Driving into Lassen Volcanic National Park in California, the first thing that struck me was the range of vivid, bright colors in the landscape all around me. From fresh greens, dark overhead blue, back-lighted purple colored Thrift ground flowers, light white clouds, and on and on. Its like driving into a new section of the land that is being lit by some special kind of light. Add the deep blue sky reflection off the water in lake Helen, and you have a window on paradise.
Sometimes you don’t have to drive thousands of miles to see the beauty of nature.
When this guy comes down to the lake, everybody else goes into hiding. He rules the roost around here!
The Red Shoulder Hawk has been a fixture around the lake for all the years we’ve been here. Almost every day you can hear him screeching as he flies overhead. Sometimes he lands in the trees around the lake edge, and watches for something vulnerable to show itself. I have seen him dive bomb the water from the tree branches, and take a small fish. I have also seen him grab and carry across the lake a fully grown ground squirrel. One time I watched him circling in a tight 60 wide foot circle 25 feet above the lake surface for a dozen turns, before diving at something in the water. That time he came up empty.
He is a magnificent bird. When viewed from front on, he is the most muscular bird I have ever seen. Powerful looking. And very self confident. He is not very flighty when it comes to me photographing him. As long as I stay a certain distance away, and don’t spook the potential food in his lake, he allows me to follow him around with my tripod and camera. He turns a watchful eye on me sometimes, but doesn’t fly away unless I violate the terms we have established.
The Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest is located in the White Mountains of California. The Patriot Grove is the highest elevation grove in the park, at 11,323 feet.
When twilight and then nighttime come along, it can be a very eerie place. The dark blue skies of high elevation, 40 miles from civilization, no one around, and no lights in any direction as far as you can see, only the ancient Bristlecone Pines standing around you. If you watch overhead at night, meteors frequently fly soundlessly, and FAST, across the sky above you.
This shot was taken right at twilight, as the sun was about to go down behind the far mountains.
I arrived back home from a 5 week, 7900 mile roadtrip, at the end of August. I am happy to say there is still plenty of unspoiled, beautiful scenery in our country. I was also awed by the vast array of natural resources our country has, from one end to the other.
In Texas, on my way out to California, I wanted to go to Big Bend National Park, down south on the Rio Grande River. But there were heavy storms down there at the time, and being in a tent in the rain is not exactly a pleasant experience (to me anyway). So I looked over my map and noticed Guadalupe Mountains National Park in the northwest corner of Texas. I had never been there before, nor even heard of it. I went on up, and found it to be a scenic location, with land I don’t normally equate with Texas.
Here is a photograph of Casa Grande Peak.
