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.