Rock Canyon, Squaw Peak and Utah Valley From Above

Here we are above the Rock Canyon. The small peak in the center of the image is Squaw Peak which is very dramatic from below. In the distance is Utah Valley with the large expanse of Utah Lake. You can just see an edge of Provo. We are on our way to climbing Buffalo Peak in the extreme right hand of the image.

Rock Faces

The more I look at this image, the more faces I see. This is a rather interesting rock formation in the northern part of Capital Reef National Park. You will have to travel quite a ways down a dirt road to get here, but the scenery is well worth the trip.

Morning Sunlight on Timpanogos

The Wasatch Mountains, including Mount Timpanogos, runs north and south. We live on the west side of the mountains and so our home and others which are right next to the mountains, have to wait until late in the morning before the sun officially rises. This image shows the shadow effect of the high mountains. I am standing in the dark shade of the high mountain immediately to my east, while across the canyon, Timpanogos is in sunlight. We do get brilliant sunsets across the valley to the west and we do have a view of Utah Lake through the trees from our front window, but during part of the Winter the sun never gets above the mountains to the east and south and our home is in the dark shade all day.

A Golden Field

There are several plants in the United States that are called "skunk cabbage." I suppose that I could have entitled this post "A Field of Skunk Cabbage" but that would not have been nearly as idealized as referring to the gorgeous color of these plants. This is another of those images that utterly fail to capture the impact of standing in a mountain meadow and looking across to the mountains in the distance. This is the kind of view that is waiting only a few minutes away from my home on the trail to Buffalo Peak. Every one of the peaks here in the Wasatch Mountains has a name, but only the most prominent are well known. I cannot really see this particular peak from my front yard, because it is hidden by the massive rock face known as Squaw Peak at the mouth of Rock Canyon here in Provo, Utah.

Beginning of the Trail

This is essentially in my "backyard." We live about two blocks from the mouth of the canyon shown in the distance. This is nearly on top of one of the hills right behind our house. There is a vast difference between what I can see out my window right now and what I have looked at for the past 40 plus years in the desert. It is a nice change. But every so often, I get a deep longing for the desert. There is something about the solitude and clarity of the desert that are deep in my bones. But then I look out at the green wall of forest next to my window and decide that the green is a fair tradeoff.

Fawns in the Backyard

We have a herd of deer that live practically in our yard. This is both good and bad. They manage to eat a number of our plants, especially tulips and other flowers, but they are cute and fun to watch. We are presently worried about this doe and her twin fawns. Yesterday we only saw one with her. There is a busy road just down from our house and at least one deer has been killed by a car in the last couple of months. This photo was taken by my wife out the back door of our home.

Humming Bird at rest

I have been thinking about taking some more bird photos recently. The ones outside my window are usually flashing by without an opportunity to pull out my camera and take some shots. But recently, my wife put up a humming bird feeder and we now have a stream of humming birds to watch and I just might get a few of them with images like this one. This is probably a female, Black-chinned hummingbird.

My Way or the Roadway

Sometimes there is not a whole lot you can say about some of the things you see. These two signs are certainly in that category. My response? I just went out the most convenient way.

A Profusion of Moss

There is nothing as soothing as a rich carpet of moss. Most of the moss I used to see in the desert was dried and waiting for a sporadic rainfall to green-up and reproduce. Here, the moss carpet is so thick and luxuriant that it difficult to imagine so much water being available. I was impressed with the way the tree roots and the fallen branches covered the ground.

American Bison

Lately, we have seen some rather large herds of American Bison or Bison bison commonly referred to as "buffalo." These bison were placidly eating until I approached the fence in their compound and almost instantly they jumped away, only to return to eating almost immediately. When they jumped, I jumped. There are two subspecies of bison, the Plains Bison (Bison bison bison) and the Wood Bison (Bison bison athabascae). The Wood Bison is supposed to be considerably larger than these particular animals and is considered to be the largest currently living land animal in the Americas. I have seen bison in corrals as far south as Arizona, but the closest herd here in Utah is on Antelope island in the Great Salt Lake, just north of where I now live.

Snowfields

There are some things about mountains that you can only see and learn by climbing them. Here is an appropriate quote from John Muir;

Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom of the mountaineer. Camp out among the grasses and gentians of glacial meadows, in craggy garden nooks full of nature's darlings. Climb the mountains and get their good tidings, Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. As age comes on, one source of enjoyment after another is closed, but nature's sources never fail.

Many times during my life, I have done exactly this and as I get older, I realize even more that the last statement is true. "As age comes on, one source of enjoyment after another is closed, but nature's sources never fail." What I do find however is that age limits somewhat your ability to run up and down the mountains and that the slower pace of age gives its own source of enjoyment.

A Dramatic Landscape

Even though I now live at the mouth of a rocky canyon in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah, I am impressed with the dramatic scenery of the mountains where ever they may be. This is a view of the largest of the three Waterton Lakes in Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta, Canada. This long, narrow lake, called the Upper Waterton Lake, extends part way into the United States in Glacier National Park. I am more used to mountains with far fewer trees and a lot less water.

Cameron Falls, Waterton Lakes National Park

This is Cameron Falls. This spectacular waterfall is located almost in the middle of the town of Waterton in the Waterton Lakes National Park. It is a popular place to take photos primarily because it is so accessible and visible. Its characteristic shape is highly recognizable. We stopped here on our last day in Waterton and I took a series of photos as we were leaving. We talked about how we could reproduce this "water feature" in our backyard, but decided that it would be too much of an effort. You can see the that the waterfall is right at the juncture of two overlapping rocks strata. Oh, by the way, there is more than one waterfall in Canada with the name "Cameron Falls." This is the more accessible and famous one. These are sedimentary rocks and some of the oldest rocks, Precambrian bedrock over a billion years old, in the Canadian Rockies. See Geology and Geomorphology on WatertonPark.com.

Below Bertha Falls

There wasn't a good vantage point to get a photo of the entire Bertha Falls and the channel below the falls. So I made this image of the waterway below. You might have to click on this image to see the detail. The rocks are tipped at a steep angle towards the base of the waterfall and the stream runs down through a narrow channel. It is quite impressive.

Bertha Falls, Waterton Lakes National Park

There are a number of shorter hikes at Waterton Lakes National Park in southern Alberta, Canada. We did as many as were possible in the two days we were there. This was one of the nicest hikes and one of the most popular, out to Bertha Falls. There are a lot of waterfalls in Canada. We are used to waterfalls and water in general being very rare. Some of the waterfalls in Utah and Arizona take major expeditions to see. There are so many waterfalls up north, that some of the smaller ones go completely unnoticed.

Close up of a wildflower

Macro photography is usually depicted with the photographer crouching on the ground with the camera inches from the subject. There is another way to get "close up" photos and that is to use a very long lens (telephoto lens) and focus in on a small subject. This photo was taken with a 215 mm equivalent lens a few feet from the flower. You might want to zoom in or enlarge the photo to see all the detail. This flower is bee balm or bergamot (Monarda fistulosa). This plant was photographed in the Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada.

Glacier in Alaska

While I was visiting Waterton Lakes National Park and Glacier National Park, I was reminded of what glaciers really look like when they are alive and active. This is a photo I took last year in Alaska. I suppose that the mountains in Montana and the southern part of Canada probably looked like this a few thousand or more years ago. When I look out the window here in Utah, I image what the Wasatch Mountains would have looked like if they still had the the huge glaciers that formed the cirques and canyons I can see today. Of course, I would probably be under water since at that time the whole valley was filled with the huge Lake Bonneville.

Glacier National Park is located along the border with Canada. Glacier NP and the twin park in Canada, Waterton Lakes National Park form the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. Formed in 1932, the United States and Canada created the world’s first International Peace Park: joining together Glacier National Park and Waterton Lakes National Park as the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.This is the kind of view that comes from hiking up the side of the mountains into the glacial cirque.

Straight from the Snow

This stream and its series of waterfalls comes straight down from the melting snow in the vast glacial cirque in the background. You would never know that U-shaped valleys were once very controversial. There was a time, not too long ago, when even scientists were skeptical of the fact that these broad U-shaped features originated with glaciers. The first scientific studies connecting these unique landforms to glaciers occurred in the early 1800s. A natural scientist named Jean de Charpentier, and a Scandinavian scientist named Jens Esmark, elaborated theories that certain types of landforms, including these distinctive U-shaped valleys, originated with huge sheets of ice. After overcoming his original disbelief, the theory was much expanded by Louis Agassiz, a famous Swiss Zoologist. Agassiz's theorized that most of the Northern Hemisphere had once been covered with vast sheets of ice. Agassiz's theory was only confirmed when Fridtjof Nansen, a Norwegian, and five others, finally crossed the Greenland ice field and confirmed Agassiz's predictions. See Aber, James S., Birth of the Glacial Theory, Emporia State University, 2003.

Majestic View in Glacier National Park

Glacier National Park contains one of the most dramatic mountain landscapes in the United States, outside of Alaska. The glacier part of the Park is now an anomaly. All of the glaciers are rapidly melting and are estimated to be gone in the next several decades. Back in 1850, it is estimated that there were approximately 150 glaciers, by 2010, the number had dropped to 25 glaciers larger than 25 acres. See the U.S. Geologic Survey, "Retreat of Glaciers in Glacier National Park" Quoting from the USGS article:

While the glaciers that carved GNP’s majestic peaks were part of a glaciation that ended about 12,000 years ago, current glaciers are considered geologically new, having formed about ~7,000 thousand years ago. These glaciers grew substantially during the Little Ice Age (LIA) that began around 1400 A.D and reached their maximum size at the end of the LIA around A.D.1850. Their maximum sizes can be inferred from the mounds of rock and soil left behind by glaciers, known as moraines (Key, 2002), which provide a scientific baseline for comparison to current glacial extent.

It would be simplistic to blame the loss of the glaciers on "global warming" but there is no doubt from the climate records that the average temperature in the area of the glaciers is rising. This is a highly politicized and controversial topic, but whether or not you believe in global warming, you only have to go to Glacier National Park to the see the effects on one small area of the world.

Young Elk in velvet

One of the most memorable aspects of our recent trip to Canada via Yellowstone National Park, was the number of large mammals, birds and other animals we saw along the way. This young elk was browsing on the grass near the Mammoth Hot Springs Visitors Center along with a herd of about fifty other elk of various ages and sizes. His antlers are still covered in velvet and will likely keep growing. These elk live a "country club" existence in the National Parks and wander freely among the buildings of the areas visited by tourists. I have seen the same type of herds at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon also.

Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park

The Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park is one of its most famous attractions. Unfortunately, the Springs have changed considerably since I first saw them as a child. the formations are made of calcium carbonate deposited by the thermal springs with water originating in the Norris Geyser Basin. The water emerges at a temperature of about 170 degrees Fahrenheit or 80 degrees Centigrade. The changes occur steadily with huge amounts of calcium carbonate being deposited every day. Here is a link to Yellowstone Science with photos showing the changes in the Springs over time and indicating that they are not drying up, but are constantly changing.

Rocky Mountain Goat

Like antelope that are really prong horns and buffalo that are really bison, the Rocky Mountain Goat is not a goat at all. Here is an explanation from Wikipedia about how they are really classified:

The mountain goat is an even-toed ungulate of the order Artiodactyla and the family Bovidae that includes antelopes, gazelles, and cattle. It belongs to the subfamily Caprinae (goat-antelopes), along with 32 other species including true goats, sheep, the chamois, and the muskox. The mountain goat is the only species in the genus Oreamnos. The name Oreamnos is derived from the Greek term oros (stem ore-) "mountain" (or, alternatively, oreas "mountain nymph") and the word amnos "lamb".

Well, that clarifies things! Anyway, they are a rare sight and it is unusual that I would get such a good shot of one. Of course, since I had an effective 1900 mm lens on my camera, it helped. This specimen was standing on a rock in Glacier National Park at the end of a long uphill trail.  

Red Rock Canyon, Waterton National Park

We recently drove to Canada for a visit to Waterton Lakes National Park. The next few weeks, I will be featuring photos from Yellowstone National Park, Lewis and Clark Caves State Park, Glacier National Park, and Cardston, Alberta, Canada. I thought I would start out with one of the most spectacular scenes of the trip; the Red Rock Canyon in Waterton. It was a rainy day, which seems to be the rule for my trips out into the wilderness. If you would like to see more detail from the photo, you just have to click on it to enlarge it. I was using both my Sony HX400V and my older Canon 5D Mark II for photos. See if you can spot which camera took which photos. We camped in the main Townsite Campground, right in Waterton, which is quite a sizable town. We loved the campground and a facilities. It was quite a contrast to some of the other places we visited on this 1500 mile + trip.

Glacier Ice is Blue

The blue color in this photo comes from the fact that the snow and ice absorb most of the other colors and reflect only the wavelengths of blue light. This is the same reason the sky and the ocean often appear blue. In order to have a blue coloration, the water in the ice must be very pure, i.e. with very few minerals or pollutants.

Sight for Sore Summer Eyes

This Summer (2015) will go down in the record books as one of the hottest. I thought to balance out some of the heat, I would put up a few of my images of snow and ice. This is a lovely hanging glacier. I think the image does not do justice to the original when you are there in person, since the air temperature is quite a bit cooler than the summer temps.

Mountain Monochrome

The first image is a full-color image of the Alaskan Mountains. The second image is a duotone or black and white image of the same scene. You will have to click on the image to see both imags. To me, the first image looks "fake." Although the second image lacks the color of the first, it is the more believable image because we are used to seeing black and white images. The first image is not necessarily an accurate reproduction of what your eye might see if you were looking at the mountains, because you brain would compensate for any seemingly false colors and substitute what it expected to see. The camera cannot make those kinds of value judgments and just ends up reporting what it sees. Since the image is now not the "reality" of the actual scene, our eyes do not compensate for the differences in color and we see what the camera saw.

Remembering the Beach

I guess when I moved from the low desert to the mountains that I ultimately decided that my life would not be centered around the ocean. I am fascinated by water in such large quantities, but I am more comfortable in the mountains and the desert than I am with water and sand. I like my sand dry and windblown. This is the north shore of Oahu, looking down on the southern end of Waimanalo Beach.  We talk about going back to Hawaii, but we end up in the mountains and deserts.

A Horse-drawn Caterpillar Pull-Grader

This is a very early, horse-drawn Caterpillar Pull-grader. It was probably made in the early 20th Century, likely before 1920. It could have been manufactured about the time Caterpillar acquired the Russell Grader Manufacturing Company about 1928. Although it is painted yellow, it may be a Russell Grader. I cannot find one online with a seat in the front for the teamster.

A Wilderness of Rocks

Moving through country like this take time and a lot of effort. This image is in the middle of the Waterpocket Fold, a huge geologic formation that runs for over a hundred miles down through Central and Southern Utah. The theory is that that this complex formation began as a wrinkle in the rock as North America moved over the Pacific Ocean Plate. This formed a giant monocline, a structure with one steep side and one that is more gradual. If you we took look at these rocks from up in space, they would look like part of a fold with the smooth side to the east and the steep, folded side to the west. These canyons and rock formations formed after the initial uplift.

Rock Windows

No rock formations in the vast deserts of sandstone are more intriguing than these. I seems almost impossible that erosion alone could have created such delicate and interesting structures. Technically, these are known as "tafoni." They are most commonly found on Entrada and Navajo sandstone, but can be occasionally seen in other types of rocks. Sandstone is porous and as water moves through the rock is dissolves the calcite (Calcium Carbonate or CaCO3) in the rocks. The patterns of the little arches reflect the difference in hardness between the parts of the rock. This is probably a good theory, but it doesn't account for the beauty of the structures.

Stratigraphic Layers

Stratigraphy is that branch of geology that studies the layers of rocks. The strata are the different layers of rocks, here easily seen as different colors and types of rocks. Layering or stratification primarily occurs in sedimentary or volcanic rocks. A cross-section is a view of the rocks revealing a vertical profile. Geologists, or more specifically stratigraphers, study the deposition history of the rocks and try to reconstruct how and when the rocks were deposited. They rely on the law of superposition, that non-deformed geologic strata are deposited in a sequence where the older material is deposited on the bottom of the sequence and the the younger material on top. They also assume that the rocks were originally deposited horizontally aka the principle of original horizontality.