Shots of the Year--Sagurao National Park

This is the time of the year when I try to clean up my photography portfolio and see if I have any 5 star shots taken during the course of the year. Getting harder to find 5 stars as you want to add shots that are only your absolute best. I like this one taken way back in January of last year at Sagurao National Park in Tucson. It is a good representation of the park with lots of the types of vegetation that you find while walking around. I got to three national parks this year (the Everglades and Cuyahoga National Park in Ohio being the other two). Not a bad year for National Park travel.  Sugarao is actually two parks, one on each side of Tucson so maybe that should count for more? Anyway, love the colors and the mountains in the background so this is a winner, at least for me. Imagine trying to walk through that if there were no paths around? No thank you. Glad we saved these old Sagurao trees as they grow very slowly and live a long, long time.

Behind the Falls

One of the great features of Silver Falls State Park in Oregon is that on the Trail of 10 Falls you get to walk under and behind a number of the falls on the hike. This is the North Falls and the shot is taken from a cavern under the falls. Quite cool and dark there and I bet it is a welcome relief on hot summer days. I was there a few weeks ago on a cool fall day, perfect for hiking. The hike is supposed to be 7 miles but I was at about 10 miles on my watch and only got to see 4 of the falls. You get a lot of steps going up and down to each of the falls. The shot bellow is a 4 or 5 shot composite to show more of the walkway behind the falls. Interesting view of the falls from that location.

Classic Oregon Coast rain forest shot

I love this shot. This is what the Oregon Coast rainforest looks like. Spanish moss everywhere. Lots of green. Misty blue light in the background. Cool area to hike. From Silver Falls State Park outside of Portland.

Fall Color, Spanish Moss and Blue Water all on the Oregon Coast

According to most guidebooks Silver Falls in any other state would be a national park. However, in Oregon it is just a state park and an amazing one at that. You were supposed to be able to do all 10 Falls in one day but I found that hiking up and down to each falls really takes a lot of time so I was only able to get to 3 of the falls in the half day that I was there. Great hike and well worth the drive from Portland to check out the area. This view brings in some fall color and some classic Spanish moss on the trees (which is not really a moss but that's the name), which is just everywhere in the Pacific rain forests along the coasts. 

I'm adding a second shot of these same falls as I will never get through all of my favorite shots of this hike doing this one day at a time!!! So, here is another view that I like:

Velociraptors are coming

Every time I see this shot on my computer (and I saw it when I shot it), I say to myself, "Watch out. The velociraptors are coming". This looks like the scene from Jurassic Park where the velocriaptors come out and kill one of the bad guys. They rustle right out of the ferns. That one lone tree truck sort of looks like a Velociraptor tail....watch out...from Jurassic Park or rather, Silver Springs State Park not too far from Portland.

Silver Falls State Park, Willamette Valley, Oregon

According to most guidebooks Silver Falls State Park in any other state would be a national park. It is called the best state park in Oregon and it did not disappoint. You were supposed to be able to do all 10 Falls in one day but I found that hiking up and down to each falls really takes a lot of time so I was only able to get to 3 of the falls in the half day that I was there. Great hike and well worth the drive from Portland to check out the area. 

"My boat is the white one....

This is a sunset view taken from my balcony window a couple of weeks ago in Marina del Rey. All I can see is a jumbled mess of masts and boats in the water. Marina del Rey hosts over 4,000 water crafts, most of them are white for some reason.