More Views of the Arches . . . . . . . . . Photo Taken by Sister in Law – Jennie 3

More Views of the Arches . . . . . . . . . Photo Taken by Sister in Law – Jennie 1

Weekly Photo Challenge: Half Light (Canyon)

This photo has three light zones.

The brightest part is on the left hand side, showing hills yonder with their shadows.

The middle zone showing the somewhat reddish rock with their many joints as a result of weathering.

The right hand zone is dark but still shows the rugged nature of the rock face.

It also shows the silhouette of my brother and sister in law walking under the overhanging rock.

The picture was taken by my wife while travelling in the South Western part of the States.

Altogether, it makes an interesting picture!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Time (Fossilized Trees )

How much time will it take for a tree to become petrified and turned into fossils ( under the right conditions) ?

These photos were taken by my wife while travelling in the Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona in the South West part of the USA.

The following ( in italics) has been extracted from the Wikipedia to which credit is due:

During the Late Triassic, downed trees accumulating in river channels in what became the park were buried periodically by sediment containing volcanic ash. Groundwater dissolved silica (silicon dioxide) from the ash and carried it into the logs, where it formed quartz crystals that gradually replaced the organic matter. Traces of iron oxide and other substances combined with the silica to create varied colors in the petrified wood.

In Petrified Forest National Park, most of the logs in the park retained their original external form during petrification but lost their internal structure. However, a small fraction of the logs and most of the park’s petrified animal bones have cells and other spaces that are mineral-filled but still retain much of their original organic structure. With these permineralized fossils, it is possible to study the cellular make-up of the original organisms with the aid of a microscope. Other organic matter—typically leaves, seeds, cones, pollen grains, spores, small stems, and fish, insect, and animal remains—have been preserved in the park as compression fossils, flattened by the weight of the sediments above until only a thin film remains in the rock.

Much of the park’s petrified wood is from Araucarioxylon arizonicum trees, while some found in the northern part of the park is from Woodworthia arizonica and Schilderia adamanica trees. At least nine species of fossil trees from the park have been identified; all are extinct. The park has many other kinds of fossils besides trees. The Chinle, considered one of the richest Late Triassic fossil-plant deposits in the world, contains more than 200 fossil plant taxa. Plant groups represented in the park include lycopodss, ferns, cycads, conifers, gingkgoes, as well as unclassified forms. The park has also produced many fossil vertebrates—including giant crocodile-like reptiles called phytosaurs, large salamander-like amphibians called Buettneria, and early dinosaurs—and invertebrates, including freshwater snails and clams.

 

 

Tongariro National Park

New Zealand is very photogenic, I guess wherever you point your camera, you have a great picture.

The picture was taken by my wife in the Tongariro National Park, New Zealand, on a day when they hiked for 8 hours.

I have never hiked for 8 hours continuous. To me, it is a big challenge.

Again, the clouds and the lake look fantastic!

 

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Reward (Bryce Canyon)

This week’s challenge is Reward.

This is the reward you get if you get there at sunset.

The picture was taken by my wife last year when they drove 5400 miles in South West USA.

For appreciating the sunset view, they went  back a second time to catch the sunset at Bryce Canyon.

5400 Miles in the US (Arches)

This must be one of the best photos my wife has taken recently in her trip to the National Parks in the Southwest of the States.

The photo shows a visitor who has climbed up the orange red color land mass and stopped, looking up at the huge inclined landform above him.

Behind him was the blue sky.

He seemed to be facing a formidable barrier so that he couldn’t hike upwards anymore.

The arch just rose so steeply and at an angle above him.

This image shows a big contrast between the huge and strange shaped landform and the small and fragility of the visitor.

 

 

5400 Miles in the USA (Start of a Series)

I will be starting a new series on the blog.

The posts will be based on a trip which my wife has just completed in the States.

In a period of 45  days, she has travelled by road from San Francisco, onward to many National Parks in California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico.

The photos she brought back show great beauty. Although she is not a keen photographer, many of the images she has taken with my crappy compact camera and her iPhone were just too beautiful not to be shared.

Her trip, starting from SF and back to SF has covered 5,400 miles.

The trip included Mono Lake, Yosemite, Death Valley, Lake Powell, the Canyonlands, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Mosiac Canyon, Titus Canyon, Sante Fe, Monument Valley, the Arches , Capital Reef NP, Zion NP etc.

The trip also covered the Pacific Highway, from to LA to SF, where there were lots of beautiful scenery of the coast, the sea and the animals like elephant seals.

The only place in this trip that I have visited is SF. So, while responses from readers on the images are welcome, however, I will unlikely be able to respond to the comments.

Some of her photos contain beautiful sunsets taken in the journey. To start with, I am showing one of her sunset photos and a canyon view.