Half Dome at sunset with a bright moon in front of its face

Here's a full moon rising next to Half Dome, Yosemite National Park. I, Rick, was actually leaving Yosemite after a day visit and decided to stop at the Tunnel View for one last look at the valley. Some people off to the left were pointing somewhat excitedly, but I couldn't figure out why, at first. Then I saw the moon rising, so I rushed to a spot where I could get the best angle. The red light of the setting sun contrasted well with the bright moon.

I did some adjusting of brightness and contrast and worked specifically on the area within the moon to bring out the details, but nothing was repositioned or added to the image.

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

Delicate Arch and a sandstone amphitheater, Arches National Park, Utah

Delicate Arch in Arches National Park, Utah sits on the rim of an amphitheater.  This panoramic shot shows that amphitheater plus Delicate Arch.  This arch is at the end of a trail that makes for a 3 mile round trip hike and gains 480 feet from the trailhead to the arch.

Delicate Arch is the symbol of Arches National Park and is such an iconic symbol of Utah that it appears on many of the state's vehicle license plates.

We visited Delicate Arch during a spring break in 2017 and hiked almost all the way around the rim of this amphitheater to get this shot.  This panorama is a combination of 18 bracketed images.

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

Yosemite Falls with a moonbow in the lower fall, Yosemite Nat'l Park

This image of Yosemite Falls, with the upper and lower fall visible, is lit up by moonlight. You can see stars in the sky above the falls. The rainbow in the mist of the lower falls is caused by moonlight, not sunlight. When we viewed this scene with our own eyes, we couldn't see the colors, but the camera picks them through a long exposure of 30 seconds, ISO 800. We were just at the falls getting moonbow pictures in the lower fall, but as we were leaving, we decided to look back at the whole waterfall and see if the moonbow was visible from this other perspective.

This natural event can happen 2-3 days around the full moon in the spring and early summer in Yosemite Valley, especially when there's enough water flow.

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

Half Dome from the Merced River After Passing Under Sentinel Bridge

I, Rick, used to have an inflatable kayak. In January 1997, Yosemite experienced record flooding. People were trapped inside the valley due to the floodwater. A few months later, in May, I took my inflatable kayak on the shuttle bus and traveled as far upstream as the bus would take me, Happy Isles. Then I carried my kayak to the shore of the Merced River and inflated it. I shoved off and traveled downstream to view some of the damage caused by the flooding, including picnic tables in the middle of the river. Along the way, I passed under Sentinel Bridge and looked back at Half Dome. A lot of people like to get a picture of Half Dome from the bridge, but here I had the opportunity to include the bridge in the picture. That was the first and so far only time I've paddled on the Merced River. Must do that again soon.

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

Half Dome approach from the east

Here's Bob posing at the western end of the Sub Dome before we start on our way up to the top of Half Dome. You can see the famous cables going up the eastern side of Half Dome that give people a secure way to make it to the top. From this side of Half Dome, you can clearly see the way that granite erodes. The process is called exfoliation, which means that granite slabs flake off and eventually fall down the cliff.

Bob and I backpacked into the Little Yosemite Valley the day before, then finished the trip to the top on this day. Before hiking to the top of Half Dome, you have to climb to the top of the Sub Dome, which is very steep and a little scary. Then you drop down a little bit to a notch between the two domes. That's the spot behind Bob, where a couple of people are walking. Farther along, you reach the base of the cables. Sometimes, the Park Service leaves a basket full of gloves for hikers to use if they didn't bring their own. You can see people about half way up to the top, using the cables to make the ascent.

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

Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, Death Valley National Park, California

I, Bob, was looking through a folder of photos from a trip to Death Valley in January 2009 when I came upon this image.  The longer I looked at it, the more intrigued I became with the texture of it.  I was on the top of the tallest sand dune in the Mesquite Flat Sand Dune near Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley National Park, California when I took this photo.  I was looking down into a valley of sorts between the dune crests.  The foot tracks along the top edge give you a sense of scale.

I took this photo with the still function of a Sony high def Handycam, so it's not a high resolution image and will probably not look good if it's enlarged very much.

Upper Falls of the Yellowstone River, Yellowstone National Park

A view from the brink of the Upper Falls of the Yellowstone River in Yellowstone National Park.  After viewing a major eruption of Steamboat Geyser in late July 2019, we enjoyed the rest of the sights in Yellowstone, including a hike to this brink.  The height of this waterfall is 109 feet and it always seems to kick up a lot of mist.  After falling over this brink the Yellowstone River takes a leftward turn toward the even-higher Lower Falls.

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

McWay Fall, Big Sur, California, nearing sunset

In the Big Sur area on the coast of California is a state park name after Julia Pfeiffer Burns. Part of the park includes this waterfall that drops directly onto the beach. This waterfall is called McWay Fall. It is 80 feet (24m) tall and used to drop directly into the ocean. Mudslides and rockfall after the very wet year of 1983 caused a sandy beach to build up where there was none before. Now the water falls onto the beach, except during high tide. There is no trail to the beach, access is only by boat, due to the crumbly, unstable slopes.

There's also a sea arch in the sandy cove beyond the fall in this picture. We were able to see it during a visit in 2004, but the trail is partly closed now and moving beyond a barrier is not allowed.

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

Yosemite Falls on a sunny day in February, 2020

Here's Yosemite Falls on a sunny day in February, 2020. The winter season is shaping up to be another dry one, unfortunately. Yosemite Falls can be viewed from Cooks Meadow. The spot I, Rick,  chose in the meadow allows for a clear view of the upper and lower falls. The trees at the bottom block your view of the water except at this spot. There's a little used climb to the top of the lower falls along the level ledge with some trees to the right of the lower falls. As I was setting up for this shot, I saw some one or a small group of people moving at the left edge of that ledge. It made me feel like trying it myself sometime. Also, Alex Honnold was on that ledge during the "Free Solo" movie.

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

The Yosemite firefall effect with a dry Horsetail Falls, February 23, 2020

The 2020 Yosemite firefall as seen from the El Capitan Picnic Area in Yosemite Valley.  After a very wet and snowy winter last winter, the 2019 to 2020 winter has turned very dry.  Horsetail Falls had no water in it, but the sun still put its slit of reddish setting sun light on the spot where it would've been.  This photo is from February 23rd 2020.  Clouds on the western horizon toyed with us off and on blocking and then unblocking the setting sun's light, but ultimately obscured the sun when the peak of redness should have happened.

This photo was about the best we got of the setting sun's light on the eastern flank of El Capitan.

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

Climbing a Simple Route in Yosemite, plus bobcats

This photo was taken at the end of a climbing session in Yosemite. We were climbing this simple route up to the tree at the top of the picture. We took turns belaying each other. Rick took a photo of Bob from the top of the route. Lots of beginner climbing classes come to this area to get people started. This is also along the trail between Camp 4 and Yosemite Falls.

While here we also had a family of bobcats walk past us. It consisted of a mother and 2 kittens. One of the kittens was lingering behind, so we didn't get a very good picture with all three together.

 

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

Beauty Pool, in Yellowstone, sure is a beauty

Beauty Pool, in Yellowstone's Upper Geyser Basin, reflects the sky in this wide angle image taken July 31, 2019. You can get to it by starting out from the the Old Faithful area and hiking along the boardwalk on the east side of the Firehole River. It's just north of Grand Geyser, another feature worth watching. Beauty Pool is connected to the nearby feature called Chromatic Spring. When one of these features has their water rise and overflow, the water level in the other decreases. This back-and-forth between the two can take weeks or even years.

We were lucky to have no wind despite the cloudy conditions, so the reflection of the clouds turned out as we hoped. To fit the whole pool in the image, we used a wide-angle lens on a smartphone. It's capable of capturing images of 180º and 360º. This image was captured with 180º setting and edited for levels, local contrast, and sharpened.

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

Cave Falls from downstream, southeastern corner of Yellowstone National Park

We finally visited the harder-to-get-to southeastern corner of Yellowstone National Park known as the Bechler Region in August 2019.  Because of the many waterfalls and cascades in this corner of Yellowstone, it's also called Cascade Corner.

The highlight for us was visiting Cave Falls along the Fall River.  We posted an image earlier of the view of Cave Falls from the brink.  This view is from downstream.  The boulders on the left margin just below the falls are from the collapse of the alcove that gave Cave Falls its name.  So, these falls got its name from an alcove and not a true cave.  The characteristic that distinguishes this waterfall is that they are the widest waterfall of all of Yellowstone's many waterfalls at 250 feet across.

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