High Contrast in Albion Basin

Every once and a while, I try some black and white images. Actually, they are all taken in color. All you have to do to remove the color is to move the saturation to zero. This a black and White (actually gray scale) image I posted a few days ago. If you compare the images, you might be able to see why I would post a gray scale image (black and white).

The Castle, Albion Basin, Utah

We have climbed to the top of this prominent peak. It is really a rather short hike from the trailhead. Albion Basin is just one of the many glacial cirques that cap the Wasatch Mountains of Utah. But it does happen to be one of the most accessible.

Summer Flowers of the Wasatch

Summer flowers in the high mountains are worth the trip. These beautiful blossoms were found in Albion Basin near Alta, Utah. Flowers make the heat of the summer and the mosquitoes worth the trip to the mountains.

Albion Basin, Wasatch Mountains, Utah

Albion Basin is a popular recreational hiking, camping and picnicking site near the Alta Ski resort in Little Cottonwood Canyon, near Salt Lake City, Utah. It is high in the mountains as evidenced by the remnants of snow in late July. We drove up the canyon for an afternoon looking at the wildflowers. It was a lovely summer day.

Agave Sunlight and Shadow

In nature, there are patterns within patterns. As the agave plant opens, the spines from the old leave imprints on the new. The plant also shows growth bands and then we add in the intense sunlight and we can see it all displayed at one time. An agave is a succulent but not a cactus. By the way, if you are ever so unfortunate as to get stuck with one of the end spines, you will remember the experience for a very long time.

Bright Yellow for a Summer Day

Of all the things I could miss when moving from the desert to the mountains, I would have to put cactus flowers near the top of my list. It is near the middle of the summer here in the mountains of Utah, but these prickly pear flowers remind me of the Spring in the desert. One thing is that the temperature here in Provo, Utah is about the same as it would have been in March and April in Mesa, Arizona.

Refreshing Mountain Spring

The mountains of Utah contain many streams. This one originates in a large spring just a bit higher on the hill above this waterfall. This is part of the Cascade Spring in the heart of the Wasatch Mountains just east of the highly populated valleys along the western flank of the mountains. The Wasatch Mountain constitute the western edge of the Great Basin, a large drainage area that flows into the Great Salt Lake.

Trail to the Summit

This is the last ridge line portion of the trail to the summit of Humphrey's Peak in Northern Arizona. Humphreys is part of the peaks known as the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff. It is known as Aaloosaktukwi in Hopi and Dookʼoʼoosłííd in Navajo. It is 12,633 feet high, almost a thousand feet higher than Mount Timpanogos that I can see out my front room window. I have hiked to the top of Humphreys three times. The last time was the hardest when I discovered that I had a severe lung problem that was finally diagnosed as adult onset asthma. My asthma problem has mostly disappeared and I had no real trouble climbing Mount Timpanogos last summer except for falling twice. My mountain climbing days are probably coming to an end, but who knows, I may have a couple of high peaks left in me.

A High Mountain Lake

The high mountains of Utah and Arizona are far removed from the commonly held view of a desert. This photo of a mountain lake in the Uintah Mountains of Utah is a good example. But if you look closely, you will also see that many of the trees are dead or dying. This is a periodic problem for the Western forests of the United States. It is caused by drought stressed trees becoming infected with bark beetles. This die-off of trees contributes to some of the major forest fires we have had in Utah and Arizona in the past few years.

A Jungle Ant Trail

While walking in the desert or jungle, it is a good idea to watch where you put your feet. High in the jungle near the Arenal Volcano (Volcán Arenal), we happened upon this endless line of ants on the trail. It appears if you look closely, that the trail is semi-permanent because it has been smoothed out and there are barricades along the edges of the trail. Seeing this kind of phenomena reminds me of the short story called, "Leinigen Versus the Ants." The short story was adapted into a full-length movie starring Charlton Heston called "The Naked Jungle." These stories are fiction. The line of ants was not dangerous, but we did not try to stop them from racing across the jungle floor.

Strangler Figs

The genus Ficus has about 850 species that are collectively known as fig trees. These plants begin as hemiepiphytes with bird-dispersed seeds that avoid the dark jungle floor by germinating in crevices on top of other trees. See Wikipedia: Strangler fig. I was surprised to find out that the common Ficus trees in Mesa, Arizona were of the same genus as the strangler figs. The strangler fig is as iconic to the jungle as the saguaro is iconic to the southern Arizona deserts.

A Walk in the Jungle

I think that most of us who live in cooler, more temperate climates and where rainfall is something we anticipate, have no real idea of what the jungle is really like. If your idea of the jungle comes from watching reruns of The African Queen, then you will be in for a huge surprise if you ever visit a real jungle. Yes, there are bugs. Yes, it is hot and humid. Yes, it rains frequently. But you also will find that it is beautiful and has such a huge variety of plants and animals that you never grow tired of looking at your surroundings in wonder. For me, it is a lot like the desert but with plants.

Cicada Skin on a Leaf

When wandering around in the jungle, you should be looking for big things like trees but you also need to keep your eyes open for some of the very small things. Cicadas have been a part of my life as long as I can remember. They are described as follows:

The cicadas (/sɪˈkɑːdə/ or /sɪˈkeɪdə/) are a superfamily, the Cicadoidea, of insects in the order Hemiptera (true bugs). They are in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha,[a] along with smaller jumping bugs such as leafhoppers and froghoppers. It is divided into the Tettigarctidae, with two species in Australia, and Cicadidae, with more than 1,300 species describedfrom around the world; many undescribed species remain. See Wikipedia: Cicada

Cicadas spend most of their life underground as nymphs and emerge only every 13 to 17 years when they emerge, usually in large numbers, and shed their skins and become flying adults. Where I lived in Arizona, they would show up in huge numbers on the trees and bushes.

I found this cicada skin on a leaf while hiking on a jungle trail in Costa Rica.

A Leaf on the Jungle Floor

From time to time, I see things that look surreal. This large leaf laying on a path in the jungle of Costa Rica falls into that category. At first, I could not figure out what it was. Later, I saw other leaves from the same type of tree and I figured out what these were. I think there are a lot of things around us that we do not recognize and cannot characterize.

Central American Jungle

I lived right next to the jungle in Panama for about two years. It was an interesting experience. When I first arrived in Panama, the jungle looked like a solid green wall. After spending a lot of time in the jungle, I could see the different shades of green and the brown contrast of the trees. This image is in Costa Rica, but the jungle is very similar to what we experienced in Panama.

Sunset over Utah Valley

We spent the evening on the Saturday before the Fourth of July sitting on the hillside above the Utah Valley watching the sunset and waiting for the numerous fireworks shows. Yes, Utah folks celebrate holidays at different times than the rest of the world. Saturday was the 1st of July, but all the fireworks were actually for the Fourth. For many holidays in the United States, we celebrate on a Monday irrespective of the actual date of the traditional holiday. In fact, we now have two holidays that are officially on Monday and the date changes every year. In Utah, the reasons for changing the dates of the holidays are complex. The only holidays that still get completely celebrated on the traditional day Christmas and the 24th of July. Figure that out. Utah does celebrate Thanksgiving, Memorial Day and Labor Day on the days set aside that change every year, but the rest are up for grabs.

A Nesting Cormorant

This is a Brandt's Cormorant or Phalacrocorax penicillatus nesting on the California coast. They prefer rocky outcroppings and I am sure they lose more than a few eggs from their precarious perches. Surprisingly, they make very little noise even in large numbers. They seem perfectly suited to live right next to one of the busiest streets in La Jolla.

Artichoke

This lovely artichoke plant was growing at the San Juan Capistrano Mission in California. I had never eaten an artichoke until I was attending the University of Utah. Artichokes were not a plant that my family would have thought were edible. The flower buds of the globe artichoke or Cynara cardunculus var. scolymus are edible before the large thistle-like flowers bloom. The flowers are so pretty, when we grew artichokes in our home garden, we let some of them go to flowers so we could see the lovely flowers. The lower part of the petals and the heart are what we eat.

Cascade Springs, Utah

High in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah, this giant spring cascades down the mountain slope forming pools and small waterfalls. The Wasatch Mountains are mostly dry, not-quite-desert, but occasionally, there are springs and creeks that liven the area. There is a boardwalk, partially visible in this image, that circles the springs and provides a short walk around this beautiful area. Unfortunately, Cascade Springs is also the site of a number of wildfires and you can see the evidence of these fires in your walk around the springs.

A Gathering of Butterflies

I don't usually see this many butterflies all congregating in the same area. This rock is sitting in the middle of a mountain spring and I was quite some distance away from the butterflies. Telephoto shots have a tendency to have a very limited depth of field so it was hard to get all the butterflies in perfect focus.

Entire Utah Valley from the Y Mount

This is a panoramic view of the entire Utah Valley from the top of Y on the Y Mountain east of Provo, Utah. You will want to click on the image to see an expanded view. We live at almost the 5000 foot level at the mouth of Rock Canyon but we have houses, trees and the side of the bench that blocks our view.

Southern Utah Valley

This early morning view of Utah Valley shows the south end of Utah Lake, Provo, and Springville and Spanish Fork off in the distance. If I were to zoom in, you could also see Payson on the far left horizon. Because of the wet winter, the grass is long and green. But with the summer sun, the grass is drying out and we have already had a couple of fires on the hills surrounding the valley. We live close to the Wasatch Mountain on the east side of the valley and so we do not get morning sun until well into the day. In fact, in the winter, we only get a few minutes or hours of sunlight because we have a hill on the south also.

Provo Utah LDS Temple from the Y Mount

We live very close to the Provo Utah LDS Temple. But this is a new perspective of the Temple and its surroundings. This photo was taken from the Y Mount, a prominent landmark in Provo. I used a very long telephoto lens to capture this image. I was about 2000 feet higher up on the mountain and about a mile or so away from the Temple when I took the photo. The Provo Temple has a unique design.

Balloons Over Utah Valley #2

By zooming in with my camera, I can enhance the apparent size of the balloons, but I lose the wide angle that I can see with my own eyes. These two photos illustrate one of the most dramatic differences between what the camera can "see" and what we perceive with our eyes. No matter how you view photos, you must always remember that they are not reality.

Balloons Over Utah Valley

When you are looking out over the valley from the mountainside, you can clearly see the balloons in the air. However, your eye is the equivalent of a wide angle 50 mm lens. To capture part of what you see with a camera, you need a wide-angle lens such as this photo taken with a 24 mm lens setting (it is a zoom lens). You can click on the photo and see it enlarged, but it is not the same as you would see with your own eyes. The balloons appear much larger and more prominent when you see the view for yourself.

Provo City Center Temple from the Y Mount

One of the advantages of a very long telephoto lens is the ability to take photos like this one. I was standing about 2000+ higher than the valley and about three miles away from the downtown Provo area when this photo was taken. By the way, Provo is the third largest city in Utah by population and Provo and its sister city Orem if taken together have a much greater population than Salt Lake City, Utah. With the growth in Utah Valley, it would not be surprising if Provo and or Orem pass Salt Lake as the most populous city in the state.

The Brigham Young University Campus in Provo, Utah

This is a view of the Brigham Young University (BYU) Campus in Provo, Utah. It was taken from the "Top of the Y" on the Y Mount just to east of the campus. In the background is Utah Lake, a large fresh (?) water lake in Utah Valley. The Y is a huge block letter painted on the side of the mountain overlooking the valley. The hike up to the top is about 1.2 miles one way and took us about two hours to go up and back.