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The Wick Farm which was about 4 miles southwest of Morristown served as winter camp of the Continental Army both the winter of 1776-1777 and 1779-1780 along with the Kimbel Farm. Captain Henry Wick owned the farm which was 1400 acres of lumber basically was a perfect supply depot for the lumber needed to build the winter log cabins the soldiers would stay in. Parts of the Wick farm in Jockey Hollow are part the Morristown National Memorial Park commemorating the brave Revolutionary War heroes that spent two winters here while the British occupied New York City. This period wagon is near the actual Wick House of the farm part of the national park.
The windmill at John Muir National Historic Site with distant clouds prior to the last public campfire of Summer, 2014.
Rolling grassy fields close to CA 99 s. Amazing views and I had to pull over by the freeway to get this shot!
Took a trip to New Orleans. I had never been there before, don't really need to go back to the French Quarter, but the other sites around the city are very interesting
Cadillac Mountain located on Mount Desert Island in the Acadia National Park in Maine is the highest spot in the North Atlantic Seaboard. It’s one of 20 mountains on the Maine Island. Cadillac Mountain is named after the Frenchman, Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, Sieur de Cadillac.
My daughter snapped this wonderful capture on the summit while I was firing away with little Rocky by my side who spotted her shooting.
The Sandy Hook Lighthouse and Lighthouse Keepers Quarters in Sandy Hook New Jersey is part of the National Parks Gateway National Historic Area. The lighthouse first operated on the night of June 11, 1764. The lighthouse is still in operation and is the oldest operating lighthouse in the United States. The Lighthouse Keepers Quarters which date back to 1883 when it replaced the dilapidated former quarters was restored and now serves as the visitor center for this National Park. The lighthouse was originally 500 feet from the tip of the hook but because of expansion it is now 1 ½ miles from that point. It is located on the grounds of the former Fort Hancock which is no longer used by the US Army, but there is an active Coast Guard Station on the tip. The beaches of Sandy Hook to the south of the lighthouse were my first experience with the Jersey Shore beaches when I was child, prior to that my family went to Orchard Beach in the Bronx and Coney Island in Brooklyn. The maritime history that dates back to pre-Revolutionary War in this area has always fascinated me.
My family and I just returned from an (all too short) trip to Gatlinburg, Tennesse and the adjacent Great Smoky Mountains National Park in eastern Tennessee/Western North Carolina. www.nps.gov/grsm/index.htm
While in the area we stayed at The Lodge at Buckberry Creek www.buckberrylodge.com/ which proved to be a thoroughly enjoyable and quite rustic place to stay. It also afforded us a nice view of Clingmans Dome - the second highest mountain in all of the entire Appalachian range...(although to be honest, at 6600', it would be considered a "hill" at best if it was located in the western united states).
This photo is a 3-shot bracketed HDR from our patio toward Clingmans dome (center of photo). While I didn't get many photographic opportunities while on the trip, Ill post what I was able to capture over the next few weeks.
Photographed at Denali National Park. “Denali” is the only National Park in the United States that trains and maintains dog sled teams. The sled teams are used by park rangers to patrol the wilderness areas of the park in winter where motorized vehicles (snowmobiles) are prohibited. The winter temperatures routinely drop to -20 degrees Fahrenheit. However, because of the unique physiology of these dogs they are quite comfortable at these extreme temperatures. In fact, when invited indoors by rangers on very cold nights the dogs often prefer to sleep out doors. I have been enamored of these magnificent and beautiful dogs for a very long time.
This is referred to as Bacon. The Ranger was shining his flashlight through the speleothem which distorted the lighting but highlighted the color of the bacon.
This was the highlight and reason for my Southern Arizona Adventure 2024. This is stage 8 of 9.
I was lucky to secure permits for the once monthly photography tour of Kartchner Caverns. Kartchner Caverns State Park strictly forbids any cameras or cellphones in the Caverns. Except for one trip per month for 12 to 15 photographers currently $125. I planned a 4 day 3 night road trip around Southern Arizona anchored by my Kartchner Cavern permit.
I was expecting dark conditions. The State Park turned on all the lights in the Big Room. They don't like turning on all the lights since can cause an increase in algae. This is the reason they only have one photography tour a month.
I found myself adjusting my histograms to not clip the highlights. Adapt, Improvise, and Overcome. Next time I am going to bracket my shots. I almost wish I had brought a ND filter or tried a handheld GND filter.
I don't know speleothems so I won't even try to identify. If anyone can help me with the identification, I will appreciate it.
www.nps.gov/subjects/caves/speleothems.htm#:~:text=The%20...)%20when%20needed.
The features that arouse the greatest curiosity for most cave visitors are speleothems. These stone formations exhibit bizarre patterns and other-worldly forms, which give some caves a wonderland appearance. Caves vary widely in their displays of speleothems because of differences in temperature; overall wetness; and jointing, impurities, and structures in the rocks. In general, however, one thing caves do have in common is where speleothems form. Although the formation of caves typically takes place below the water table in the zone of saturation, the deposition of speleothems is not possible until caves are above the water table in the zone of aeration. As soon as the chamber is filled with air, the stage is set for the decoration phase of cave building to begin.
The term speleothem refers to the mode of occurrence of a mineral—i.e., its morphology or how it looks—in a cave, not its composition (Hill, 1997). For example, calcite, the most common cave mineral, is not a speleothem, but a calcite stalactite is a speleothem. A stalactite may be made of other minerals, such as halite or gypsum.
Classifying speleothems is tricky because no two speleothems are exactly alike. Nevertheless, speleologists have taken three basic approaches: classification by morphology, classification by origin, and classification by crystallography. All three of these approaches have their problems (Hill, 1997), so cavers often take a more practical approach that primarily uses morphology (e.g., cave pearls) but includes whatever is known about origin (e.g., geysermites) and crystallography (e.g., spar) when needed.
nocache.azcentral.com/travel/arizona/southern/articles/20...
The Kartchner Caverns, rated one of the world's 10 most beautiful caves, is an eerie wonderland of stalactites and stalagmites still growing beneath the Whetstone Mountains 40 miles southeast of Tucson.
The limestone cave has 13,000 feet of passages and hundreds of formations built over the past 200,000 years, including some that are unique and world-renowned. It's a "living cave," with intricate formations that continue to grow as water seeps, drips and flows from the walls and slowly deposits the mineral calcium carbonate.
The caverns were discovered by amateur spelunkers Randy Tufts and Gary Tenen in 1974 on land owned by the Kartchner family. They kept the cave a secret until 1988, when the Kartchners sold it to the state to become a state park.
The highlights of the Big Room tour are a stretch of strawberry flowstone, which has been colored red by iron oxide (rust) in the water, and a maternity ward for 1,800 female cave myotis bats, with black grime on the ceiling where the bats hang and piles of guano on the floor. Visitors who look closely will see a bat's body embedded in one of the cave's formations.
Though not all are available on the tours, the caverns' unique features include a 21-foot, 2-inch soda straw that's one the world's largest (Throne Room), the world's most extensive formation of brushite moonmilk (Big Room), the first reported occurrence of "turnip" shields (Big Room), the first cave occurrence of "birdsnest" needle quartz formations (Big Room) and the remains of a Shasta ground sloth from the Pleistocene Age (Big Room).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kartchner_Caverns_State_Park
Kartchner Caverns State Park is a state park of Arizona, United States, featuring a show cave with 2.4 miles (3.9 km) of passages.[1] The park is located 9 miles (14 km) south of the town of Benson and west of the north-flowing San Pedro River. Long hidden from view, the caverns were discovered in 1974 by local cavers, assisted by state biologist Erick Campbell who helped in its preservation.
The park encompasses most of a down-dropped block of Palaeozoic rocks on the east flank of the Whetstone Mountains.
The caverns are carved out of limestone and filled with spectacular speleothems which have been growing for 50,000 years or longer, and are still growing. Careful and technical cave state park development and maintenance, initially established by founder Dr. Bruce Randall "Randy" Tufts, geologist, were designed to protect and preserve the cave system throughout the park's development, and for perpetuity.[3]
The two major features of the caverns accessible to the public are the Throne Room and the Big Room. The Throne Room contains one of the world's longest (21 ft 2 in (6.45 m))[5] soda straw stalactites and a 58-foot (18 m) high column called Kubla Khan, after the poem. The Big Room contains the world's most extensive formation of brushite moonmilk. Big Room cave tours are closed during the summer for several months (April 15 to October 15) each year because it is a nursery roost for cave bats, however the Throne Room tours remain open year-round.[8]
Other features publicly accessible within the caverns include Mud Flats, Rotunda Room, Strawberry Room, and Cul-de-sac Passage. Approximately 60% of the cave system is not open to the public.[9]
Many different cave formations can be found within the caves and the surrounding park. These include cave bacon, helictites, soda straws, stalactites, stalagmites and others.[12] Cave formations like the stalactites and stalagmites grow approximately a 16th of an inch every 100 years.[13]
Haiku thoughts:
Beneath earth's cool veil,
Stalactites in silence grow,
Whispers of stone deep.
Kartchner
Southern Arizona Adventures 2024