Pronghorn
Of course, I can never know for sure, but I’m pretty sure this pronghorn was flirting with me. This one was taken a couple of years ago in Badlands National Park in South Dakota.
Mule Deer at Great Sand Dunes National Park
Back when I lived in Denver, Great Sand Dunes was always one of my favorite places to visit. It’s about a 3 hour drive southwest of the city. Back then it was only classified as a National Monument but today it is given full National Park status. Mule deer and pronghorn are common grazers in the fields that lead up to the dunes. In this photo, a mule deer was keeping his eye on me as I pulled over to the side of the road.
Monument Valley Sunrise
I got up before sunrise everyday on my recent trip out West hoping for great clouds and fiery skies for landscape photos. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky on a single morning. And without the clouds, I usually resort to plan B — shooting the sun. This was in Monument Valley, another National Tribal Park on Navajo land in the southeast corner of Utah. Like yesterday’s post from Maroon Bells in Colorado, this is a location that gets photographed a lot — most notably as the backdrop to countless Westerns and Marlboro Man ads.
Canadian Geese and Maroon Bells
This is the most photographed spot in Colorado — the two Maroon Bells peaks as seen from Maroon Lake near Aspen. I tried to be at least a little original by including the geese.
Verreaux’s Sifaka
This is an old one from Madagascar. The Verreaux’s sifaka is definitely one of my favorites lemurs. They spend most of their time in trees but dance across the ground — ballet style — when they need to get from place to place. I took this photo right outside of the lodge I was staying in at the extreme southern tip of the island.
Prairie Dog, Utah
When you can’t find any other wildlife to photograph, there are always prairie dogs. This one was part of a colony along the side of the road, next to a gas station somewhere in eastern Utah. It was chirping a warning signal to the rest of the colony before it had finished eating its lunch.
Young Goats, Mount Evans, Colorado
Being only about an hour from Denver, Mount Evans is a location that I’ve been to a lot. I see mountain goats about 75% of the time that I go there. I’ve shot a lot of close ups of the goats in the past, so on my most recent trip, I really wanted to get some photos that show their environment in the high Rockies. These two kids were taking a rest while there mother was grazing just to the right of the composition.
Slot Canyon Self-Portraits
A couple of shots I took of myself this past weekend in the slot canyons of Page, Arizona. I placed myself in the photos so you can get a sense of scale. There are two slot canyons near Page, Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon. This is the less visited, Lower Canyon. And I use the term less visited loosely because this is a very popular destination. I was able to enter with a photographer’s pass and thus, avoid the requirement of being with a tour group. The lower canyon is more challenging than the upper because it is smaller and deeper, necessitating a steeper decent on ladders. You used to have to enter using ropes to get to the canyon floor, but a flash flood in 1997 killed 11 hikers and since then they’ve made it easier to get in to and out of. Both canyons are located on Navaho Nation land and are administered by the Navajo as National Tribal Parks.
Prickly Pear and Paintbrush
I’m off for a few days for the 4th, so this will be the last post until later next week. What you see here is prickly pear cactus and some desert indian paintbrush. What you don’t see is the snake that came slithering out of those rocks after I almost stepped on it.
Young Snow Monkey Defending his Snow
This little guy was defending his slushy turf and doing a pretty good job of it. We were in Japan in late March and things were definitely starting to melt up at Jigokudani Hotsprings near Nagano. Other than humans, Japanese macaques are the most northerly living primates (but I think I already mentioned that in a previous post.)