Outdoor adventures photo-share thread!

[cheetah]

That's good--both that you can see them now and that I managed to portray the landscape without including too many humans or human artifacts in the photos; that was intentional. It's nice to be able to forget about humanity for a bit, especially when you see the damage the species is doing to ecosystems on a regular basis. Kind of a palate cleanser.

(Also I generally don't like photographing people in public; even if they're not the focus; it feels weird and I wouldn't be terribly fond of it if it were done to me.)

[bloodmuffins]

Here are some pics from my recent trip to Yosemite! It was so gorgeous, and I took a ton of pictures. Here's just a few, mostly focused on the trees and waterfalls 'cause those were my favorite.

This was an early morning shot of upper Yosemite Falls from a bridge that had a stunning reflection in the water:

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And here's a pic of just the reflection:

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Here was a twilight shot of a treeline that I thought just turned out so beautiful. It's one of my fav pics from the whole trip:

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Here was one of the trees that I really loved. They were so tall, and the bark looked like scales. (Apologies for sideways photo, I just wanted to include at least of the tree close-ups regardless since I loved them so much.)

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This was another shot I really liked, peaking through the branches across the river towards some mountains:

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[cheetah]

Pretty! The twilight shot is my favorite; seeing scenery silhouetted is always dramatic.

Did you see much wildlife or many wildflowers?

[bloodmuffins]

I love that you love the twilight pic too :3

I didn't see any wildflowers, but I saw some wildlife. There were a couple California ground squirrels and lots of Stellars jays, which were beautiful. I also saw a couple of robins, which excited me because I realized shortly prior to the trip that I hadn't seen a robin since I moved away from Illinois - it's interesting how birds you take for granted in some places become exciting when you haven't seen them for a long time.

Then right as we were driving out of the Valley, we saw a coyote! I always love seeing coyotes, so that was also really exciting, especially since they were walking on the road towards us, so we stopped the car and got a really close look at them as they walked by. They were fluffier than most coyotes I've seen and very cute.

[cheetah]

After many years of wanting to, I have finally traveled to Channel Islands National Park, and got to camp overnight. The trip was amazing; I've been looking forward to it for years and it was everything I hoped it was. I saw dozens of island foxes, and they were, indeed, adorable. They're as small as kittens, and aren't that afraid of humans. Several were wandering the campground; I saw one at my camp site the moment I arrived.

Depicted: A fox.


Depicted: A fox.

Watching them forage was pretty magical. They were critically endangered not too long ago, but now their populations are nearly at carrying capacity and the main management action is vaccinating them against canine distemper and rabies. They're listed as near threatened by the IUCN, as of 2013, with an increasing population. Pretty amazing how that can be done in a couple decades.

I went on a few hikes, though wasn't able to hike all the way around the island I went to due to time limitations. I did get some lovely views of the sea from atop seacliffs, and of the canyons and hills.

Depicted: A field. Mostly invasive plants, unfortunately.


Depicted: A cliff. With more native plants.


Depicted: A field. Entirely invasive grasses. Grasses really aren't native to the Channel Islands.


Depicted: A canyon. I saw island scrub jays here, but didn't photograph them.

I'd definitely like to go again. There were a lot of places on Santa Cruz I didn't get to go.

I've got some more photos, but I'm saving a few for a nature writing piece I'm working on.

[TopBrass]

Now it makes more sense. When you said Channel Islands on Twitter, the first thing that came to mind was the Channel Islands of Nazi holdout fame, between Britain and France. I didn't know there was another one somewhere. I was thinking that I really didn't expect the channel islands off the coast of France to look like that, haha.

Shame you didn't get to stay longer. Looks like a wonderful place to let go for a bit and unwind.

[Kisota]

That looks amazing!!! I saw one of your fox photos earlier and somehow didn't realize it was an island fox and not a regular grey fox! Incredible! I'd love to see them.

The whole place looks beautiful.

I had a really great run this morning and an even better walk this afternoon with my best friend and my spouse, but that's just a stroll around the neighborhood! I'd love to see a unique place like that. I'm so glad it was everything it's chalked up to be.