Hankins Pass

This tree is at the top of Hankins Pass in Lost Creek Wilderness, Colorado. We were hiking there with Becca last June. It was about 8:30 or 9:00 am when Gavin and I got up to the top of the pass. We hadn't been making as good time as we'd hoped the day before, so Gavin was going to go back and get the car with a light pack while Becca and I hiked out to a closer trailhead. It meant that we had to get up really early to go up the pass, but that provided us some really neat lighting during the hike.

Casper Mountain

This was taken from my parents deck last November. This is Casper Mountain. It is about 6000 ft at the top. It's really gorgeous when it snows and all the trees get frosted. This picture shows what happens the day after it snows - it all blows away.

Glacier Bay

Gavin took this picture on our honeymoon. We are in Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska. I believe this was taken from our cabin balcony on the cruise ship. We had a great room. It's a nice picture until you get a sense of scale and then it's a great picture. Can you see the small boat in the water? No? How about in this large version? Pretty impressive, huh?

Mexico Mountain Fields

Gavin took this picture as we were driving through the countryside in Mexico. I was really amazed to see cleared fields almost up to the top of very steep hills like this. You can really understand what they mean about the deforestation proplems down there. The land is so steep, it's hard to imagine how the topsoil stays on the fields more than a season. Also, the way the shapes of the hill and the shed mirror each other kind of cool.

Comfy Bed - Forest Floor

We really tired Roxy out hiking this weekend. So much so that when we stopped for lunch she preferred to lie down and take a nap rather than nose around like Zoya. I tried to get around to get a picture of her face pillowed on the rock, but she took me standing up to mean that it was time to go explore more of the trail. She was really snuggled down.

Lost Maples

This weekend we took the dogs and went to Lost Maples State Natural Area to camp. It was overcast and foggy all weekend. Last time we went to this park, it was fall and the trees were just starting to change. This time, it was much less colorfull, being February. This little cascade and pool are on the West Loop trail. Lost Maples is my favorite park we've been to in Texas so far. There are two 4-mile hiking loops, and lots of primitive camping areas.

Really, we're going up there?

Gavin, Becca, and I went to Lost Creek Wilderness, Colorado to backpack last June. Becca hadn't done any altitude hiking before, and she was really surprised at how difficult it was to climb hills. She was complaining (good-naturedly) the first day about how we had to climb up and then went back down over, and over, and over. The first day was actually very little altitude gain overall, and none of the climbs was more than a few hundred feet at a time. The second day, however, we had to climb this ridge, which was a elevation gain of about 1000 ft in about a mile. Gavin and I came to this outlook, and said - wow, we should move on and maybe Becca won't see this. Well, she did. We made it up, eventually. Actually, the trail was switchbacked at a very reasonable grade, and was very well maintained. Not much clambering over rocks or roots required, which is what really wears out my legs fast.

Chasing the Carrot

This is an old one. After I got offered my job at NASA, I was feeling some disinterest in my remaining classes. Anna, my roommate of 4 years, was trying to help motivate me by metaphorically dangling the carrot of graduation in front of my face. As you can tell, the apparatus required for this demonstration was somewhat patched together. She never did let me catch that carrot, although I'm not sure I would have wanted to. (It wasn't peeled or anything - yuck!)

Yellowstone River

This is another honeymoon picture. This is the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone just from the lookout over the Lower Falls. I think Gavin actually took this picture, but as many times as I've been there I don't think I've ever taken a better picture of this view. I love Yellowstone. I was really happy to be able to spend a couple days there with Gavin. He hadn't been since he was pretty young. My family went every couple years. Yellowstone is great, though, because it's always different every time you go.

Casa Bonita

This photo of Becca, Cari, and I was taken at Casa Bonita. We were on our way up to Breckenridge for a ski trip. Casa Bonita is a Mexican restaraunt in Denver, CO. When I was a kid, we used to go there when we were in Denver on school and church trips. In addition to the food, they have cliff diving in the dining room, an arcade, a smugglers' cave, and lots of other stuff. It's kind of like Chucky Cheese on crack and with sopapillas. It was featured on South Park a couple years ago, which is why we were able to convince everyone to go experience it. This skull was to our right as the picture was taken.

Tent Rocks

This is Tent Rocks National Monument in New Mexico. It is between Santa Fe and Albuuqerque, rather off the beaten path. The reason for the name should be obvious from this picture. I highly recommend it as a day trip if you're ever in the area. This is taken from the top of the rock formation. You have to hike through a narrow canyon in the sandstone to get up here. I wouldn't want to be down there during a thunderstorm!

Point Reyes

A couple years ago, Gavin was presenting at a conference in Monterrey, CA. We went a few days early to go see his grandmother in Berkeley. While there, we went out to Point Reyes National Seashore. Unfortunately, this was before the digital camera. I spent quite a bit of time with the video camera filiming the surf and sunset. So, this resolution is as good as it gets. It's too bad, because I love this picture. Digital is good.

Snowmobiling in the Wind River Mountains

We went to Casper for Christmas in 2003. My parents took us out into the Wind River mountains (Towgatee Pass) on a snowmobiling trip. The three people in this picture are some friends of theirs we were with. But CHECK OUT THAT POWDER (click the picture for a full-size version to really appreciate it). I grew up in Wyoming, and I've never seen anything like that. It wasn't just one night, either. Three days in a row there was 1-3' of new stuff on the ground in the morning. I had never been snowmobiling before, but as it turns out I'm higher on the daring scale than one would think. And a little lower on the skill level than one would hope. I got stuck twice the first day. By the end of the second day, I was able to plow through the powder under something resembling control, but I could only turn one way reliably. Most of the weekend it was too cloudy to see the mountains around us, which is too bad because they are pretty spectacular. You can see a ridge peeking out in this picture, though.

Long's Peak Diamond

I got a lot of great pictures on our trip to Rocky Mountain National Park last summer. This theme will probably reappear on this page several times. This picture is taken from the Chasm Lake trail below the Diamond. It was late July, but the summer had been pretty cool and the snow was still melting, thus the full cascade. If you don't want to wait for more of these to appear here, you can see the full collection in my old photo album or read more dialog in my trip report.

Castle Guyser

I've been to Yellowstone National Park many times. My family went once every two or three years as I was growing up. I love the park. This is Castle Guyser. It's one of the more spectacular guysers in Old Faithful Guyser Basin. The most spectacular that I've seen erupt there is Grand Guyser, which shoots water up to 300 ft. Castle is more like 60-80 ft. This picture was taken a couple days after Gavin and I got married. We spent a couple days in Yellowstone before we went up to Vancouver to catch the cruise to Alaska. The guyser actually winding down in this picture. We caught the very end of the show.

Tree Hugging

When we were in California for Christmas, we drove down the coast to a couple state parks. Big Basin is a redwood preserve just south of the Bay Area. The trees are so amazingly huge. Unfortunately, we didn't get there until just about an hour before sunset. So, we didn't get to walk around too much. I would definately like to go back sometime when I had more time. As we were driving out, the mist on the hills was really cool.

Pine Creek Valley

This is the look back down Pine Creek valley from Missouri Basin in Collegiate Peaks Wilderness in Colorado. Gavin set up the shot - I was so winded from the climb up the ridge I just collapsed on the rock. It was one of those hikes where you think this ridge is the last - no this one - no this one - huff, puff, huff. We really didn't aclimate too well for this weekend, and Collegiate Peaks Wilderness has the highest average altitude of any wilderness area in Colorado. The lake is at about 12,700 ft. The valley is at about 11,300 ft. The climb occurs in about 3/4 mile. I'm in better shape now, but that still might kick my butt a bit.

Wasn't Me

We'd only had Roxy a couple weeks when I took this picture. I came home from work, and she's outside the back door sitting in the pile of dirt she'd dug out of the ground. Her look of innocence was priceless. She still does this, by the way.