• National Parks,  quotes,  Rocky Mountain National Park

    When will it end?

    June 10, 2024
    The peace and calm of Sprague Lake

    “One thing I have felt confident about for a good portion of my life is that it is mainly on the surface that we are different. We are not nearly as separate as we sometimes feel ourselves to be. Underneath our supposed differences we experience many similar emotions, longings, hopes, and dreams. The cosmic dance goes on in each and every one. It is the externals of appearance in behavior that divert our attention from the inner radiance and dynamic goodness within every being.”

    Joyce Rupp

    I feel sadness, anger, even rage, due to the insanity of political powers who are steeped in their own fears, hatred and insecurities, while continuing to believe the lie that violence will bring peace. Insanity. Man has proved for thousands of years that violence does not bring peace, whether that’s a fist fight on the school playground or dropping bombs on innocent people. It only increases our suffering. Insanity. I believe Joyce Rupp is spot on when she writes, “Underneath our supposed differences we experience many similar emotions, longings, hopes, and dreams.” We are more alike than different.

    Our world seems quite insane at the moment. According to this report, in the past seven months an estimated 35,000 people have been killed in Gaza.  They are also estimating about 52% of those killed have been women and children. Insanity. And, that my friends, is a lot of emotions, longings, hopes, and dreams that will never be fulfilled. How can we possibly believe there will be peace when that kind of thinking only brings more resentment, hatred and violence? Insanity. Meanwhile over in Ukraine, the death toll of Russian soldiers is estimated higher than 50,000. And, Ukraine said in February that it had lost 31,000 soldiers. Insanity. According to the Geneva Academy more than 45 armed conflicts are currently taking place throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Africa has more than 35 armed conflicts taking place. Asia has 19 armed conflicts. Europe has seven armed conflicts at this time. And, six armed conflicts are taking place in Latin America. All of this is Insanity at its highest level. When will it end? And, this insanity is alive and well within our country.

    Well, what if we shower them (and all of creation) with kindness, hope and love instead of hatred, fear and bombs. And, what if we embraced a spirit of forgiveness. What if we embrace our innate courage to look at “the inner radiance and dynamic goodness within every being”, including ourselves, rather than outward appearances. What if we enter into an open dialogue with a focus on understanding one another? Are we willing to believe there can be change or are we to continue living with this insanity? I’m willing to believe we can make that change!

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  • animals,  National Parks,  Rocky Mountain National Park

    Butt Shots

    May 27, 2024

    Seems that about 50% of my elk photos I’ve taken are butt shots. They are usually more interested in grazing than posing. However, I do understand.

    Elk eat green grasses and forbs during the growing season. They need these to achieve a nutritional level that allows them to grow and develop well. When elk and other ungulates eat shrubs, they typically select the tips of branches which comprise the current year’s growth and offer the most nutrients. It is estimated that Elk eat an average of 3 pounds of food per day for every 100 pounds of body weight; therefore, a bull elk weighing 800 pounds would eat about 24 pounds of forage each day. As you can tell in this image they are interested in the new spring grasses. So, here is my butt shot for this spring!

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  • landscape,  National Parks,  Rocky Mountain National Park

    Sprague Lake

    May 23, 2024

    “If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.”

    Laura Ingalls Wilder

    My friends Duane and Jan are working in an RV park in Estes Park so I made a day trip up there yesterday. We grabbed a bite to eat then headed into Rocky Mountain National Park. It has been a while since I ventured into the park for photos. The day was wonderful and fulfilling as we got to see moose, elk, deer and the beauty of nature. We took a nice walk around Sprague Lake where this image was taken. Sprague Lake is a very shallow lake built up by Abner Sprague to support the lodge he operated here from 1920-1940. Most of the lake is no more than a few feet deep and at times you may see elk or moose out in the middle of it. It has a 3/4 mile walking trail around the lake with many photo opportunities.

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  • animals,  National Parks,  Yellowstone National Park

    I wonder…

    September 16, 2022

    Bison are so iconic of Yellowstone National Park, and the Black Hills. They appear peaceful, unconcerned, even lazy, as in this image, yet they may attack anything, often without warning or apparent reason. They can move at speeds up to 35 mph and cover long distances at a lumbering gallop. So make sure you can outrun the person you are with! As I look at this image I wonder how many photographs have been taken of this bison.

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  • National Parks,  Plants,  quotes,  river,  trees,  Yellowstone National Park

    the One…

    September 10, 2022
    Yellowstone River in Hayden Valley

    You recognize your God as everyone’s God. And not only among Jews and Christians and Muslims do you see the reflected face of the One. When the climber reaches the summit and gazes out at a thousand miles of mountains and valleys, there is the One. When the mother pushes through shattering pain to give birth, and the infant sucks in his first breath and expels his wild wail, there is the One. When the father drops to his knees in the military cemetery after burying his son and wraps his arms around his own heaving chest, there is the One. In our first kiss, in our final embrace, there is the One.

    The One shows up in Native lodges and Hindu temples, in the deep quiet of Zen meditation halls and in the ecstatic whirling of dervishes. The One whispers through the words of the poets, through the curving lines of painters, sculptors, and woodcarvers; through symphony and hip-hop, Gregorian chant, hymns in praise of Mother Mary, devotional songs to Lord Shiva; through tobacco and cornmeal offered at dawn to the Great Spirit. The One makes an appearance in the heart of the self-described atheist, who gasps in wonder at the beauty of an unexpected snow that fell during the night, carpeting the garden with jewels of frozen light. The One reveals itself as the compassionate Father and the protective Mother, as unrequited Lover and loyal Friend, residing always at the core of our own hearts, and utterly invisible. The One transcends all form, all description, all theory, categorically refusing to be defined or confined by our human impulse to unlock the Mystery. And the One resides at the center of all that is, ever-present and totally available. You remember, and forget, and remember again: beckoned with a thousand names, limited by none, the God you love is One.

    Mirabai Starr
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  • National Parks,  reflections,  Yellowstone National Park

    Clear Blue Waters

    September 8, 2022

    One thing I noticed while on this trip to Yellowstone was how clear and clean the waters were. This was true of both lakes and rivers. Big Springs is a first-magnitude spring located in Island Park, Idaho in Fremont County. It produces over 120 million gallons of water each day. Looking into that spring water was breathtaking, it was so clear. The spring is also famous for its large rainbow trout which congregate at the foot of the bridge waiting to be fed by the tourists. And no fishing allowed. We didn’t feed them but took it all in. The above image is along the shoreline of Lewis Lake in Yellowstone National Park. You can still see the bottom 15 feet from shore. The bottom image is of one of the rainbow trout taken from the bridge at Big Springs.

    Rainbow Trout
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  • animals,  National Parks,  Yellowstone National Park

    Hard to imagine…

    September 6, 2022
    A lone bison along the Madison River outside of West Yellowstone

    American Bison once numbered in the millions, perhaps between 25 million and 60 million by some estimates, and they were possibly the most numerous large land animal on earth. However, by the late 1880s, they had been hunted to near extinction throughout North America. The Yellowstone Park bison herd was the last free-ranging bison herd in the United States being the only place where bison were not extirpated. The Yellowstone Park bison herd is descended from a remnant population of 23 individual bison that survived the mass slaughter of the 19th century in the Pelican Valley of Yellowstone Park. To assist in the species’ revival, in 1896 the United States government obtained one bull and seven cows from the Lincoln Park Zoo bison herd for Yellowstone. In 1902, a captive herd of 21 Goodnight plains bison was introduced to the park and then moved to the Lamar Valley and managed as livestock until the 1960s, when a policy of natural regulation was adopted by the park. Yellowstone National Park has large areas of alpine meadows and grass prairie and this provides a nearly optimum environment for American bison who live in river valleys, and on prairies and plains. Their typical habitat is open or semi-open grasslands, as well as sagebrush grasslands, semi-arid lands, and scrublands. Some lightly wooded areas are also known historically to have supported bison. Bison will also graze in hilly or mountainous areas where the slopes are not steep. It’s hard to imagine those numbers of bison especially when you look at the lone bison in the above image. (Information from Wikipedia.)

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