Totem Pole, British Columbia CanadaVancouver

Totem Pole, British Columbia

We saw many totem poles in British Columbia. There are First People (Native American) communities throughout British Columbia, and the totem is one of their most visible and well-known cultural and artistic products. I should have taken a few more photos of them while we were there! Totem pole.Image ID:…
August 11, 2008
Photo of Mono Lake CaliforniaSierra Nevada

Photo of Mono Lake

A few photos from Mono Lake showing its famous tufa towers rising above its alkaline waters. The tufa towers are clustered in "groves" in several places around the lake. We checked out the South Grove. While we were walking around the edge of Mono Lake, we had low dense clouds…
August 10, 2008
Vancouver at Night CanadaVancouver

Vancouver at Night

This is downtown Vancouver at night -- the Yaletown district -- viewed from Granville Island. After dinner my younger daughter and I took a stroll along the boardwalk in front of our hotel. The walk was now empty of tourists (all of whom had retired to the Granville Island brewery)…
July 28, 2008
Photo of a Fossilized Fish Uncategorized

Photo of a Fossilized Fish

This is another fossilized fish from the Green River geological formation, Kemmerer, Wyoming. A member of the Phareodus genus, this specimen was preserved in the fine sediment of an ancient lake. It is thought to be about 40 to 50 million years old, from the Eocene Epoch of the Cenozoic…
July 7, 2008
Fossil Fish Uncategorized

Fossil Fish

This fossil fish was collected at the Green River geological formation, Kemmerer, Wyoming. Well preserved deep in the sediment of an ancient lake, this fossil fish is estimated to be about 40 to 50 million years old, from the Eocene Epoch of the Cenozoic Era. From a private collection. Fossil…
July 6, 2008
Fourth of July Surf Surf

Fourth of July Surf

A beautiful Independence Day morning at Ponto: sunny, glassed with lots of little peaks rolling by. Too bad all the folks from out of town got there at 6am and blocked the Coast Highway with their mega-RVs, making it nearly impossible for the people who actually live around here to…
July 4, 2008
Health Food CaliforniaFunny

Health Food

We made our annual visit to the Del Mar Fair last night. I hate to admit it, but we ate some of the food. Have you seen the food at the Del Mar Fair? It's enough to give a cardiologist a heart attack just looking at it. Grease and salt…
July 2, 2008
Cardiff Morning Glass Redux Surf

Cardiff Morning Glass Redux

I got out early again this morning and swam out at Cardiff just north of Seaside Reef. For the most part the size had dropped off but it was still warm, glassy, not a speck of wind and sunny at 6:30am. Once again I had a huge stretch of water…
June 22, 2008
Carlsbad Morning Surf Surf

Carlsbad Morning Surf

Got out for the first time in a long time this morning for a swim before work. Summer is here. Morning surf.Image ID: 20793Location: Carlsbad, California, USA Morning surf.Image ID: 20795Location: Carlsbad, California, USA
June 19, 2008
Photo of Buckskin Gulch Arizona

Photo of Buckskin Gulch

Last one from Buckskin Gulch: a hiker considering the towering walls and narrow, convoluted passageway of the the Buckskin Gulch narrows. The trail continues behind the hiker, disappearing into the twisting walls so that it is hard to tell that it is even there. The floor of the passage is…
June 11, 2008
Buckskin Gulch Backpacking Arizona

Buckskin Gulch Backpacking

Here are a few backpackers walking through the Buckskin Gulch narrows. They are blurry because it is so dark in the narrows that a tripod and long exposure must be used, which caused the backpackers to smear across the photo as they walked while the stationary walls and ground remain…
June 10, 2008
Hiking Buckskin Gulch ArizonaPanoramas

Hiking Buckskin Gulch

This is a 360-degree panorama showing, in a single image, a hiker in Buckskin Gulch both coming and going. I set my camera on a tripod in the middle of the trail through Buckskin Gulch, leveled it with a bubble level, and spun it in a complete circle taking sixteen…
June 9, 2008
Bubble Rings Uncategorized

Bubble Rings

Bubble Ring Day. It was so hot in the desert today all we could do was swim in the pool. Good thing I had my trusty uber-unterwasser-oring-foto-kamera along. We blew off some fine bubble rings and had fun watching them wobble and grow as they floated up through the water.…
June 8, 2008
Bad Cop, No Donut Utah

Bad Cop, No Donut

While passing through beautiful Kanab, Utah, on my way to hike Wire Pass, Buckskin Gulch and the North Coyote Buttes, I spotted a cop on the side of the road, presumably speed-gunning people as they entered town. Last time I blew through Kanab I noticed it was crawling with cops,…
June 5, 2008
Photo of Brain Rocks ArizonaThe American SouthwestThe Wave

Photo of Brain Rocks

Brain Rocks are found in the vicinity around the Wave. Here are some sporting a view across the Navaho sandstone of the North Coyote Buttes: Brain rocks, curious sandstone formations in the North Coyote Buttes. Image ID: 20611 Location: North Coyote Buttes, Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, Arizona, USA Photos of…
April 27, 2008
Photo of Diagenetic Coloration in Sandstone, North Coyote Buttes ArizonaThe American SouthwestThe Wave

Photo of Diagenetic Coloration in Sandstone, North Coyote Buttes

Not far from the Second Wave is a broad swatch of sandstone displaying exellent examples of diagenetic coloration, various iron oxides producing different colors in the Navaho sandstone strata, dating from the Jurassic era: Striations in sandstone tell of eons of sedimentary deposits, a visible geologic record of the time…
April 24, 2008