Yosemite...
Yosemite was the last national park on the summer vacation trip list. That also means this is going to be the last major post (or at least the public ones) about the vacation. The trip was like a dream, with so many grand landscapes and so much beautiful wildlife. I can never get tired of going to Yosemite and if I was a little closer, I'd probably be there every weekend.

I had hoped to see a bear each time I visited Yosemite in the past, but each time I returned without seeing them. Although the initial plan was to have two days in Yosemite, change of plan during the trip meant that I'd have just the afternoon in Yosemite. No chance of bear then. Not much chance of any wildlife then, I thought. And just to prove me wrong, the animals showed up. And just by the roadside too... :-)




The sun is all set to signal the end of day... the end of the trip.

( Ten more photographs... )

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Death Valley
I never thought I'd do it, but I did go to one of the hottest places on earth at the hottest time of the year. Death Valley is infamous for its high 120F (>50C) temperatures during the peak of summer and it certainly didn't cool down for visitors. Death Valley visitor centers have a huge temperature guages hanging over their doorways and that day it read 115F (46C). Thanks to air conditioning, driving through Death Valley without dying is possible. The moment you step out of the car into the sun, it feels like as if you are in a gigantic oven. And with the blowing hot wind sucks out all moisture the body has to offer. They say the heat can kill in thirty minutes out there. Maybe that is true, but five minutes out in the sun is enough torture.




A "killer" poodle sits guard in a truck passing by the Shoshone village (outskirts of Death Valley)

( Thirteen more photographs... )

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Mustangs!
I had heard about the presence of free horses on the Eastern border of Death Valley but the two visits I made earlier during the year yielded no sightings. After the long trip through Utah, Arizona and then Nevada, coming into California and to Death Valley was almost like coming home. I wasn't expecting to see anything but fabulous sunset in Death Valley that day and I had just ignored charging my camera battery and had not realized there was no space left on my flash cards for any more photographs.

As we drove along the highway, I notice movement in a bush by the roadside and as I slowed down and pulled over I noticed a mustang! And then another one showed up on the other side and then a few more! I pulled out my camera from its lazy slumber and began to focus and all I see is a big red battery sign! While I continued to kick myself for the blunder, I had enough sense (just that little bit that I seem to have... sometimes) to put the battery to charge. Every second was like a minute and every minute was like the lifetime of earth. The horses moved about, eating, looking at us, communicating amongst themselves and doing all of it in the most beautiful light there could ever be.

We drove up the road to see if there were other herds but turned back after a mile and came back to the herd we had seen. After about fifteen minutes, the stallion of the herd started moving towards the Nevada side and walked away calmly into the distance. It was only a matter of time before the rest of the herd moved and I pulled out my battery from the charger and my camera came to life - just about. I had space for about twenty photographs and I knew I had to be less trigger happy than I usually am.

Like they say, All is well when...





A Stallion in the making! For now, he's one of the cutest things roaming the emptiness of Death Valley!

( Welcome to the world of Mustangs... )

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The south rim of the Grand Canyon - part 2
Here are the final photographs from Arizona and Grand Canyon. Fascinating place that.




The clouds hide a sun on a fine day at the Grand Canyon

( Ten more photographs... )

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The south rim of the Grand Canyon - part 1
Like I said in my previous post, the the south rim of the Grand Canyon is more crowded. The reason could be easier accessibility and good facilities year round, but the reason could also be that the views are much grander! The magnitude of this place is just unimaginable until you see it for yourself. I was there midweek and it was still very crowded, with people and cars everywhere, and after you've seen the place, you know why the millions go there each year to see one of the greatest sights the natural world has to offer - welcome to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.




The vista from "Desert View"

( Seventeen more photographs... )

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The Grand Canyon - North Rim
Apparently, only 10% of the visitors to the Grand Canyon go to the North Rim and that was a huge incentive for me to go to there given that I like places which aren't crowded. The North Rim is much higher than the South Rim and there's no accessibility in winter when snow forces the roads (and the facilities) to be closed. And as I found out there North Rim is more forested, has rich(er) wildlife and quite different from the south rim, which is more of a desert. I did go to the south rim as well and I'm glad I did. The south rim will come up next, for now here are some images from the North Rim of the greatest canyon in the world.




View from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon

( Eight More photographs )

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Navajo Nation - Antelope Canyon
When driving from Bryce canyon national park to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, a detour to Page in Arizona takes you to one of the most photographed slot canyons in the world - the Antelope canyon. We had lost our way and it was almost time for the sun to set when we reached the upper antelope canyon. Antelope canyon is inside a Native American reservation and only registered guides can take you there and it requires them to drive through the deep sands of the Antelope wash to get to the canyon. When we arrived at the canyon, most of the good light had long gone and all I could do was admire the beauty of the canyon and take some documentation photographs.






A walk inside the Antelope Canyon


( Seven more Photographs )

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Bryce Canyon - part 3
Here's the last post from the Bryce Canyon. The morning at Bryce was a fantastic show of colors and natural history. Bryce was only an 'if there is time' in the trip plan and somehow there was time and I'm so glad I could make it there. I hadn't imagined Bryce to have so much wildlife and with so many lifers, it was a great experience to be there.




Aqua Canyon in Bryce National Park

( Eight more photographs )

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Bryce Canyon - part 2
The sunset and sunrise are much anticipated events at Bryce and large crowds gather at the viewpoints early to get the best spots. I can just say that you've got to see it for yourself!





( 18 More photographs )

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Bryce Canyon - part 1
The native inhabitants of the Bryce Canyon - the Paiute people - believed the hoodoos were once people, but then turned into stone by the Coyote! If you've been to Bryce you'll realize why they believed so.




( Ten more photographs )

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The American Southwest
10 days. Four states. 7 national parks. Just amazing.

Here's how my (road) trip looked like: Sequoia/King's Canyon National Park -> Zion National Park -> Bryce Canyon National Park -> Grand Canyon (north rim) -> Antelope Canyon -> Grand Canyon (south rim) -> Death Valley -> Yosemite -> Monterey Bay. The grand tour with mountains, trees, desert, canyons, rivers, plateaus and the sea!

I now have the crazy, crazy task of looking at 36GB of photographs from the trip. :-(




American Bison in Utah

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Yosemite Falls



The highest waterfall in North America California.

( Larger + Whole falls )

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The elephant god...



Pencil Sketch + GIMP(scaling, soft glow, canvas)

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Elephants
Reading deponti's post about Thattekad made me go back to my archives and revisit that fascinating place. Thattekad is south India's top birding destination and doesn't usually have elephants in attendance, but during my February 2006 trip, there were a herd (or two) of elephants in the park. From the safety of a building inside the forest, we watched these magnificent creatures in the river...



( Photographs of elephants in the water... )

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Trees and Flowers...


( 2 photographs... )

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Ground Squirrels
I'm quickly ticking away the squirrel species found in California. On the July 4th weekend trip, I found two more species that I could photograph. Here are the Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel and the White-tailed Antelope Squirrel.




Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel - on a fallen tree

( Read more... )

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Crowley Lake
Picture perfect. Man-made though. Serves as a reservoir for Los Angeles water department.





( Larger panaroma )

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Squirrels at Rivendell...




( More... )

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Tropical beach?
This is Mono Lake. One of the oldest lakes in America and certainly the most beautifully colored water body I've seen. The Mono lake we see today is supposed to be a remnant of a much older, bigger water body that was many times larger than the 69 square miles it is today. At an altitude of 7000 feet above sea level, with the Sierra-Nevada in sight, this is an absolutely gorgeous water body.





( Welcome to Mono Lake... )

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The Ancient Forest...
The Ancient Bristlecone pine forest in the Inyo National forest of eastern California is home to some of the world's oldest trees. Until recently, it had the oldest known tree in the world when an older tree was discovered in remote Sweden. These trees are not giants like the Sequoias, but having lived on earth for more than four thousand years, they are very, very special.





( More... )

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The Serengetti...
When driving past the eastern Sierra-Nevada on the beautiful highway 395, we came across a grassland at the base of a mountain. "Wildlife viewing area" a board said and when we pulled over and looked towards the mountain, the beautiful sight an elk herd greeted us. There must have been hundreds in that herd, roaming the fenced grassland, shielded from the busy highway. The setting resembled that of the vast herbivore herds roaming the grasslands of East Africa...





( More elk photographs... )

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The Giant Forest
General Sherman, the giant Sequoia, is often said to be the largest tree in the world. It is not the tallest, or widest or the heaviest though and perhaps not even the largest by some other definitions. The tallest living tree is supposed to be a coastal redwood named hypernion. The Aspen grove in Utah, called Pando, has had a root system that's been alive for 80,000 years and is collectively five times heavier than General Sherman. The largest diameter belongs to a tree in Mexico. And the largest circumference for a tree belongs to a a Boabab in South Africa - the Sunland Boabab - which has a pub inside that seats fifty. So, General Sherman is the largest single-trunk tree by volume that still lives. And it lives in the Giant Forest in Sequoia National Park in California with a bunch of other giants. Regardless of the classifications, the giant trees are all impressive and we are lucky to have them living with us.

Walking in the home of these giants, looking up towards the sky can get rather dizzy. At first, the feeling is as if we were magically transformed into a world of fantasy which only exists in a fairytale. An amazing place.



( The Giant forest )

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The birds of Rivendell
I had fun shooting birds at Rivendell. I got three lifers (first sightings) - Western Tanager, Band-tailed Pigeon and Black-headed Grosbeak!



( Picture heavy. 14 photographs. )

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Steller's Jays
I have so many photographs of a variety of birds from Rivendell, but Steller's Jays need their own post. First, they are the most visible inhabitants of the place and second, they put on the best show for photographs.




Steller's Jay

( Feeding time )

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The cats of Rivendell
It's been a couple of months already since I last interacted with pets of any kind, so it was wonderful meeting the four lovely cats at Rivendell.



( meet the cats... )

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