Memorial Day

I thank God that I live in the USA!  I thank God for our Veterans and Active Duty Military that have and continue to protect our freedom.  On this Memorial Day try to thank at least one veteran.

Bodie #2

Here's another one from Bodie.  It's amazing how well the wood on the buildings has held up over the years with no paint on them.  Maybe it's the type of wood or the cold temperatures, but I didn't see any rotted wood.  The polarizer on my lens really brings out the color in the wood and sky. 

Bodie

It had been at least 10 years since I last visited Bodie.  As you might of guessed, it hadn't changed much (lol), being a ghost town and all.  However, this trip was memorable for one reason alone, getting into town.  To get there you usually just have to drive in about 8 miles, 5 of which are on a paved road.  The remaining 3 or so miles is on a pretty well maintained dirt road.  To our surprise, after about a half mile on the dirt road we came to a gate.  A sign told us we would have to hike in the rest of the way.  No reason was given as to why we couldn't drive in.  I was with my wife's cousin, John and troopers like we are we decided to make the walk in which turned out to be more like a 2 to 2 1/2 mile trek each way.  It was worth it.  This old town has some very interesting buildings and equipment in various stages of decay.

Panum Crater View

 

Here's another photo from Panum Crater.  This is looking southwest towards the Sierra's about an hour before sunset.  The pickings were slim as far as finding an interesting foreground subject.  About the best I could find was this scrawny looking shrub.  At least the sky was nice.  Another interesting thing about this ancient crater was that there was a lot of obsidean scattered all around.

Mono Lake Sunset

Here 's a photo of Mono Lake from the top of Panum Crater, which is an ancient volcano crater on the south side of the lake.  The setting sun provided a short but impressive light show. 

Mono Lake

I am finally getting around to processing some photos I took up in the Eastern Sierra's a couple of weeks ago.  This one of course is of Mono Lake.  I was hoping for some special light just before the sun came up over the horizon, but unfortunately the cloud cover to the east was too dense and that special lighting wasn't to be.  This one was taken about 40 minutes later when the clouds started to breakup.  Still a very nice place to be just to enjoy the beauty and solitude that is found in nature.  In posts to follow I will be showing some more photos from Mono Lake and its surrounds, as well as, from Bodie ghost town.

Pt. Fermin Lighthouse

Yes, another lighthouse.  Although this one doesn't really look like one.  This is Pt. Fermin lighthouse located in San Pedro, CA.  You can't see the actual light at the top of the tower because of the angle at which the photo was taken.  This was taken close to sunset in the Springtime.  I will eventually run out of lighthouse pics I'm sure, but since I have so many, I will continue to post some of the better ones.  I hope you like them.