Devil's Postpile, a spectacular example of columnar basalt. Once molten and under great pressure underground, the lava that makes up Devil's Postpile cooled evenly and slowly, contracting and fracturing into polygonal-sided columns. The age of the formation is estimated between 100 and 700 thousand years old. Sometime after the basalt columns formed, a glacier passed over the formation, cutting and polishing the tops of the columns. The columns have from three to seven sides, varying because of differences in how quickly portions of the lava cooled.
Location: Devils Postpile National Monument, California
Image ID: 23267
Devil's Postpile, a spectacular example of columnar basalt. Once molten and under great pressure underground, the lava that makes up Devil's Postpile cooled evenly and slowly, contracting and fracturing into polygonal-sided columns. The age of the formation is estimated between 100 and 700 thousand years old. Sometime after the basalt columns formed, a glacier passed over the formation, cutting and polishing the tops of the columns. The columns have from three to seven sides, varying because of differences in how quickly portions of the lava cooled.
Location: Devils Postpile National Monument, California
Image ID: 23285
North Lake lit by alpenglow before sunrise, a three frame panorama, with groves of yellow and orange aspen trees on the side of Paiute Peak.
Location: Bishop Creek Canyon, Sierra Nevada Mountains, California
Image ID: 23336
Panorama dimensions: 2991 x 8972
Three brown pelicans gossiping, meeting on cliffs over the sea to discuss the days fishing news.
Location: La Jolla, California
Image ID: 38697
Three California sea lions bodysurf together, suspended in the face of a big wave, Boomer Beach, La Jolla.
Location: La Jolla, California
Image ID: 39015
Devil's Postpile, a spectacular example of columnar basalt. Once molten and under great pressure underground, the lava that makes up Devil's Postpile cooled evenly and slowly, contracting and fracturing into polygonal-sided columns. The age of the formation is estimated between 100 and 700 thousand years old. Sometime after the basalt columns formed, a glacier passed over the formation, cutting and polishing the tops of the columns. The columns have from three to seven sides, varying because of differences in how quickly portions of the lava cooled.
Location: Devils Postpile National Monument, California
Image ID: 23281
Devil's Postpile, a spectacular example of columnar basalt. Once molten and under great pressure underground, the lava that makes up Devil's Postpile cooled evenly and slowly, contracting and fracturing into polygonal-sided columns. The age of the formation is estimated between 100 and 700 thousand years old. Sometime after the basalt columns formed, a glacier passed over the formation, cutting and polishing the tops of the columns. The columns have from three to seven sides, varying because of differences in how quickly portions of the lava cooled.
Location: Devils Postpile National Monument, California
Image ID: 23282
Devil's Postpile, a spectacular example of columnar basalt. Once molten and under great pressure underground, the lava that makes up Devil's Postpile cooled evenly and slowly, contracting and fracturing into polygonal-sided columns. The age of the formation is estimated between 100 and 700 thousand years old. Sometime after the basalt columns formed, a glacier passed over the formation, cutting and polishing the tops of the columns. The columns have from three to seven sides, varying because of differences in how quickly portions of the lava cooled.
Location: Devils Postpile National Monument, California
Image ID: 23283
Devil's Postpile, a spectacular example of columnar basalt. Once molten and under great pressure underground, the lava that makes up Devil's Postpile cooled evenly and slowly, contracting and fracturing into polygonal-sided columns. The age of the formation is estimated between 100 and 700 thousand years old. Sometime after the basalt columns formed, a glacier passed over the formation, cutting and polishing the tops of the columns. The columns have from three to seven sides, varying because of differences in how quickly portions of the lava cooled.
Location: Devils Postpile National Monument, California
Image ID: 23284
Devil's Postpile, a spectacular example of columnar basalt. Once molten and under great pressure underground, the lava that makes up Devil's Postpile cooled evenly and slowly, contracting and fracturing into polygonal-sided columns. The age of the formation is estimated between 100 and 700 thousand years old. Sometime after the basalt columns formed, a glacier passed over the formation, cutting and polishing the tops of the columns. The columns have from three to seven sides, varying because of differences in how quickly portions of the lava cooled.
Location: Devils Postpile National Monument, California
Image ID: 23286
Devil's Postpile, a spectacular example of columnar basalt. Once molten and under great pressure underground, the lava that makes up Devil's Postpile cooled evenly and slowly, contracting and fracturing into polygonal-sided columns. The age of the formation is estimated between 100 and 700 thousand years old. Sometime after the basalt columns formed, a glacier passed over the formation, cutting and polishing the tops of the columns. The columns have from three to seven sides, varying because of differences in how quickly portions of the lava cooled.
Location: Devils Postpile National Monument, California
Image ID: 23287
Pacific Harbor Seal Pup in La Jolla About Three Weeks Old, hauled out on a white sand beach along the coast of San Diego. This young seal will be weaned off its mothers milk and care when it is about four to six weeks old, and before that time it must learn how to forage for food on its own, a very difficult time for a young seal.
Species: Pacific harbor seal, Phoca vitulina richardsi
Location: La Jolla, California
Image ID: 39128
Pacific Harbor Seal Pup in La Jolla About Three Weeks Old, hauled out on a white sand beach along the coast of San Diego. This young seal will be weaned off its mothers milk and care when it is about four to six weeks old, and before that time it must learn how to forage for food on its own, a very difficult time for a young seal.
Species: Pacific harbor seal, Phoca vitulina richardsi
Location: La Jolla, California
Image ID: 39131
Piedras Blancas lighthouse. Completed in 1875, the 115-foot-tall Piedras Blancas lighthouse is one of the few tall-style lighthouses on the West Coast of the United States. Piedras Blancas, named for a group of three white rocks just offshore, is north of San Simeon, California very close to Hearst Castle.
Location: Piedras Blancas, San Simeon, California
Image ID: 20348
The Morro Bay Power Plant, with its distinctive three stacks, rises above fishing boats in Morro Bay harbor. Morro Bay.
Location: Morro Bay, California
Image ID: 14900