Two yellow-green Tulip tree leaves curve up from a bud where more are folded and waiting their turns to break out ito the world. Nubbin Ridge Nature Preserve is an Indiana DNR property where the Hoosier Hikers Council built a trail. The preserve is on bluff overlooking the West Fork of the White River. More information is at this URL: https://www.hoosierhikerscouncil.org/nubbin-ridge-trail/

It's still #spring on the #forest_floor, but I'm looking up at the top of a very young #Tulip_tree. I love all the different greens in the spring. I took this photo at the Nubbin Ridge Nature Preserve a few springs ago. #photography #leaves #green #Support_Public_Lands

A covered bridge was moved to Mill Race Park in Columbus, Indiana where it now serves as part of the road that loops through the park. The bridge was built in the 19th century and all the major members in this photo are original. Given when it was built, the posts and beams are probably oak or chestnut. The photo shows the intricate construction that was used to produce a bridge that, with maintenance, has survived for over a century.

Structural Elements #photography #Support_Public_Lands #posts #beams #rafters #bracing

The view from 35,000 feet is awesome. In the foreground is a small part of the massive but diminished Lake Powell. The white rim around the lake is a 30 foot (10 m) wall of sandstone that has been exposed as the drought continues to shrink the lake. The snow capped peaks are the Henry Mountains. Much of the land in this photo is within ‎⁨Bears Ears National Monument⁩.

I love the window seat. #photography #Support_Public_Lands #Utah #Lake_Powell #Glen_Canyon #Henry_Mountains ‎⁨#Bears_Ears

This black and white photo shows the many-layered Navajo sandstone of this part of Utah. I took this because of the cloud seemed to be mimicking both the layers and the small promontory in the photo. Maybe it's a UFO. (Cue the Theremin music here.)

Busy Work Activity of the Day: Count the layers. Don't forget to look up.
The Boulder Mail Trail in the ‎⁨Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument⁩ near ⁨Boulder⁩, ⁨#Utah⁩ is one of our favorite trails. ⁩#photography #B&W #Support_Public_Lands #geology

Thousands of blue-black spheres ranging in size from 15 mm to 60 mm lie on the surface of red-orange sandstone. The nodules collect in small depressions. Moqui marbles are iron and manganese concretions that weather out of some layers of the extensive Navajo sandstone formation found across southern Utah, northern Arizona, and south western Colorado. Similar concretions are found on the ocean floor today and were observed on Mars by the Martian rovers Spirit and Opportunity. More about the Moqui marbles can be found at this URL: https://archaeology-world.com/25-million-old-moqui-marbles-naturally-occurring-iron-oxide-concretions-that-arise-from-navajo-sandstone/

#Moqui_marbles by the thousands cover an area in the Snow Canyon State Park, St. George, #Utah #photography #geology #Support_Public_Lands

Two people are standing in a snow squall trying to decide whether to stay and take more photos or leave The Wave. The person closest to the camera is Andi. The other person is a professional photographer we met on the hike. This is a unique geological area created by the land alternately being under a shallow sea or covered by a desert of windblown sand. The rocks are banded red and white. The red being the layers formed in the ocean and the white the sand dunes. Then erosion happened leaving swooping shapes that skate park designers must envy.

A few days ago @aferguson.bsky.social posted some photos of #The_Wave, one of the most colorful and visually interesting places I've ever visited. She posted a photo I took of her in the #snow squall that hit. It didn't do justice to the snow. #photography #support_public_lands #hiking

Spring beauties start out their brief appearance as a pink flower and gradually change to all white, but the anthers remain pink.

The rue anemone is a small white wildflower and likes moist shaded growing conditions.

The bloodroot plant produces one basal leaf and one flower. They are a treat for me to see because our woods do not seem to have the right conditions for them to grow. Possibly our clay soil is to heavy and dry 🤷.

Forest floor flowering friends - Yesterday I was working with the Hoosier Hikers Council building a hiking trail on a Ouabache (pronounced Wabash) Land Conservancy property near Terre Haute, Indiana and found several welcome signs of spring. #photography #flowers #spring #Support_Public_Lands

On the Bay of Fundy at low tide we walked on the bottom of the ocean. The mud flats stretched for hundreds of yards before getting to the water. The clouds were making a dramatic light show.

The tide was out, but the sky was in. #Hopewell_Provincial_Park, #New_Brunswick, #Canada #photography #Support_Public_Lands

This public walkway is a short but pleasant paved and accessible path along a small creek. There are benches for those wanting to rest or enjoy the sounds of the creek and many birds that share the area with us. A large sycamore tree's bulging base was shaped into a hand by a chainsaw artist. The bulge looks to be the base of another sycamore that fell many years ago. The wood has scared over and the carving does not appear to have had any effect on the remaining tree.

Need a hand - #Chainsaw #art along the Salt Creek #Trail in #Nashville, #Indiana #photography #Support_Public_Lands

Photo taken at 11:49 - This small 3 foot (1 m) long iceberg was grounded just off shore at ‎⁨Vatnajökull National Park⁩'s Diamond Beach. The beach gets it name from the many icebergs that are on it waiting on the tides an currents to take them out to sea. This one seems to be supported on an icy pedestal.

Photo taken at 11:55 -This is the same iceberg as it broke apart and collapsed.

On Its Last Leg
or
What a Difference Six Minutes Makes

#Vatnajökull National Park, #Iceland⁩ #photography #iceberg #Support_Public_Lands

This is a close up of the needles and pleats of a saguaro cactus. Saguaros are the iconic cactus of this desert. They are the ones that look like their arms are up in the air because they are being robbed.

Water is a scarce resource in the Sonoran Desert around Tucson. Once a plant has water it guards it. #saguaro #cactus #photography #Support_Public_Lands

In the foreground, there are several rocks that the black desert varnish has been chipped away to make circular designs and a horned animal. This area of petroglyph covered stones is very close to a road and a parking area in the western part of the park.

In the center of this photo are more circular designs and a human figure. Unfortunately some visitors have defaced the site by maring it with their additions.

Some #petroglyphs in #Saguaro_National_Park are near parking areas. Some of the visitors do not respect the work of the ancient people who created the petroglyphs and deface the site. #photography #Support_Public_Lands

I think this is a cholla cactus. I've heard them called teddy bear cactus, but they are not cuddly. The very sharp spines detach easily. This one is slightly backlit making the spines glow in the morning light.

This glow in the light #cactus was probably along the David Yetman Trail, #Tucson Mountain Park, but it may have been in Saguaro National Park. #photography #Support_Public_Lands

The vista from a viewpoint shows the winding road, the layers of the rocks, and the desert around Tucson. A boy in a blue shirt is sitting on a rock formation. His sister is somewhere below him and is calling for him. We left before the resolution of this family drama.

Continuing our 2007 #Tucson, #Arizona sprig trip, we stopped on the way up Mount Lemon to enjoy the view. We also enjoyed watching a boy enjoying the view and hiding from his sister. #photography #Support_Public_Lands #mountain #clouds

One blossom is open on this cactus. Three other wine red blossoms are closed. The petals are yellow at the base before becoming red-orange. I think the stamens are magenta and surround the lime green pistis. I am not a botanist so I may have misidentified the parts of the flower. The spines are in clusters of 6 with 5 spines surrounding one spine at the center of the cluster.

When I was teaching our spring break was really a late winter break. Often we took off and headed to the southwest. In 2007 we went to Arizona. We started our trip at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. #photography #Support_Public_Lands #cactus #flower

Dynjandi is a bridal veil type of waterfall. The entire waterfall is made of several smaller falls and cascades over the basalt cliffs. Its beauty and delicacy are a deception. We were there in May and the snow melt was going strong, but the earlier winter storms and snow melt were so strong that the water and ice tore the rails and benches to pieces at a viewing area. I'll put a photo of the damage in a comment.

#Dynjandi, one of the most beautiful and powerful waterfalls of #Iceland. It is in the less visited #Westfjords section in the northwestern part of the country. More on the power of it in the ALT. #photography #Support_Public_Lands #waterfall

The Gunnison River has been cutting its way down through layers of sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks for millions of years. The Painted Wall is a named feature on the left side of this photo. The Gunnison looks like a small stream from this viewpoint, but we were over a thousand feet above it. More information about the geology of this park is at this URL: https://www.nps.gov/blca/learn/nature/geologic-story.htm

We got a lot of rain overnight. I expect the hills on our gravel driveway to look like this: ‎⁨Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park⁩, ⁨Colorado.⁩ #photography #geology #Support_Public_Lands

A new playground is being installed at Mill Race Park in Columbus, Indiana. The structure has stairs, towers, slides, and many other features for young children to play on and with.

My quest for color in the winter continues #photography #playground #park #Support_Public_Lands

Five people are using handtools to build a hiking trail on a snowy day. The work being done in this photo is the end stage of a long process. The property owner, in this case the Indiana DNR, contacted the HHC to see if we would build a trail on some recently acquired property. A few members met with the property manager to determine the length of the trail, areas to include and avoid, and the general layout of the trail. Over the next several weeks, groups of members laid out the trail first by hanging surveyor's tape from tree branches every 30 to 50 feet (10 to 15 m) and then by placing pin flags every 6 feet (2 m) or so telling the trail building volunteers where to construct the trail. Working on the third Saturday of the month, plus a few extra days for chainsaw work, it took us about 18 months to complete this trail. More information is at this URL: https://www.hoosierhikerscouncil.org/nubbin-ridge-trail/

Volunteers with the Hoosier Hikers Council are building a #hiking #trail in 2018 near Shoals , Indiana. (More in the ALT) #photography #woods #Support_Public_Lands

A mother mountain goat and her baby were attracting a lot of attention at the viewpoint near the visitor center. The mother is wearing a tracking collar. The short trail from the center to the viewpoint offers some of the biggest scenic bang for the least effort buck of almost anywhere we've hiked as well as close, but not too close, encounters with the residents of the park.

You meet so many interesting folks on the trail at the #Logan_Pass Visitor Center, #Glacier_National_Park #photography #Support_Public_Lands #goats

Water from summer monsoons over eons of time has carved a slot canyon into the sandstone in this area along the Arizona - Utah border. Both the canyon and its walls are sinuous. There are many places where sunlight only reaches the floor for a few minutes a day. The combination of deep shadows and desert varnish gives a bluish cast to the red rocks.

Buckskin Gulch in the Paria Canyon - Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness Area is one of our favorite places to hike in Utah. The way the light changes over time means that the canyon never looks the same way twice. #photography #Utah #geology #Support_Public_Lands

The photo shows the wonderful craftsmanship of both the iron work and stone work of Inigo Jones's Tulip Stairs. The interlocking stairs support each other and that can be seen in the puzzle-like way the stairs fit together at the egdes. The flower designs are called tulips, but I've read that they are more likely modeled after lilies.

The first self-supporting spiral staircase in England is in The Queen's House. It is part of the ‎⁨National Maritime Museum⁩, #Greenwich, ⁨London⁩, #⁨England⁩. #photography #Support_Public_Lands #architectural_detail

The jaw bones of a whale are in the foreground of this photo. In the middle distance is the black stones of the beach and a small inlet. Farther out is a basalt outcrop and beyond that the North Atlantic. Waves are crashing on the outcrop. If this photo makes you feel cold and windblown, then I was successful. The rain had mostly stopped by the time we were walking, but our rain gear gave us an extra layer of much appreciated warmth.

"Thar she blows ..." no more. Our one and only whale sighting was at #‎⁨Snæfellsjökull National Park⁩, #Iceland. #photography #bones #Support_Public_Lands

Myvatn is a large lake in north central Iceland. It's name literally translates to English as Midge Lake. Fortunately when we were there in early May of 2025, the little blood suckers had yet to make their appearance. The hills in the lake are a volcanic feature known as rootless cones. They are rootless because the cones are not connected to a magma chamber like a volcanic vent is. They form when magma super heats the saturated soil of a lake or marsh causing steam explosions. The cones are the result of those explosions.

Rootless cones at #Myvatn, #Iceland #photography #Support_Public_Lands #B&W #geology

A corner in the entry courtyard of the Palace of Versailles is decorated with golden gewgaws, busts, and statues in heroic poses.

Not the White House #photography #Support_Public_Lands #France #architectural_detail #Versailles

The shadow of the Eifel Tower stretches toward the Louvre and the Pompidou Center. I took this shot from the observation platform at sunset on September 20, 2019. It was my first trip to France.

The Eifel Tower can be seen all around Paris, even from the Tower itself. #photography #Paris #Eifel_Tower #sunset #Support_Public_Lands

Clouds, mountain peaks, and the flanks of the mountains are in this photo. It was taken on a hike to the fire lookout tower on Huckleberry Mountain.

#MountainMonday visited Glacier National Park, Montana, US in 2016. #photography #B&W #Support_Public_Lands

Brown seed heads are breaking apart exposing the fluff to the wind which along with birds will disperse the cattail's seeds. Cattails remind me of hotdogs on a stick at a campfire.

Fluffy cattails along the Salt Creek trail in Nashville, Indiana #photography #winter #nature #Support_Public_Lands

A glacier covered mountain is at the top of the photo. There is a striking contrast between the clear blue sky, a rarity during our trip to Iceland last May, the dark gray basalt of the mountain, and the white ice. The middle of the photo shows the end of the glacier. It is ice mixed with rubble and finally just rubble covered ice. The bottom of the photo is a small lake of glacial melt water and the glacial moraine that I was standing on.

This is a mountain of ground mountain, including the source and the grinder at Vatnajökull National Park⁩, ⁨⁨Southern Region⁩, #Iceland⁩ #photography #MountainMonday #glacier #nature #Support_Public_Lands

A small iceberg, think the size of a house, in a glacial lagoon is in the process of rolling over. As it flipped. it broke apart. The white ice was out of the water, and the blue ice was beneath the lagoon's surface. Water is rushing off of one part of the iceberg as it came up to the surface. I wish I'd thought to take a video, but it was happening faster than I was thinking.

This #stunday photo stunned Andi and me as it happened. We were visiting the Glacial Lagoon in ‎⁨Vatnajökull National Park⁩, ⁨Southern Region⁩, ⁨Iceland⁩ and saw one of the icebergs roll over. #photography #Iceland #glacier #iceberg #Support_Public_Lands