Death Valley is extremely hot–one of the hottest places on earth. This valley, 282 feet (86 meters) below sea level at its deepest, is walled by heat-trapping mountain ranges. Moreover, sparse vegetation allows the California sun full access to the desert soil.
This clever gull chose the best possible place to view the sunset at a cove in Laguna Beach, California.
This state preserve near San Diego, California, features the critically endangered Torrey pine, the rarest pine in North America. The semi-arid parkland, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean, is subject to fierce winds that sweep down from the desert. But on this quiet, windless day the uniform gray-greens of the pines and chaparral give the landscape a strikingly understated elegance.
This image is from the same location on the same late afternoon as my two previous posts. All I had to do was look in the opposite direction and take a few steps. Here the cliffs overlooking a cove in Laguna Beach, California, are standing strong against the force of incoming breakers.
How different from yesterday’s post, and yet this image features the same tidal pool seen a bit later after the fog rolled in. And the gulls had found a new bathing spot.
Aside from the occasional larger-than-normal wave, this clever seagull has found nature’s perfect bird bath. The gull flapped around in the water enjoying a bath, then quickly ascended whenever a large wave came crashing in. This cycle was repeated over and over again.
After all the stillness and pond-floating of my two previous posts, let’s have a little excitement! In this image, Pacific Ocean waves crash forcefully over a rock shelf in La Jolla, California.
