Wanderings…
Places I’ve found myself, either by accident or by design. But wherever you travel, there is no place like home - above photo.
My main mode of transport after I retired in 2003. 35' Motor Home towing a Jeep. This was taken at Zion National Park in Utah.
Two Way Traffic. One Orca decides to be different. Johnstone Strait, BC
Surfing Sea Lions. Off Northern Vancouver Island, BC They actually wait and 'catch a wave' and ride it. Amazing to see animals play.
Purple Sea Star (Starfish) With the exception of gulls and otters, the purple starfish has few predators and may live up to 20 years.
Orca aka Killer Whale in Johnstone Strait. The Killer Whale is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. Johnstone Strait is a 110 km (68 mi) channel along the north east coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia.
Steller Sea Lions Rookery The Steller Sea Lion is the biggest sea lion. Sea lions are often confused with seals, from which they can be distinguished, among other ways, by the presence of external ear flaps. This group is referred to as a Rookery.
Steller Sea Lions - Surfing. Off the northwestern tip of Vancouver Island there are several rookeries for these awesome mammals. They are actually playing in the waves. If someone told me, I would not have believed them.
American White Ibis. West Palm Beach, Florida.
Mom and Son. Asian Elephants near Chiang Mai, Thailand. What a great day it was. We each 'owned' an elephant for the day ! Feed it, clean it and ride it.
A Haitian Refugee in Puerto Plata. He wanted money when I took his photo.
Stairway To Heaven? Abandoned lighthouse in Puerto Plata, the third largest city in The Dominican Republic.
Toronto, Canada Taken from Lake Ontario, Toronto is Canada's largest city with a population of 6,196,731.
Nogales, Arizona Border wall between Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Mexico. Razor wire everywhere.
Copper Queen Mine, Bisbee, Arizona The Copper Queen Mine was a copper mine in Cochise County, Arizona, United States. Its development led to the growth of the surrounding town of Bisbee in the 1880s. Its orebody ran 23% copper, an extraordinarily high grade.
Pacific White-Sided Dolphin The Pacific white-sided dolphin, also known as the hookfin porpoise, is a very active dolphin found in the cool to temperate waters of the North Pacific Ocean.
Pacific White-sided Dolphin With such speed, it looks as if it is bending water. They stayed beside us in the boat for the longest times. Quite playful.
Pacific White-sided Dolphins Synchronized Swimming ! Pacific white-sided dolphins, known for the distinct coloring that give them their name, are a playful and highly social marine mammal.
Swimming with Humpback Whales off The Dominican. Amazing! Mask, Snorkel and fins and an underwater camera are all you need. If you look closely, you will see another Humpback deeper in the water.
Humpback Whale Breaching There are two tenders that take us from the 'Mother Ship' to swim with the whales. This Humpback breached between the two of us.
'Pedunkle Throw' The peduncle of a whale is the muscular area where the tail fluke connects to the body. In a peduncle throw the whale throws its tail sideways, slamming into the water with a huge splash. It’s generally regarded as an aggressive or defensive action.
'Peduncle Throw' Almost the opposite of a breach. Amazing to see. It takes tremendous strength to do this.
Mighty Flukes of a Humpback Whale beside one of our swimmers. Silver Bank Reef off The Dominican Republic
Humpback Whale Calf with Mom Babies, called calves, are born live, like most mammals. The newborns are between 3 to 4.5 meters (10 and 15 feet) long and weigh up to 907 kg (one ton). They are born tail first so they do not drown, then Mom nudges Calf to the surface to breathe.
Humpback Calf Getting Air. Mom, below, can stay underwater for twenty minutes to an hour, but the calf needs to breathe every couple of minutes.
Humpback Calf heading for the surface to breathe. Mom stays close by. Swimming with these Gentle Giants is 'as good as it gets'!
Humpback Whale swimming toward me. Humpback whales grow to be about 16 meters (52 feet) long, weighing 25 - 35 metric tons. Their white pectoral flippers can be up to 4.6 meters (15 feet) long — one-third of their body size.
Mom and Calf Humpbacks returning to the water after being to the surface for air. When we are swimming with these whales, we look for a calf because we know Mom stays close to the calf. Great viewing.
Mount Baker, Washington State. After taking off from Vancouver, British Columbia our plane circled over Mount Baker before turning north for Prince Rupert, British Columbia. Snow and ice-covered Mount Baker, located in northern Washington, is the highest peak in the North Cascades (3,286 m or 10,781 ft) and the northernmost volcano in the conterminous United States.
Red Fox in Churchill, Manitoba Red foxes are one of Canada’s most widespread mammals, found in all provinces and territories. There are probably more red foxes in North America now than there were when Europeans began to arrive in the 16th century.
Red Fox, Churchill, Manitoba Mr. Fox checking out some sileage for mice. I think he has had enough of us !
Red Fox, Churchill, Manitoba This fox is actually listening, not looking for a mouse under the snow.
Red Fox, Churchill, Manitoba What a cutie !!
Beep Beep ! Roadrunner in Arizona The roadrunner, a species of fast-running ground cuckoos with long tails and crests. They are found in the southwestern and south-central United States and Mexico, usually in the desert. Some have been clocked at 32 km/h (20 mph) while a few have also been clocked up to 43 km/h (27 mph).
Humpback Whale Sounding. A foggy morning in The Johnstone Strait, British Columbia.
Humpback Whale Feeding. They feed by opening their mouths wide, allowing a massive amount of seawater (along with their prey) to rush in. When the water and food are inside their mouths, they close their jaws and use their tongues to push the water out. The prey is trapped inside the mouth, held in place by the baleen plates acting as a sieve, and once all the water is expelled, they swallow everything in one gulp.
Humpback Whale Feeding. You can see the baleen bristles in the mouth which act as a filter by trapping the prey in the bristles while allowing water to filter through.
Large Humpback Breaching. Imagine the power of throwing 25 - 35 metric tons out of the water. When compared to other animals Humpbacks are known for traveling great distances during migration periods and may travel as much as 16,000 miles per year making them one of the furthest traveling animals in the world.
Steller Sea Lions. We were in a 'rubber' Zodiac and these Sea Lions were not happy we were near their rookery. They showed their teeth in a most aggressive way. Off northwestern tip of Vancouver Island, BC
Steller Seal Lions They made loud grunting noises and kept swimming close to our 'rubber' Zodiac. I was amazed at how aggressive they were.
Steller Sea Lion Rookery The Big Guys get the best spots. Off the northwestern tip of Vancouver Island, BC. Extremely noisy.
Steller Sea Lions Too close to the Zodiac. They kept rushing us making loud grunting noises. We did not stay long !
The Fraser River, British Columbia The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for 1,375 kilometres (854 mi), into the Strait of Georgia at the city of Vancouver. It is the 11th longest river in Canada.
Red Bay, Newfoundland, Labrador Red Bay is a fishing village in Labrador, notable as one of the most precious underwater archaeological sites in the Americas. Between 1530 and the early 17th century, it was a major Basque whaling area.
Spawning Pink Salmon I took a swim with a wetsuit, mask, snorkel and flippers down the Campbell River against the spawning Pink Salmon. What a ride. Campbell River, Vancouver Island, BC
Benson, Arizona Yes, snow on a 'teddy bear' cactus. It is less that 100 km (60 miles) to the Mexican border, and we had snow... and more than once. Below zero in the high desert in January.
Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah, Georgia The peaceful setting rests on a scenic bluff of the Wilmington River, east of Savannah. The site was purchased for a private cemetery in 1846 and became a public cemetery in 1907.
Two Ibis kiss ! West Palm Beach, Florida
Saguaro Cactus Saguaro National Park Tucson, Arizona is home to the nation's largest cacti. The giant saguaro is the universal symbol of the American west. These majestic plants are only found in a small portion of the United States.
Dragoon Mountains, Arizona A large portion is made up of Granite outcroppings and boulderfields, with patches of woods in between.
Dragoon Mountains. How does a tree grow out of rock !
The Dragoon Mountains The name originates from the 3rd U.S. Cavalry Dragoons who battled the Chiricahua, including Cochise, during the Apache Wars. This is where Cochise signed the peace treaty.
'Kings's Kettle' The kettle we all used at George's cottage up 'On The Bruce'. So many good time with no running water and no electricity. PEACE We all miss those time together.
Chiricahua National Park By far the most noticeable natural features in the park are the rhyolite rock pinnacles for which the monument was created to protect. Rising sometimes hundreds of feet into the air, many of these pinnacles are balancing on a small base, seemingly ready to topple over at any time.
Chiricahua National Park A "Wonderland of Rocks" is waiting for you to explore at Chiricahua National Monument. The 13 km (8 miles) paved scenic drive and 27 km (17 miles of day-use hiking trails provide opportunities to discover the beauty, natural sounds, and inhabitants of this 11,985 acre site.
'The Hank' An abandoned tug used for logging. Gambier Island, Howe Sound, BC Taken September of 2020. You will see the heavy smoke from the wildfires in Oregon and California.
Blue Herons, Gambier Island, BC The smoke for the wildfires in Oregon and California made this a difficult shot. Both Herons what that top perch.
Blue Herons, Gambier Island BC Aerial Ballet ! Fighting for top spot.
Blue Herons, Gambier Island, BC We have a winner..... The smoke was terrible from the wildfires in northwesters USA.
Raven, Gambier Island, BC Ravens are a heavy-billed dark bird, larger than crows. Closely related, both ravens and crows are species of the genus Corvus. The raven has a heavier bill and shaggier plumage than the crow, especially around the throat. The raven’s lustrous feathers also have a blue or purplish iridescence.
Wild Orchid, The Dominican Republic. I was amazed to see Orchids growing wild outside my room in Puerto Plata.
Ribbon Fall, Yosemite, California Ribbon Fall, located in Yosemite National Park, flows off a cliff on the west side of El Capitan and is the longest single-drop waterfall in North America. The fall is fed by melting winter snow; while therefore dry for much of the year, the fall is a spectacular 491 meter (1,612 feet) in the spring.
PCH - Pacific Coast Highway, California The Pacific Coast Highway (also called PCH) is one of America's most famous highways (probably second only to Route 66). Stretching from the southern tip of Baja California to the top of the Olympic peninsula, the highway is 800 km (500 miles) long.
Glacier Lake high up in The Coast Mountains, BC. Taken from a plane to Prince Rupert from Vancouver, BC.
Bison Rule ! Where Else? Yellowstone National Park Located in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. On March 1, 1872, Yellowstone became the first national park for all to enjoy the unique hydrothermal and geologic wonders.