at Tioga Pass to Mono Lake.

This image was taken during the spring of 2004 when the water was running high.

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

Marmot from Grand Teton mountain range, Yellow-bellied Marmot (ground hog of the mountains)

The Yellow-bellied Marmot lives at higher elevations in the Rockies, Sierra Nevada, and other mountain ranges. It's a large rodent related to the ground hog that lives in burrows among boulder fields. We saw this one during a backpacking trip along the Teton Crest Trail on the Death Canyon Shelf after crossing over the Fox Creek Pass. It didn't seem to mind our presence at all and we were able to get this shot from a distance that didn't cause it any concern about our intentions. There had been thunderstorm activity on this day and it seemed the marmot was trying to warm up on the rock.

The Teton Range in particular has a high incidence of melanism among the yellow-bellied marmot population. Melanism is a condition where the animal's skin and fur has a lot of pigment and appears all black. It's the opposite of albanism, in which an animal has no pigment and appears all white. We did see a melanistic yellow-bellied marmot on this day. It's shown below for comparison. On previous trips, we've seen a regular colored yellow-bellied marmot and a melanistic one playing with each other near their burrow entrance.

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

Yosemite's "Gateway" from the west to east from Tunnel View area

Yosemite Valley's "Gateway" is the Cathedral Rocks to the south and El Capitan to the north. This view was taken from the Tunnel View looking eastward from above the valley floor. Below the Cathedral Rocks is Bridalveil Falls. Beyond them is Sentinel Dome, in this photo it is covered in snow and showing above the lowest of the Cathedral Rocks. Beyond Sentinel Dome, is Half Dome, Yosemite's most famous land mark. Then, beyond Half Dome, in the center of the photo, is Clouds Rest. It's covered in snow and has a long north-facing slope. Clouds Rest is actually 1000 feet higher in elevation than Half Dome.

We drove to Yosemite from Fresno, California and parked at the popular Tunnel View turnout. However, Rick knows some locations around there that the typical tourist doesn't go to, allowing for a view that's not so common. This image is the combination of 4 images combined in the computer to get much more resolution, as well. The day was sunny despite being in February.

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

Sunset silhouette of Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, Utah

Delicate Arch is one of the most iconic of all the natural rock spans.  It's not only the symbol of Arches National Park, but also appears on the license plates of many Utah motor vehicles.  It was also shown on a postage stamp honoring Utah on the centennial of its statehood.

This photo shows the 65-foot tall arch in silhouette by the setting sun.  It is one of the most visited arches in the park requiring only about a 2 mile hike to reach.  It was formed out of Entrada sandstone and is a freestanding arch, which is what makes it so distinctive. To make it even more dramatic, it is also perched on the edge of a huge sandstone bowl on one side and a cliff on the other.

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

Yosemite Falls, upper and lower, with a lunar rainbow, or moonbow, with stars.

The mist from Yosemite Falls can turn moonlight into a moonbow, or lunar rainbow, around the time of the full moon. It also depends on how much precipitation the area had during the winter and sping, since the misting water droplets coming off the falls is what separates the white light into the spectrum of colors. The moon-caused bow is dim enough that human eyes can't distinguish the colors. We have rods and cones in our eyes, cells that respond to light. The rods respond to brightness and don't detect color, but the cones do respond to color, but only if their light has enough intensity. Moonlight isn't usually intense enough to trigger the cones. When looking at this moonbow, we only saw an arc of ghostly white light, but the camera's time exposure, 30 seconds, does pick up the colors that our eyes can't see.

This perspective also includes the upper falls and stars so that it's easier to tell that it was taken at night. To get here, you have to be willing to do a little scrambling off of the paved path over granite that is sometimes slick, right up to the base of the cliffs, but it's well worth it. You also should bring along a dry cloth to wipe the droplets off of your lens, since it will get wet. Wearing rain gear to keep yourself dry and protected from the wind is a good idea, too. Waterfalls create their wind. The falling water drags air down with it. 

This image was two shots, lower and upper, then merged together to create one larger image. The two were taken on June 2, 2012. We tried again this year, 2013, but last year's results were better.

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

Manly Beacon viewed from the south showing its cliff face and the trail leading to Golden Canyon with 2 hikers.

This is Manly Beacon as it appears from the south along the Badlands Trail. This is the first time we hiked the Badlands Trail together, in 2007, and we were impressed by Manly Beacon. Usually this feature is seen from the side when standing at Zabriskie Point, which is to the east. From this perspective, you can clearly see the imposing cliff face and what's also impressive is that the trail to Golden Canyon passes below the cliff, as you can see 2 hikers on the exposed slope to the left in this image. The Red Cathedral feature lies beyond Manly Beacon, you can see part of it at the extreme left. In a way, this cliff face reminds us of Half Dome in Yosemite, except it's made of sedimentary rock instead of granite and isn't nearly as high. From this angle, the outline of Manly Beacon is somewhat similar to Half Dome's outline, when viewed straight on at its cliff face.

This image was made with Rick's 6 megapixel camera, which he has since replaced with a 12 megapixel camera. He took 4 images and merged them to get this final product.This was taken on a very bright day in December. The settings were ISO 50, f8.0, and 1/500sec shutter speed for all 4 images, to make combining them easier.

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

Double Arch in Arches National Park, Utah, March 20, 2008. First Day of Spring.

Southern Utah is famous for its red sandstone arches and natural bridges. Rick visited Arches National Park for the first time during Spring of 2008. This arch is easy to get to. You can already see it when you park your car. He wanted to stand where he could view both arches clearly, but also see the towering rock formation behind the arches all the way to the top. The weather was cool, but clear, making for excellent lighting.

This image is the result of 6 separate images that have been merged to provide much greater detail. At the time, Rick had a 6 megapixel camera and was regularly using the post-production technique of photo stitching to get more data into the final product. In looking around for other angles, this one seemed like the only one that fully included the rock tower beyond the double arch. One of the lower images had a person standing in it admiring the view, but Rick used the clone stamp tool to remove her from the final image.

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

Coyote posing for the camera in Death Valley National Park

While driving the many miles of roads in Death Valley National Park during a visit in 1993, Rick pulled off the road to double-check the map for his next destination. Along came a coyote probably expecting a hand-out, but when none was forthcoming, it started looking around at the terrain to decide where it wanted to go next. For this photo, Rick didn't even have to get out of the car, it was taken while he was still sitting in the driver's seat through the passenger window.

It always amazes us how hardy animals and plants can be in such harsh enviroments as Death Valley. During the summer, this coyote would probably only come out at night, but this image was taken in April, so he was out during the middle of the day. Unfortunately, these animals seem to have gotten accustomed to the idea of a stopped car meaning free food, but ironically it's how Rick was able to get such an easy photo of this one, even though we never feed wild animals..

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