View allAll Photos Tagged Cliffs
I'm ending my Ireland album with my favourite view from this travel (although I'm trying to show some variety...)
I was always impressed with Jim Patterson's Pet Rocks and his rendition of the rock formations at Panther beach (er Hole-in-the-wall beach). Then I ran into Joshua Cripps at the Aperture Academy Spring Ceremony and he told me about this beach. His colorful descriptions and his photostream certainly piqued my interest. So the last Sunday, I dashed off to Panther beach in the hope of catching the last of the colorful winter sunsets.
I reached there with plenty of time to scout and then headed down the steep trail (atleast for a recovering ACL patient) to the rather trashed-up Panther beach. The hole to get to the Hole-in-the-wall beach was easily navigated thanks to the low tide that was developing (though I still managed to get water into my shoes, which made the rest of my evening quite unpleasant)
A short walk later, I arrived at the Pet Rocks and then hit a wall; it was literally a 6 ft wall that almost seemed unsurmountable. To top that off, there was a giant slab of mossy slippery granite that one had to walk on to get to the base of the wall which was getting constantly pounded waves even during the lowest of tides. That certainly didn't bode well and I was not looking forward to climbing down that with all my camera gear at twilight, atleast not with a still-healing leg.
So I just decided to settle at the high ground next to that wall and shot from there. Little did I know that some of the most amazing rock formations lay beyond that wall!
The sunset was rather disappointing. Instead of a clear sunset with a lot of colors, it instead ditched the wannabe photographers and disappeared into a thick bank of fog brooding over the horizon. Thankfully, once the sun set, the sky became a lot more muted enabling some nice long exposures, including this one above.
Using a polarizer to get the blues in the sky and saturate the still remaining cloud colors and then a 2-stop soft graduated Neutral density filter (placed diagonally) to still reduce the light in the westward sky and to increase foreground exposure, I shot this at F11, ISO 100 for 1 minute. Do view it on black
Hole-in-the-wall beach
CA USA
Located on the Colorado Plateau in northern Arizona, Vermilion Cliffs National Monument includes the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness. The Monument borders Kaibab National Forest to the west and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area to the east.
This remote and unspoiled, 280,000-acre Monument is a geologic treasure, containing a variety of diverse landscapes from the Paria Plateau, Vermilion Cliffs, Coyote Buttes, and Paria Canyon. Elevations range from 3,100 to 7,100 feet.
Visitors will enjoy scenic views of towering cliffs and deep canyons. Paria Canyon offers an outstanding three to five day wilderness backpacking experience. The colorful swirls of cross-bedded sandstone in Coyote Buttes are an international hiking destination. There are also opportunities to view wildlife, including California condors. There are two developed campgrounds just outside the Monument: Stateline and White House. Dispersed camping is allowed outside the wilderness area in previously disturbed areas.
A permit is required for hiking in Coyote Buttes North (the Wave), Coyote Buttes South, and for overnight trips within Paria Canyon.
Learn more at: www.blm.gov/az/st/en/prog/blm_special_areas/natmon/vermil...
Photo: Bob Wick, BLM California
Arbel Nature Reserve, for more information read here: www.y-trip.info/en_arbel.html
Thanks Merri Harrison-Quarles for description:
The Arbel Cliff, visible to a great distance, provides a magnificent panoramic view of the Sea of Galilee, the Golan and Mount Hermon. This great cliff, one of the most impressive sites in Israel, climbs to a height of almost 400 meters. In the caves found in the cliff lived people as early as prehistoric times and later on soldiers gathered in them during the fight against King Herod. In a later period, these caves turned into a great fortress, with secret passages, halls and water cisterns. Near the fortress were found the remains of a synagogue from the second century BC.
שמורת טבע מצוק הארבל
מבצר מתקופה החשמונאית
This image belongs to the group pool: 500 Nature Reserves and National Parks in Israel
To see beautiful photos of Israel made by other photographers: click HERE