JTNP

I visit Joshua Tree National Park once or twice every year on my way to and from Arizona.  It's one of my favorite spots...has been since my first visit in 1973 when it was still a National Monument.  In late fall and winter the low sun brings the rockpiles to life...the soft light and long shadows are fine.

A staghorn cholla blazes.

Massive rockpiles.

Boulders and pinyon pines.

Classic JTNP.

The park was fairly well settled until the mid 20th century.  This is the remnant of an old well.

The Wall Street Stamp Mill, an old gold mine that was worked off and on til the mid 1960s.

This vehicle has been parked a looong time.  For some reason it was abandoned at the mine.

The moon rises over the rocks.

Going into the Golden Hour...the last hour of light before sunset in this case.  It can also be the first hour after sunrise.

A massive, hearty Joshua tree.

Rocks in the Golden Hour.  And when you get out into the desert, at times there is...absolute silence.  JTNP is a peaceful place.

Autumn Days at the Big Ditch

I spent three fine days at the Grand Canyon late last month...just now got around to loading the pix into the computer.  One day I hiked along the top of the South Rim, the next I ventured a way into the canyon twice.  This is the Bright Angel Trail, just below the rim, early in the morning.  The Lizards are taking a break here.

Deep into October, the low sun angle enhances light and shadows.  Pix are good most of the day except an hour or two either side of noon.

In the afternoon my friend Jeff and I hiked about a quarter of the way down the canyon on the Kaibab Trail...about a mile and a half horizontally, and 1100 feet vertically.  In our younger days we both trekked all the way to the river here...Jeff did the round trip in a single day!  Them days are gone over the hill, but we didn't do a bad job for a couple of Medicare guys.  The mule train was resting at our turnaround point.  Jeff and I can't ride the mules...you have to weigh under 200 pounds.  Even when I was in good shape thirty years ago I was marginal.  Now...no way.

The Lizards made this trip too.  They had an easy time of it...they rode down in my pack.

Gnarly dead trees always make fine pix in the canyon.

On the way back up the trail toward the rim, it was convenient to stop and every photo opp.

Fine, soft late afternoon light.

Looking down on the Kaibab Trail.  We hiked up that??

This picture was taken the day before when I hiked along the South Rim west of the Village.  

The Bright Angel Trail.

A gap in a juniper reveals the inner gorge.

A better shot of the inner gorge.  The black Vishnu Schist there is over one and a half billion years old.

Another fine gnarly tree.

This chasm is called the Abyss.

I love the canyon.  It's a power spot.  I enjoy just finding a quiet place to sit on the rim and contemplate the beauty and majesty.

Charleston

I had a nice meetup in Charleston SC with my friends Dick and Wilma.  We toured the city...and ate well.  Here's the Ravenel Bridge.

Elegant Chucktown homes on the Battery.

More Battery homes.  

A particularly impressive estate.

The Ravenel Bridge with a fine four master going on by.  We were waiting for the ferry to...

Fort Sumter.  

The fort was mostly destroyed during the Civil War.  It's been restored to some degree but there are still Federal shells embedded in the walls from the Union siege of 1863-4.

Here's a cannon, probably one used during the Civil War at the fort.

On the way back to the mainland, we passed a cruise ship, with the USS Yorktown in the background.

Ramblings in the Southeast

I'm in Arizona now, but here are some pix from the southeast a couple weeks ago.  JR and Liz took me to an animal rehab zoo near Miami.  It was very cool in that you got to interact with the animals.  This is Orion, a wolf who was raised in captivity.  His owner was unable to continue caring for him, so he would up here.  He's a sweet wolf...I gave him a belly rub!

This is how Florida looked four hundred years ago, when Ponce de Leon and other explorers saw it for the first time and the local Indians presided.  This stretch of unspoiled Atlantic beach, one of the few left, is between Jacksonville and St Augustine.

Now I'm in Savannah, near Forsyth Park.  Elegant Victorian mansions preside, with fine gnarly oaks.

The city had storm damage from Hurricane Matthew.

The Lizards thought they were at home!  Savannah's Monterey Square is actually misspelled...it was named in commemoration of a US victory during the Mexican War near Monterrey, Mexico.

More fine Savannah homes.

This fountain in Forsyth Park had been dyed purple, for some reason.

A fallen tree is backed by a monument to the fallen Confederate dead in Forsyth Park.