Cottonwoods change to bright yellow when fall arrives in the Colorado valleys.
When the tide retreats, insignificant castoffs are strewn about in lovely abstracts.
Rock with Grasses
Seaweed and Grass
On Canada’s Prince Edward Island, the waters of this salt marsh wind through a maze of grasses, eventually merging with the sea.
An old barn on Canada’s Prince Edward Island is weathered by sea winds constantly blowing in from the Atlantic Ocean.
This small lake high in the Colorado Rocky Mountains is part of a fragile ecosystem formed by a geological fault in which the water pooled. The lake’s unique color is due to dissovled carbonate minerals. Visiting this national protected area surrounded by limestone cliffs, cottonwoods trees, and cascades requires a bit of effort: a steep 1,000-foot climb to an altitude of over 7,000 feet.
The going is easy now on on Highway 92 through Nebraska’s Mitchell Pass with its prominent sandstone formations on each side. But the journey was rugged during the Westward Expansion of the mid-1800’s when pioneers crossed in covered wagons over unpredictable terrain. These rock sentinels, assuring them that they were not lost, were a welcome sight! Today, wooden signposts mark the places where the Oregon Trail passed through the area and the land is protected as a part of Scotts Bluff National Monument.
Mitchell Pass between Sentinel Rock(left) and Eagle Rock(right)
Summit Road Tunnel
Scotts Bluff Outcropping
Saddle Rock
Crown Rock
These four arches are a small sample of the many sculptured rock formations in Utah’s Arches National Park. In fact, people who count the arches in the park say there are 2,000 of them ranging in width from three feet to 306 feet. The state of the arches is changing all the time, with new ones being formed by ice, water and other environmental factors while others crumble away. Although it is still strong and not crumbling, the first in this series is named for the large crack at the center of the arch.
Broken Arch
Skyline Arch
Windows Arch
Pine Tree Arch
