I’m used to dreary and overcast days. When the sun breaks through, it is time to get moving. While in Napa I visited the Silverado Vineyards, which has fantastic views from just outside the tasting room.
There were palm trees trying to obstruct my view. With the choice of a saw or being creative, I went with the latter. Especially since the grounds keeper was making sure I didn’t some magical saw from my pocket. No coconuts on this palm though, just branches.
This is a view towards St. Helena and really shows the Mediterranean landscape and climate. A variety of vineyards can be seen in the distance.
Remember the Stephen King story where a mist rolls over a Maine town? Spooky stuff then ensues. I always get that same feeling when visiting San Francisco. I was heading up to Napa to visit a close friend, so started the journey before sunrise through San Francisco to the Golden Gate Bridge.
That week the marine layer was thick this morning, and the visibility was limited from the overlook. Crossing the bridge I kept imagining a monster, say Godzilla, suddenly appearing in front of me. Traffic was light heading off the bridge yet most people were still doing 20-25 MPH.
I made a wrong turn trying to get to the Pacific side overlooks and ended up as the base on Horseshoe Bay. From down below I could see the bridge extending across to the city. The rest of the bridge was lost in the fog but still lit by the glow of commuter’s headlights.
Beside a few fisherman and seagulls, it was a quiet, peaceful morning.
It will take a couple years to figure out how good the 2010 vintage turns out to be, but spending any time in the wine country is heaven. This was taken literally 50 feet from my good friend’s back porch a week before she went for, and passed!!!! the WSET Advanced Level 3 exam.
Most houses are within easy walking distance to vineyards in the Napa Valley. And I was assured that walking around the vines was okay. Down in the valley, the view is pretty much rows of grapes and the odd historical or eclectic building. I imagined being hot and thirsty walking to a winery, stamping off the dust, and then heading in for a tasting of wines from previous vintages of the vines I’d just passed.
This was taken during the morning hours just before the marine layer burned off for the morning. I got the inspiration to do a textured HDR by looking at all the old-time vineyard paintings we have.
The Cayman Islands celebrate Christmas just like the rest of the world. Colored lights, trees, and bells. That the lights are wrapped around palm trees on the beach and the sound of bells comes from buoys int he Gulf of Mexico is more traditional for the Caribbean.
I love driving along Seven Mile looking at all the decorations, then pulling over to a beach side bar for an icy beverage. Even in shorts and t-shirt it’s still hot and humid at 10:00 in the evening.
Do you think the tree on the left is happy it never got “decked out” or sad as the lone man (tree) out?
Southerners seem to have a love/hate relationship with the Bradford Pear tree. In bloom they are majestic. And since they grow tall and fast, you normally find them in subdivisions, lining streets, and anywhere else a good looking tree is needed in a few years.
When they get older and are not topped and thinned, like the ones in the image below, all hell can break loose–literally.
My old house had three of these trees along the side of the house. It also had over 30 large pines trees, some topping 30 to 40 feet (9-12 meters). When a bad storm came through and a tornado set down not too far away, a couple pines broken off and caused minor damage. All three of the Bradford Pears split and deposited large branches on my house.
Lesson learned. Love the tree, take photos of them far, far, away from the house. Our next door neighbor has one between our two houses. I keep measuring to make sure if it falls our way that it won’t hit our home!
This was taken near our church. It a private property where they grow sunflowers for photo opportunities and general sale during the summer months. I took this right near sunset. A breeze was blowing hard, so I only cleaned up some of the image blur.
Looking up, this cross caught my eye–it would be hard not to notice something man made in the middle of a sandstone forest. Reading the local log book, this is a tribute to a fellow hikers canine companion that had recently passed away. This is in remembrance of him.
The application of heavy tone mapping brings out the natural textures of the rock.
Just beyond this natural arch is “Base Camp”, which is one of the stopping points for off-trail hikes in the Valley of Fire. At one of the highest points, it is a good location for side hikes and photographic vistas from the old “Parking Lot” back to the White Domes. Also, the arch and the way it is sheltered from all sides provide shade even during summer hikes where the temperature can exceed 110 degrees F.
A log book (volume 2) is located in an ammo box brought up by the illustrious Shube. That hike his wine bottles were carried by pack mules. If you make it up this way, sign in! It’s great to see all those who have signed the log book and left the area clean of trash. The phrase “Take only pictures, leave only footprints” is something I try to live by.
Brisk morning air and rock warming in the sun. Climbing out of the canyons the upper rocks start to wake.
Hike in any one area long enough and you’ll come up with your own set of waypoints for a trail. In this case, the buttress marks the exit point to where I parked. I love this part of the trip as the colors in the foreground differ so much from those in the sunlight. The little ridges seem to lead you to the top of the buttress, although I’ve yet to find a way to the top.
This area of Rainbow Vista is also where you start coming out of the slot canyons and upper areas. One second it’s dead silent, the next you’re looking at the valley with the access road. It’s still super quiet but now you’re back in “civilization”.
The Valley of Fire is one of my favorite hiking locations near to Las Vegas, Nevada. Located less than an hour from town (well, north side of the Vegas valley), the Valley of Fire (VoF) is a truly outstanding place to get travel through for a change of scenery, hike, or just get lost for a few hours to a full day. There are a good core of dedicated hikers (more in future image posts) that come out here in a weekly basis when the weather is mild. In told, I’ve hiked here 20-30 times a year while living in Las Vegas.
I first visited the park back when I was in Boy Scouts, but the activities we did back then were close to the trail. Some of my DoE co-workers showed me some of the best day hike locations in the park I’ve yet to see. We’re talking massive buttes and other sandstone structures, but without the crowds you see in Zion, Bryce, or other “National” parks. By bushwhacking through the different cuts between formations, you get an understanding of the layout. That makes it easy to either climb to the Top of World or Hole in the Rock (Eye of the Iguana), or meander into unknown areas knowing you are no more that 90 minutes from seeing the access roads.
Ironically, the VoF is used in a lot of movies and tons of commercials. If you ever see a car commercial where the car is cruising down a piece of dark black asphalt surrounded by sandstone, odds are it was videoed in the VoF. the last scenes of Star Trek Generations were filmed here too (Silica Domes area).
For the upcoming series, I started the hike at a very odd time-sunrise. We normally would roll into the park around 10:00 o’clock in the morning, as that gives the rock some time to warm up and for the sun to be high in the sky for photography (good for some panorama shots). In this instance, I paid the entrance fee at the self-serve location and when I parked on the Rainbow vista road, was the only person there.
I was able to catch just the last bits of the full moon before it went down in the west. Morning colors are very different as their is a lot of refraction from Lake Mead, which located due east of the park and where this photo was taken.
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