Colorado Springs

This is at Garden of the Gods, a place I visited when I saw my sister and her family a year ago.

Not only were the rock formations breath-taking, but the natural beauty extended to the desert vegetation.

This is a view of a canyon I saw near Cave of the Winds, also near Colorado Springs.  I imagine the area looks similar right now since it was the same time of year that this picture was taken. 

whirligig beetles

This is a whirligig beetle (specifically Gyrinus aeratus) from northern Eurasia, photo taken by K.V. Makarov.  It looks almost like a product of Hayao Miyazaki's imagination.  (How many animals have legs, fins, and wings?)  I recently read about these beetles, and many other freshwater invertebrates, in the book Aquatic Entomology by W. Patrick McCafferty.  It was very easy to spot whirligig beetles in Fairbanks.  At the nearest pond hundreds of them were skimming along the surface, forming small dimples in the water.

The only way for me to get close enough to take a portrait shot was to net out a few of these little speedboats and temporarily confine them to a yogurt container.  A freshwater amphipod grasping a seed is also visible. 

Their bodies are perfectly adapted for navigating the interface between water and air.  Supported by the surface tension of the water, they diffract the light creating interesting patterns around them.

But their paddle shaped hind legs are not at all suited for walking.  A fact clearly demonstrated when I put one of the beetles on a piece of paper.  Another interesting specialization these beetles possess is two pairs of eyes, one pair for air and one pair under their body for the water.

Only a macro lens is capable of picking up this level of detail.  Photo from Photomacrography website. 

Tohoku trees

In late summer 2009 I visited this lane of pine trees in Watari with my family.  I don't know how this same place looks after the earthquake in Japan earlier this year.  The ocean is on the other side of the wall visible in the distance.

Perhaps the most famous trees in Japan are Sugi trees (above and below). Shinto shrines have some of the best and most accessible examples of these impressive relatives of cypress. 

Jōmon Sugi is the largest Sugi tree.  Just as Tāne Mahuta is one of the largest kauri trees. 

Denali boulder

I think this is a glacial erratic.  I saw this in May last year during a short bike ride.  The chiseled surface has a really nice character and reminds me of gongshi.  I hope to see more natural beauty on a return trip to the park in about a month. 

Rocky Lake

My wife took this shot while I was still dozing in the tent.

The night before I took this photo of a leech that shared the same waters; my son spotted it while it was crawling on the shore.

Roots and lichen

Tree roots exposed by the surf at high tide along Ninilchik Beach.  It's a dramatic image of the rhizosphere, and I imagine many other similar scenes can be found along eroded river banks and shorelines.  The architectural beauty of the roots reminds me of mangrove trees. South of the Alaska Range the climate supports beautiful trees and vegetation.  Though I didn't take a picture of the Hemlock trees in Chugach National Forest, they have a strong sculptural quality as well.

A view of a mountain from just south of the Alaska Range.  The scene is framed by a white spruce with it's lichen blowing in the breeze.  I took this picture while we were at the Veteran's Memorial along the Parks Highway.  North of the Alaska Range long drooping lichens are far less common.

This photo I took the year before near the same area shows just how large these lichens can get during a wet summer.

The same beach as the first photo, during a colder season obviously.  (And an earlier year.)  Credit for the photo belongs to my dad. 

Kashwitna Lake

I watched small fish swimming around in Kashwitna Lake, which reflected Denali on its surface.  Our recent trip to the Kenai Peninsula was great.  Though we didn't hike Grace Ridge Trail, we will next time! 

Luscious Lupine

 

I saw prints of this photograph by Wild North Photography while visiting their booth at the Homer Farmer's Market.  

big trees

I bought a book about Baobab trees where I learned about a cypress called "El Árbol del Tule", with a circumference of 119 feet it is the stoutest tree known.  I have seen circular retaining walls with diameters of about 30 feet, which is roughly equivalent to the largest trees.  I like the way that circular walls continually reveal their outer horizon as you walk around them.  It would be interesting to build such a wall, all the better to imagine the mass of a tree capable of filling it! 

 At Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado springs I stepped into a replica of a baobab tree. 

saltwater aquarium

 

My first real attempt at a saltwater aquarium. Seven little sand hoppers (amphipods) I collected myself share an aquarium with a bubbler to keep the water circulating.  After I mixed four cups of sea salt mix with about eight gallons of tap water, the smell of it was actually quite pleasant and I don't know why I didn't try this much earlier.