Point-and-Shoot Nature Photography by Ethan Winning : Day Trips and National Parks

P&S Nature Photography by Ethan Winning

Day Trips and National Parks Galleries

Walnut Creek Open Space & The 3 Seasons of Mt. Diablo : I've laid out this gallery in order to show all the aspects of the Walnut Creek Open Space and Diablo, and my last five years of hiking the trails. All three seasons are represented, but not in order. I hope you get the idea as to the diversity of wildlife and just the "atmosphere" of the area which often changes daily. There are more than 150 species of wildflowers, 110 of birds - residents and migrants and just occasional visitors, and 30 species of butterflies. I have no idea how many types of insects and spiders are here, but enough to get my heart pumping when I see or get bitten by one! It's magical if you just stop to enjoy it. So, for some of you, STOP jogging and get off your bikes. You don't know what you're missing.

Mt. Diablo is MY mountain. The Walnut Creek Open Space is MY open space, and here's why we have to keep it OPEN:

Mt. Diablo is a unique 4,000 foot mountain towering over the East Bay of San Francisco. It can be seen from roughly 400 square miles (see Wikipedia). It has three distinct climate changes: green and flowered spring, hot, brown summer, and a sometimes snowy winter. But as you will see in the first photo, winter can bring snow to the peaks, green grasslands to the mid-range, and colorful trees at the base. For a list of the wildlife on Diablo, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mt._Diablo. The wildlife that is pictured in this gallery represents maybe 70 percent of them in the Walnut Creek Open Space, the latter comprised of Lime Ridge, Shell Ridge, Acalanes Ridge, and Sugarloaf Open Space(s). Every week is something new, sometimes every day but I have to keep my eyes open. You never know when you might spy a fork-tailed brush katydid nymph on a California Poppy or a four-foot Western Rattlesnake just crossing your path.

Walnut Creek Open Space & The 3 Seasons of Mt. Diablo

National Parks & Day Tripping : From the Pacific Coast, from Yosemite to Yellowstone, Kings Canyon to Sequoia, Zion and Bryce, and the California Coast to Crater Lake and Mt. Rainier. Even some scenics from the Bay Area. There is an emphasis on Yosemite National Park, in part because it's 3 hours from home, and in part because it's so awesome!

National Parks & Day Tripping

Sequoia National Park 2011 : For five days in August, we hiked four trails in Sequoia National Park. Though I didn't capture many birds, even insects and wildflowers added to the fantastic scenery of this national park. This was our fourth trip to Sequoia and we concentrated on the four trails that benefited most from the phenomenal rains and snowmelt of the previous winter.

Note: Some of the wildflowers' names - and thanks to the rains, there were hundreds of them - are guesses though I have been through John Muir Laws' book til the binding is broken. If you are certain of the name, please email me.

Sequoia National Park 2011

Yosemite National Park 2011 : Yosemite Valley 2011, a year when exceptional rains created exceptional waterfalls and river rapids.

Yosemite National Park 2011

Mt. Rainier 2012 : A trip to Mt. Rainier in Washington state took us all the way down the Oregon and California coasts as well as a couple of nature reserves. These are not in chronological order. In fact, they're not in any particular order. Keeps folks like me with short attention spans enthralled.

Mt. Rainier 2012

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