Having spent eight years working at Wisconsin’s Cave of the Mounds during my younger years, visiting Carlsbad Caverns National Park was both an extraordinary underground adventure and a tough photographic challenge. Capturing photos in caves like Carlsbad Caverns isn’t easy because the artificial lighting is kept minimal to protect the fragile ecosystem. Even the best…
Are you attracted to mountain lakes as I am? The water is crystal clear, and the air is crisp. Can you smell the evergreens? I just have to take a picture so I can revisit the memory later. I hope you don’t mind if I include many images of mountain lakes in these peaceful interlude…
Coming across a hungry grizzly and her two cubs is nothing to mess with, so we kept our distance. Watching them interact as they feasted on the flowers and berries on this hillside in Glacier National Park was priceless. I liked this particular image because the cubs would get lost in the tall foliage and…
This image from Cape Royal at Grand Canyon National Park reminds me how much I appreciate the dedicated people who spend lifetimes helping the rest of us understand more about culture, geology, history, and the natural world. So much beneficial knowledge is quietly waiting for us on displays, signs, and outdoor plaques in our parks,…
A forest of cactus at the Valley View Overlook – Saguaro National Park. This may be a little silly… but the cactus in the middle, the tall one, reminds me of Lumière in Beauty and the Beast. He seems to be welcoming us to his forest. As if saying, “Dinner is served!” More seriously, we…
Don’t be fooled, this is not a picnic area after a snowstorm. This is actually white sand, composed almost entirely of gypsum crystals, a rare mineral to find in sand form. Primrose Picnic Area – White Sands National Park. You can maybe tell by the rainclouds in the distance we were experiencing on and off…
Above 11,000′, along Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park, you will experience high-elevation alpine tundra, where summer only lasts a few weeks and vegetation must quickly garner all the energy needed to survive the long, brutal winter. It’s important to know how delicate this terrain is and how quickly it can be damaged…
How often do we forget to look down at the small wonders under our feet. Here, the small smooth pebbles along the shoreline is what captured my curiosity. I find myself often taking pictures of rocks. Here, weathered smooth and round by river water or wave action. Lake McDonald – Glacier National Park. (West Glacier,…
Hiking the switchbacks up through hoodoo rock formations on the Navajo Loop Trail – Bryce Canyon National Park. Be sure to take water with you, as it can be hot almost any time of year on this short but steep trail. The elevation gain on the way up this section called “Wall Street” is 515…
Mountain streams often swell when rainy stretches go on for more than a day or two. We happened to hit one of those situations a few years ago at Glacier National Park. Fortunately, our tent held up, and we did not have water inside. The other good news was that it meant we were going…