Travel: Mono Lake

October was a very busy month with a lot of traveling. I got behind in my blog posts, among other things. I'm slowly catching up. Here are some shots from Mono Lake, which I visited in August as part of my Highway 395 road trip.

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Mono Lake tufa formations at dawn.

Tufa formations, with snow-capped Sierra Nevadas in the background.

Notice the dark clusters in the foreground; this is not dirt or scum on the water. These are alkali flies; they are one of the very few living creatures that can live in Mono Lake's high alkali environment.

Tufa formation

I have not identified this plant. Anyone?

Goldenrod

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All photos are ©2005 Kathryn Hill Photography.

Travel: Devil's Postpile

During my Highway 395 road trip in August, I stopped at Devil's Postpile, which is a natural formation of basalt columns up in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The columns have a hexagonal or sexagonal shape, thus helping them to create Nature's tile floor.

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All photos are ©2005 Kathryn Hill Photography.

Travel: Bristlecone Pine Forest

As part of my road trip up Highway 395 in August, I stopped to see the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. Some of these trees are almost 5,000 years old. Imagine if they could talk ... I love the textures of the bark.

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I like the way I accidentally caught the light on the tip of the sap dripping. I didn't notice this until after I took the photo and opened it on my computer.

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All photos are ©2005 Kathryn Hill Photography.

Travel: Manzanar

In August, I traveled up California's Highway 395 and did some sightseeing. One of my stops was at the Manzanar War Relocation Center. Manzanar was a forced internment camp for Japanese-Americans during World War II. It is a very somber place.

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Almost no buildings remain. Only the concrete floors show you where buildings once stood.

There are lots of paper origami cranes strung in the trees and draped on fences and tombstones. I am not sure what this means, but I think it might signify "releasing the soul" in Japanese culture.

Signs show you where buildings used to be.

This is what remains of a Japanese garden; this was a pond as part of a Zen garden. There were several of these gardens at Manzanar.

In the cemetery, people have left coins, chopsticks, bowls, photographs, and other objects on the memorial obelisk.

What remains of the hospital.

More paper cranes at the cemetery.

A memorial obelisk at the cemetery. The Japanese characters say "Monument to console the souls of the dead".

Marked graves

Obelisk at sunset

More origami

Tombstone

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All photos are ©2005 Kathryn Hill Photography.