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This image comes from the Millpond Music Festival in Bishop. I noticed a twinkle in the standing bass player's eyes and tried to photograph it.

This image shows the opposite side of Tenaya Lake from the highway in Yosemite National Park. I met my parents here yesterday and we had a picnic. They brought kayaks, which I used to get a different view of the lake, one I hadn't seen before. While I was on the lake, it started to rain. It was...

Most of the columbines I saw last weekend in the high Sierra were white with pale purple or blue petals. These crimson columbines were the only ones of its kind that I saw all morning. They remind me of a fireball.

Little Lakes Valley is a popular place to go hiking in the Eastern Sierra of CA and if you want a parking spot close to the trailhead in the summer, you must arrive early. I started the hike a few minutes too late to see the most intense sunrise colors on the peaks.

This is a pika, a small mammal related to the rabbit. They only exist at high elevations and cannot survive in temperatures above 80 degrees or so. I've seen them in person only twice and both times were on rocky slopes above 10,000 feet in elevation. The pika in this image comes from Morgan...

This pano is of Garden of the Gods. This was my first full day in the state of Colorado and my head was exploding with the endless possibilities of things to see. I chose to visit Garden of the Gods first. Lots of families with screaming children in the park, but I’m glad I went!

These images come from Staunton State Park in Colorado. This little state park about 30 miles southwest of Denver was my reason for visiting Colorado for the first time in my life. This park has what's called the Track Chair Program, which allows disabled people to use a chair with treads on...

I had a couple of chances to wander around downtown Denver this past weekend. It was my first visit to Colorado.

This is Wapama Falls, one of the waterfalls at Hetch Hetchy reservoir in Yosemite National Park. The hiking trail along the lake runs along the base of this fall; if you look closely, you can see the bridge hikers use to continue farther along the lake. In years with heavy snowmelt, this fall...

I met up with my parents near Yosemite National Park this past weekend, but had to drive Sonora Pass to do so. This road trip was roughly 600 miles. Before meeting up with them, I left Groveland at 3:30 am and crossed the park gate at 4 am. There was no line and no one to take my entrance fee...

The Imperial Sand Dunes, also known as the Algodones Dunes, are found on the eastern side of the Imperial Valley in Southern California. These dunes stretch for some 40 miles north to south and a few miles west to east, making them the largest mass of sand dunes in the state (The tallest dunes...

El Centinela (The Sentinel) is a 2,562-foot-tall mountain in Baja California, Mexico approximately 12 miles west of Mexicali, Mexico and Calexico, California. It towers over the southern end of the Imperial Valley of California, where the elevation dips below sea level. While on a recent...

One consequence of the wildly wet winter California had is the reappearance of Owens Lake in Inyo County, CA, outside of the western borders of Death Valley National Park. This lake used to be full of water and there are stories of how miners used steamboats to ferry ore to the western shore...

In addition to the rest of California that was (and still is) experiencing a wildflower superbloom thanks to a wet winter, Catalina Island also had an intense wildflower season. By the time I visited later in May, the apex of the bloom had long since passed, but there were still plenty of...

This roughly 3.5-image pano shows Little Harbor and Shark Harbor on Catalina Island off the coast of Southern California. It was overcast and foggy during my visit, but it didn't detract from the views or the wildflowers!

This pano comes from the Volcanic Tablelands, just north of Bishop, CA. It shows the sheer amount of wildflowers that are dominating the landscape after a wet winter. White Mountain Peak is on the right side of the image, standing at just above 14,000 feet of elevation.

I recently went to San Luis Obispo, CA, for a week to attend a work event. On the way there, I took a short side trip to Carrizo Plain National Monument. It's several weeks after the apex of the superbloom so I missed the real show, but there was plenty of color during my visit. The purple owl's...

I parted ways with my friend's 91-year-old mother in Lancaster, who told me to come back anytime. From Lancaster, I drove east through Barstow and eventually to Baker on Interstate 15, all the while passing momentary splashes of color along the highway. From Baker, I turned north on State Route...

The next stop on my roughly 700-mile wildflower-hunting road trip was Lancaster in the Antelope Valley of California. While on my way south, I had called a friend of mine to tell him where I was headed. He suggested that I stay overnight with his 91-year-old mother. After I hung up the phone...

After departing from Red Rock Canyon State Park, I drove through the towns of Mojave and Rosamond. The highway runs through some gentle, rolling hills in the high desert populated with Joshua trees and a mining operation. Normally, these hills are more brown. But on this trip, I was astounded to...