Reconnecting with nature through hiking, camping, and paddling
Photographs of the land and the environment
Sometimes being a morning person pays off. I took this photo during a trip to the beach last August. I noticed the cloud bank that night and thought it was a shame the clouds probably wouldn’t be there at sunrise. To my great surprise, the clouds barely moved overnight! I awoke before dawn and watched this amazing sunrise slowly transform into morning.
As hot mineral water seeps out of the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park it leaves tiny layers of minerals. The heat of the water provides an ideal environment for bacteria, which grow in colorful mats over the wavy mineral deposits. The end result is an amazing display of color and texture.
The constant bubbling of mineral infused, hot water leaves colorful, thin layers of sediment throughout the geothermal areas of Yellowstone National Park. The hot spring in the foreground of this photo reminds me of a lunar crater while the colorful cliff and distant steam behind it add to the other-worldliness of the scene.
The boulders you can see in the this photograph were most likely deposited by glaciers quite some time ago. Boulders like these are pretty common throughout the glacially carved valleys and meadows in Yellowstone National Park.
One of the geothermal features we liked best at the Mud Volcano in Yellowstone National Park was “Dragon’s Mouth”. The combination of steam and the deep, hissing and gurgling sounds that occasionally come from the vent make the name somewhat self explanatory when you’re there.
The sun hung low in the sky as I made my way toward the Grand Prismatic Spring, in Yellowstone National Park. I liked the strong contrast of the sun reflecting off the water and the silhouettes of the mountains and other park visitors.
Puffy white clouds fill the sky over the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park.
The views of the Grand Teton range are spectacular enough on their own. Throw in a few blooming flowers in the foreground and it’s hard to imagine a better landscape opportunity.
The trees, silhouetted by early morning fog, make the houses seem small and almost insignificant. A neighbor’s porch lights offer the only evidence anybody else might be awake. Within an hour this scene will be transformed into a more familiar arrangement. It might be months or even a year before it looks like this again.
Animal tracks always catch my attention but they aren’t always very photogenic. These bird prints were on a beach along the James River. It would be impossible to identify the type of bird that left them but the deeper, wider prints in the foreground indicate the bird landed here and then hopped along the beach before taking flight. The early morning sun provided enough shade within the prints to make them stand out in the photo.