Ask the Coyote in the first image. When leaveless, the Aspen shows off its trunk and branches in a surreal and abstract way. Three inches of fresh snow helped to add to the lines of the trees. These were taken on Wednesday at the Kaibab National Forest adjacent to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
These two images are available as prints at What’s New At Dawn2Dawn
A recent drive to Grand Canyon National Park’s North Rim revealed some sights not normally associated with The Grand Canyon. Like wildlife, Aspens and Autumn Colors.
Badwater Basin at Death Valley National Park, is a landscape of extremes. Extreme temperatures, extreme elevation changes and extreme dryness. Because the basin is at an elevation of 282 feet below sea level, the average high temperature in July is 116 degrees F. The highest temperature ever recorded on Earth was 134 degrees at Death Valley in 1913. Little wonder that I and most others visit during the winter months.
Badwater is surrounded by soaring peaks and eroded sandstone formations. Snow-covered Telescope Peak, standing at 11,049 feet, is quite a contrast to the salt flats at Badwater Basin. The salt flats are approximately 200 square miles in area and are formed when rain flushes minerals from the nearby hills and mountains to the flats of Badwater. The high heat and dryness ( DV only receives 2 inches of moisture annually) evaporates everything except the salt.
The Kaibab National Forest is an anomaly in a land of deep red rock canyons and desert scrub. Situated high on a plateau, the Kaibab reaches some 9,000 feet into the Northern Arizona sky.
Curious Coyote
Had to go to Death Valley National Park to check out the Super Bloom. I’ve been going to Death Valley for about 10 years and have never experienced this amount of flowers and people. I captured the floral display starting a few hours before sunset. The predominate flower south of Furnace Creek is the Desert Gold Sunflower or as I like to call it, Geraea Canescens. Stay tuned for more pics from Eureka Dunes, fighter jets and the Pacific Coast.
Even the Coyote came out to check the scene.
I was about 50 feet from this coyote at Yellowstone National Park when this one let out a sound that is still ringing in my ears . I just wish I was recording the sound. I don’t think the coyote knew I was so close.
“Howling is a basic communication behavior in coyotes,” says Gary San Julian, a Penn State University professor of wildlife resources. “It has several functions. One is to call the pack—really a family group—back together again after a period of individual hunting. A second reason that coyotes howl is to advertise their presence to other packs, essentially warning those other family groups against trespassing across territorial boundaries.”
