Tag: photographs & memories

This week’s Foto Friday Fun features images chosen by 12 readers including a lot of desert and a little bit of rivers, who are you a Kudu, 1965 class, and 1980s glass.

Cathy chose #8506.  A proud looking Kudu seen at Mountain Zebra National Park in South Africa where there is so much more than zebras.

Sherry chose #973.  Lake Powell had more water when I visited September 2011 than today at over 150 feet below full pool.  Glad I went on the water but will not return to this travesty of a reservoir that is slowly returning to a river.

TreDeuce chose #1965, the year he got out of high school and went sailing with a friend.  This shot from 1965 when I was in the 5th grade.  Can you find me?

Jodee and Bill chose #1623.  Approaching the hairpin curve to Cape Royal overlook at the end of the scenic road on the North Rim Grand Canyon National Park.  Not recommended for vehicles over 30 feet.

Gypsy chose #6166, close to the date she left Oregon after living along the Rogue River both on the coast and inland.  There’s a bit of contrast there, and with these two shots starting with drips on a Pinyon Pine at the Grand Canyon compared to the almost always dry Cholla cactus garden at Joshua Tree National Park.

Rita chose #1723.  This huge Navajo hand woven rug is folded in half to display in the Lodge at the North Rim Grand Canyon.

Jennifer chose #611.  Stone built ruin is all that remains of a Native dwelling seen at Wupatki National Monument.

Jo chose #2810.  Another Cholla cactus this time seen at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California.

Jeff chose #1198, “the flight number of my brother arriving today.”  Wish I had a flight number returning to South Africa where the Olifants River flows through Kruger National Park.

Diane and Nigel chose #611.  Perfect choice as they are super intrigued by the Southwest slot canyons like this view looking up in Buckskin Gulch.

Alan chose #1211.  The flowers and fruit of the Yucca are edible and also pretty, here seen at Toroweap on the North Rim of Grand Canyon.

Sue chose #1980, “for the year the Mountain [Mt St Helens] blew.”  Also the year I got married and my artistic grandfather sent the stained glass clock as a wedding gift.

He motivated me to try this craft and advised starting with suncatchers, saying, never make just one.

However, my first design and project, 11×17”, was a nightmare with pattern pieces smaller than a dime and huge gaps between pieces filled with brass rod before adding pounds of solder.

I got better over time.

And here’s a shot from near my current Coconino National Forest camp with very little signal so I’m hoping this post goes out by Friday.

Thank you for playing along with Foto Friday Fun which allows me to share these photographs and memories.  For more of the story just follow the links.  Please join in next week by leaving a number between 0001 and 9999 in your comment.

Do you have a favorite this week?

Thanks for the memories

This week’s Foto Friday Fun features images chosen by 10 readers including far views, a unique phenomenon, and a trip down the Pacific Northwest coast.

Jo chose #1302, her birthday.  I would love to spend my birthday at White Pocket where the ancient dunes turned to stone show diverse colors and patterns.  Driving there requires a 4×4 to cross soft sand along the way.

Cathy chose #8120.  I did spend my 2015 birthday at the South Rim Grand Canyon where I spotted this old locomotive parked by the train station.  Not sure if it’s still used to haul visitors on the rails between Williams and the canyon.

Diane and Nigel chose #2910.  When they visited me at Grand Canyon we went to Cape Royal but sadly didn’t get to see this optical phenomenon called a Glory or brocken spectre.

Jennifer chose #234.  It’s a long straight road across Sage Flats from Kanab, Utah to the Kaibab Plateau in northern Arizona.  A drive I made numerous times.

TreDeuce gets #147 for the number of words in his last comment.  I’m betting with his extensive SW travels he’s been to Lee’s Ferry where this old structure remains from the era of ferrying across the Colorado River instead of the Navajo Bridge.

Sherry chose #8133, one of five in a panorama.  The lovely Autumn colors on Aspen seen on the Kaibab National Forest.

Alan chose #3871.  An elephant almost hidden in the bush at Kruger National Park in South Africa.

Gypsy chose #1115, “date of Rosetta landing on comet’s shady side.  A mid-day visit to Brian Head brought no shade at all but even in July wasn’t terribly hot at 11,000 feet.  Love that panoramic view of the high meadows to the Pink Cliffs of Cedar Breaks National Monument and beyond.

Rita chose #4374.  Looking down on the temples and across Grand Canyon from North to South with the San Francisco Peaks on the horizon.

Sue got #90 for the number of words in her last comment.  Being a “soil” gal I’ll bet she’d love to shovel into this hummock, a piece of Mt St Helens, seen along the Truman trail during a 1992 hike while working at the National Volcanic Monument.

My choices from November 1996, after my season with USFWS along the Columbia River when I took a road trip, with a new-to-me camper that leaked, west to the coast and south in stormy weather with stops along the way.  That road trip took a month to travel the west coast from Edmunds, Washington to Los Angeles.

Ferry boat Edmunds Washington

Keko the Killer Whale Oregon Aquarium

Oregon coast

Redwood National and State Park California

Mattole Beach, Hidden Coast, King Mts, California (and had the place all to myself)

Thank you for playing along with Foto Friday Fun which allows me to share these photographs and memories.  For more of the story just follow the links.  Please join in next week by leaving a number between 0001 and 9999 in your comment.  I especially love when the images evoke your memories.  Please feel free to share those stories.

Do you have a favorite this week?

Thanks for the memories

To order the 2022 Geogypsy calendar just drop me a line either here or through contact tab above. This 17×11” calendar on heavy matt finish stock will allow easy viewing and plenty of room to make notes. Cost is $25 each including shipping in the USA (talk to me about overseas shipping). Buy five or more at the reduced rate of $20 each including shipping in the USA. Payment through Zelle https://www.zellepay.com/, first sign up, then it’s a direct payment to my bank through my email address, geogypsy2 @ gmail.com (without the spaces).  If that doesn’t work for you, let me know. I will need your full name and mailing address plus email to confirm receipt.

This week’s Foto Friday Fun features images chosen by 10 readers including travels and camps in California, Arizona, and Utah, little ole me and my art, plus a winter evacuation in Washington.

Diane and Nigel chose #2210.  They saw a similar view of sunset from the Lodge when visiting the North Rim Grand Canyon.  Rangers get paid in sunsets, moon is overtime.

Jo chose #7000.  A recently seen rainbow phenomenon while camping during monsoon on the Kaibab Plateau.

Jodee and Bill chose #3110.  Sunrise—a rare for me sight anywhere—at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in California.

Rita chose #9999.  A recent sunset from a desert camp north of Quartzsite, Arizona seen in January this year.

Cathy chose #2941.  Back to Anza-Borrego the day before above looking at the Santa Rosa Mountains.

Gypsy chose #413, “for my first trip to Cochise Stronghold in Dragoons and a yurt.”  A place I have yet to visit will be added to the forever growing list.  However, getting a half-way decent shot through a tunnel window in Zion National Park was a first for me in 2008.  Also my first season as a Park Ranger at the North Rim Grand Canyon and I was exploring all kinds of places near the park.

Sherry chose #1244.  The Navajo Bridge Interpretive Center is a great stop for information, shopping, bathroom, and walking onto the old bridge with a high probability of seeing California Condors.  Sadly the parking lot is not big enough for RVs but it’s a short walk from the little berg of Marble Canyon, Arizona.

Sue got #39 for the number of words in her last comment.  Me at 13 months and my brother at 8 years.  Taken in 1955, scanned decades later.

Alan gets #50 for the number of words in his last comment.  The 1972 high school art assignment was interpreting the “city”.  I grew up in the western suburbs of Chicago where all these businesses advertised in the newspaper.  So I clipped the ads and then painted an acrylic collage.  Most aren’t even around anymore.

Jeff chose #117, “for the 1st time in the 117 years of the World Series the leadoff batter hit a homerun on his 1st swing. Go ASTROS!”  The first time recorded in our lifetimes was the 1980 eruption of Mt St Helens, where I worked my first season as a Ranger in 1992.  This shot from the Norway Pass trail looking down on Meta Lake shows some of the extent of “blast zone” or blown down trees.

A good introduction to my choices, though it was Sue’s number that started this.  Four years after above, I volunteered during the winter in maintenance—and that’s it’s own story.  Was a winter to remember.

Over two feet of snow at Mt St Helens in February 1996 followed by an ice storm and freezing temperatures with high wind.

Then it rained and rained and rained flooding the Lewis River.

Flooding took out about 20 feet of road, same bridge as above.

The spillway overflowed.

300 feet of road washed out.

Evacuation.

Thank you for playing along with Foto Friday Fun which allows me to share these photographs and memories.  For more of the story just follow the links.  Please join in next week by leaving a number between 0001 and 9999 in your comment.

Do you have a favorite this week?

Thanks for the memories

To order the 2022 Geogypsy calendar just drop me a line either here or through contact tab above. This 17×11” calendar on heavy matt finish stock will allow easy viewing and plenty of room to make notes. Cost is $25 each including shipping in the USA (talk to me about overseas shipping). Buy five or more at the reduced rate of $20 each including shipping in the USA. Payment through Zelle https://www.zellepay.com/, first sign up, then it’s a direct payment to my bank through my email address, geogypsy2 @ gmail.com (without the spaces).  If that doesn’t work for you, let me know. I will need your full name and mailing address plus email to confirm receipt.