Male backpacker descending from Mt. Bobotov Kuk (2,523m), the highest peak in Durmitor mountain range, with stunning view of Veliko Skrcko Jezero (Big Skrcka Lake) and Skrka Valley in background, located in Durmitor National Park, northern Montenegro.

© All rights reserved. You may not use this photo in website, blog or any other media without my explicit permission.

Street cafe in Civita di Bagnoregio

Clouds hanging over the summit of Mount Rinjani (3,726m), a massive volcano on Lombok island, Indonesia.

© All rights reserved. You may not use this photo in website, blog or any other media without my explicit permission.

Aerial view of Sighnaghi, a picturesque town nested in Caucasus mountains, overlooking the vast Alazani Valley, in Kakheti region of Georgia.

© All rights reserved. You may not use this photo in website, blog or any other media without my explicit permission.

We came across this incredible , snow-white spider in our explorations. On first glance, I assumed this was some sort of bizarre cave-dwelling spider with some very unique adaptations. Unfortunately, it was too high up on the cave wall to be able to study it well. I immediately posted the photo when I got home, and a friend suggested that it could be a spider covered in a fungus. A close inspection of a hard crop did seem to show similar patterns on the legs with another type of spider we came across in the cave. So in the end, this seems to be a variety of Huntsman spider (Sparassidae) infected with a pathogenic fungus, possibly a type of Cordyceps - www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuKjBIBBAL8

What a horrific way to go!

Check out my Facebook album for more complete descriptions:

www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.566287830090097.1073741...

omchai's Love Garden," officially known as The Kingdom of Somchai's Affection, is a secluded sculpture park on Koh Mak, Thailand, created by local artist Khun Somchai. The garden features numerous concrete statues of nude women in provocative poses, reflecting Somchai's unique artistic vision.

Havilah and Bodfish, Kern County, California. Downtown hotel. Corlew's Silver City - manufactured ghost town. Old buildings from all over the Kern Valley have been hauled in and re-arranged in the form of an old western town.

Corlew's Silver City, Bodfish, Kern County, California. Corlew's Silver City is a not a real ghost town, but a manufactured one. In the sixties and seventies, Dave and Arvilla Mills found several old, historic buildings from all over the Kern Valley region, hauled them to Bodfish and rearranged them to re-create the old western town of Silver City.

While the town itself is not real, nearly all of the buildings are authentic. Brought in from all over the area, from Keyesville to Isabella, from Whiskey Flat to Kernvale - many old towns and mining camps that are just a faded memory, or lost under the waters of nearby Lake Isabella. The Corlew family purchased the attraction and re-opened it in 1992, and have spent many hours restoring the buildings to an authentic state. Some of the buildings include the Isabella Jail, church, hotel, post office, saloon, and more.

Corlew's Silver City is waaaay off the beaten path, tucked away in the southern foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, roughly an hour northeast of Bakersfield, a few miles from Lake Isabella. It's a bit of a faded tourist stop, a little worse for wear from the ravages of time - but that's partly by design, because the buildings are meant to be preserved in a state of 'arrested decay'. A bit of tourist-trap kitsch with the creepy mannequin displays, but still worth the visit for old western buffs and history enthusiasts.

For more information on Corlew's Silver City, visit Their Official Website.

Or, visit the information page on www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/silvercity.html.

Picture taken December 16, 2007. Photo #30 of 60 of my Havilah and Bodfish' photoset.

This photograph is free for use on the internet under the 'Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial' license. You are free to copy, distribute, transmit and/or adapt this photograph without seeking permission first, as long as you provide attribution to the photograph (preferably by linking to this web page, or including the phrase 'Copyright Matthew Lee High'), and as long as the the photo is not used for commercial purposes. For more information about Creative Commons licenses, visit creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en.

Tourists walking on the boardwalk between the lakes, in Plitvice Lakes National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the mountainous karst area of central Croatia.

© All rights reserved. You may not use this photo in website, blog or any other media without my explicit permission.

Intentionally shaped with distinctive characteristics that convey that the tree was shaped by human activity rather than deformed by nature or disease. A massive network of constructed pre-Columbian roads and trails has been well documented across the Americas, and in many places remnants can still be found of trails used by hunters and gatherers. One unique characteristic of the trail marker tree is a horizontal bend several feet off the ground, which makes it visible at greater distances, even in snow. Even today, modern hunters look for horizontal shapes while hunting deer, elk, and moose.

Kerinci region, Sumatra, Indonesia

Havilah and Bodfish, Kern County, California. The Wells Fargo building. Corlew's Silver City - manufactured ghost town. Old buildings from all over the Kern Valley have been hauled in and re-arranged in the form of an old western town.

Corlew's Silver City, Bodfish, Kern County, California. Corlew's Silver City is a not a real ghost town, but a manufactured one. In the sixties and seventies, Dave and Arvilla Mills found several old, historic buildings from all over the Kern Valley region, hauled them to Bodfish and rearranged them to re-create the old western town of Silver City.

While the town itself is not real, nearly all of the buildings are authentic. Brought in from all over the area, from Keyesville to Isabella, from Whiskey Flat to Kernvale - many old towns and mining camps that are just a faded memory, or lost under the waters of nearby Lake Isabella. The Corlew family purchased the attraction and re-opened it in 1992, and have spent many hours restoring the buildings to an authentic state. Some of the buildings include the Isabella Jail, church, hotel, post office, saloon, and more.

Corlew's Silver City is waaaay off the beaten path, tucked away in the southern foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, roughly an hour northeast of Bakersfield, a few miles from Lake Isabella. It's a bit of a faded tourist stop, a little worse for wear from the ravages of time - but that's partly by design, because the buildings are meant to be preserved in a state of 'arrested decay'. A bit of tourist-trap kitsch with the creepy mannequin displays, but still worth the visit for old western buffs and history enthusiasts.

For more information on Corlew's Silver City, visit Their Official Website.

Or, visit the information page on www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/silvercity.html.

Picture taken December 16, 2007. Photo #25 of 60 of my Havilah and Bodfish' photoset.

This photograph is free for use on the internet under the 'Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial' license. You are free to copy, distribute, transmit and/or adapt this photograph without seeking permission first, as long as you provide attribution to the photograph (preferably by linking to this web page, or including the phrase 'Copyright Matthew Lee High'), and as long as the the photo is not used for commercial purposes. For more information about Creative Commons licenses, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en.

Kerinci Valley, Sumatra

Found abandoned inside the old Slick High School.

Barriles (known also as Sitio Barriles or by the designation BU-24), is one of the most famous archaeological sites in Panama. It is located in the highlands of the Chiriquí Province of Western Panama at 1200 meters above sea level. It is several kilometers west of the modern town of Volcán. This places the site in the Gran Chiriquí culture area (encompassing Western Panama and much of Southern Costa Rica, parts of the even broader Intermediate Area or Isthmo-Colombian Area). The site was originally named for several small stone barrels found in the area, although these have also been found elsewhere in the Río Chiriquí Viejo valley and in Costa Rica. This area has a cool, spring-like climate with a pronounced rainy season between May and November, and a dry but windy season the rest of the year. The region lies on the western flanks of Volcán Barú, a dormant volcano and the highest mountain in Panama.

Like El Caño in Central Panama or Panamá Viejo in Panama City, Barriles is one of the few archaeological sites in Panama regularly accessible to the public. The northwestern portion of the site is accessible to the public through the Landau finca (which is a private property), who have a variety of artifacts on display in their yard, in the walls of a fake excavation block, and in a small private museum. Not all of the artifacts on display were found on-site. The family offers guided tours of the collections and their gardens in both Spanish and English. Donations are greatly appreciated.

The site is believed to have once been a socioceremonial center with a substantial residential population between 500-1000 individuals. It contains a small mound which was once associated with a row of 14 statues. Ten of these depicted solitary individuals, while four included one individual- often chubbier, taller, wearing a conical hat and ornaments- riding atop the shoulders of a naked man, though some of these individuals also wore conical hats. Many scholars have interpreted these double individual statues as evidence for the existence of higher and lower status social groups within Barriles. A large metate (grinding stone) whose border was adorned by tiny stone heads has also been interpreted as evidence for violence or human sacrifice in the past. Many of the statues and the metate are on currently display in the Museo Antropológico Reina Torres de Araúz in Panama City.

source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barriles

Did I mention I have a thing for water towers? This one is in Eastmanville (right behind a satellite dish) -- I opted not to capture that disparate image.

Havilah and Bodfish, Kern County, California. Downtown hotel. Corlew's Silver City - manufactured ghost town. Old buildings from all over the Kern Valley have been hauled in and re-arranged in the form of an old western town.

Corlew's Silver City, Bodfish, Kern County, California. Corlew's Silver City is a not a real ghost town, but a manufactured one. In the sixties and seventies, Dave and Arvilla Mills found several old, historic buildings from all over the Kern Valley region, hauled them to Bodfish and rearranged them to re-create the old western town of Silver City.

While the town itself is not real, nearly all of the buildings are authentic. Brought in from all over the area, from Keyesville to Isabella, from Whiskey Flat to Kernvale - many old towns and mining camps that are just a faded memory, or lost under the waters of nearby Lake Isabella. The Corlew family purchased the attraction and re-opened it in 1992, and have spent many hours restoring the buildings to an authentic state. Some of the buildings include the Isabella Jail, church, hotel, post office, saloon, and more.

Corlew's Silver City is waaaay off the beaten path, tucked away in the southern foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, roughly an hour northeast of Bakersfield, a few miles from Lake Isabella. It's a bit of a faded tourist stop, a little worse for wear from the ravages of time - but that's partly by design, because the buildings are meant to be preserved in a state of 'arrested decay'. A bit of tourist-trap kitsch with the creepy mannequin displays, but still worth the visit for old western buffs and history enthusiasts.

For more information on Corlew's Silver City, visit Their Official Website.

Or, visit the information page on www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/silvercity.html.

Picture taken December 16, 2007. Photo #29 of 60 of my Havilah and Bodfish' photoset.

This photograph is free for use on the internet under the 'Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial' license. You are free to copy, distribute, transmit and/or adapt this photograph without seeking permission first, as long as you provide attribution to the photograph (preferably by linking to this web page, or including the phrase 'Copyright Matthew Lee High'), and as long as the the photo is not used for commercial purposes. For more information about Creative Commons licenses, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en.

Century Farms and Small Town Charm Along The Elkhorn Scenic Byway in Baker County Oregon

Spent a beautiful early summer day exploring small towns and century farms along the Elkhorn Scenic Byway in Baker County. Baker County is home to more than two dozen Oregon Century Farms and Ranches and the Elkhorn Scenic Byway and back roads along the way, are a great way to explore this working landscape of the American West.

Small towns along the way like Haines and Baker City offer visitors a glimpse at small town Americana at its best.

This scenic byway circles through the Elkhorn mountains of Northeast Oregon beginning and ending in Baker City and passing through small towns like Sumpter, Granite, and Haines. The drive is incredibly scenic with wide open panoramic views across the Baker valley, high alpine forests, and following pristine rivers and creeks along the way. In the winter Anthony Lakes is home to Oregon's highest base elevation ski resort. In the summer the pristine alpine lake is a fishing and camping destination. For more information about the Elkhorn Scenic Byway or other Baker County backroads and Scenic byways visit Baker County Tourism’s website www.basecampbaker.com

High angle view of Sveti Stefan ("Saint Stephen"), a fortified island village and 5-star hotel resort on the Adriatic coast of Montenegro, connected to the mainland by a narrow causeway. On the island are 15th-century stone villas overlooking an impeccable pink-sand beach and tempting turquoise waters.

© All rights reserved. You may not use this photo in website, blog or any other media without my explicit permission.

The Creighton Lied Art Gallery presents the Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibit of four senior students Rachel Bennett, Heather Burk, Michael Mayer and Peter Walsh. Each student is required to present his or her most recent work and identify the themes. These four candidates offer a wide range of artistic forms:

Rachel Bennett presents Dichotomies – figurative paintings

Heather Burk presents Off The Beaten Path – graphic design

Michael Mayer presents The Process – photographic new media

Peter Walsh presents Self In Story – figurative sculpture in installation

For more information, see

www.creighton.edu/ccas

www.facebook.com/creightonccas

www.twitter.com/creighton_ccas

Looking closer at this abandoned, weathered farm house (or storage shed) in Inland northern California, one can see the chicken wire window screen only stops the big bugs. Looking at the openings on the far wall, even bigger critters can enter. Tar paper may have once covered the walls.

Location map is only in the general area.

A visit to an ancient man made underground grotto (cave) that was equipped with olive oil making equipment during the Middle Ages. In this photo is a 15th century olive oil press.

Sights around Civita di Bagnoregio

Hiking and climbing vacation in the Alps

Rax-Schneeberg Group, Austria

25-28/08/2019

Havilah and Bodfish, Kern County, California. The old post office. Corlew's Silver City - manufactured ghost town. Old buildings from all over the Kern Valley have been hauled in and re-arranged in the form of an old western town.

Corlew's Silver City, Bodfish, Kern County, California. Corlew's Silver City is a not a real ghost town, but a manufactured one. In the sixties and seventies, Dave and Arvilla Mills found several old, historic buildings from all over the Kern Valley region, hauled them to Bodfish and rearranged them to re-create the old western town of Silver City.

While the town itself is not real, nearly all of the buildings are authentic. Brought in from all over the area, from Keyesville to Isabella, from Whiskey Flat to Kernvale - many old towns and mining camps that are just a faded memory, or lost under the waters of nearby Lake Isabella. The Corlew family purchased the attraction and re-opened it in 1992, and have spent many hours restoring the buildings to an authentic state. Some of the buildings include the Isabella Jail, church, hotel, post office, saloon, and more.

Corlew's Silver City is waaaay off the beaten path, tucked away in the southern foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, roughly an hour northeast of Bakersfield, a few miles from Lake Isabella. It's a bit of a faded tourist stop, a little worse for wear from the ravages of time - but that's partly by design, because the buildings are meant to be preserved in a state of 'arrested decay'. A bit of tourist-trap kitsch with the creepy mannequin displays, but still worth the visit for old western buffs and history enthusiasts.

For more information on Corlew's Silver City, visit Their Official Website.

Or, visit the information page on www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/silvercity.html.

Picture taken December 16, 2007. Photo #34 of 60 of my Havilah and Bodfish' photoset.

This photograph is free for use on the internet under the 'Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial' license. You are free to copy, distribute, transmit and/or adapt this photograph without seeking permission first, as long as you provide attribution to the photograph (preferably by linking to this web page, or including the phrase 'Copyright Matthew Lee High'), and as long as the the photo is not used for commercial purposes. For more information about Creative Commons licenses, visit creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en.

Havilah and Bodfish, Kern County, California. Corlew's Silver City - manufactured ghost town. Old buildings from all over the Kern Valley have been hauled in and re-arranged in the form of an old western town.

Corlew's Silver City, Bodfish, Kern County, California. Corlew's Silver City is a not a real ghost town, but a manufactured one. In the sixties and seventies, Dave and Arvilla Mills found several old, historic buildings from all over the Kern Valley region, hauled them to Bodfish and rearranged them to re-create the old western town of Silver City.

While the town itself is not real, nearly all of the buildings are authentic. Brought in from all over the area, from Keyesville to Isabella, from Whiskey Flat to Kernvale - many old towns and mining camps that are just a faded memory, or lost under the waters of nearby Lake Isabella. The Corlew family purchased the attraction and re-opened it in 1992, and have spent many hours restoring the buildings to an authentic state. Some of the buildings include the Isabella Jail, church, hotel, post office, saloon, and more.

Corlew's Silver City is waaaay off the beaten path, tucked away in the southern foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, roughly an hour northeast of Bakersfield, a few miles from Lake Isabella. It's a bit of a faded tourist stop, a little worse for wear from the ravages of time - but that's partly by design, because the buildings are meant to be preserved in a state of 'arrested decay'. A bit of tourist-trap kitsch with the creepy mannequin displays, but still worth the visit for old western buffs and history enthusiasts.

For more information on Corlew's Silver City, visit Their Official Website.

Or, visit the information page on www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/silvercity.html.

Picture taken December 16, 2007. Photo #23 of 60 of my Havilah and Bodfish' photoset.

This photograph is free for use on the internet under the 'Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial' license. You are free to copy, distribute, transmit and/or adapt this photograph without seeking permission first, as long as you provide attribution to the photograph (preferably by linking to this web page, or including the phrase 'Copyright Matthew Lee High'), and as long as the the photo is not used for commercial purposes. For more information about Creative Commons licenses, visit creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en.

Manaslu, world's eighth highest peak (8,163 metres) at sunrise, Samagaon, Nepal

Aerial view of Lake Segara Anak ("child of the sea"), a crater lake next to the mighty Rinjani mountain, a massive volcano, on the island of Lombok, Indonesia.

© All rights reserved. You may not use this photo in website, blog or any other media without my explicit permission.

Kerinci region, Sumatra, Indonesia.

Mt. Kunyit is an active volcano in the Kerinci Seblat National Park, Sumatra, Indonesia. The trek to the crater takes about six hours, and passes through beautiful cloud forests and beside fumrole volcanic vents. In the middle of the crater lies a bubbling hotspring, and what locals call "Taman Dewa" or "The Garden of the Gods." It has a spiritual, mythical place in local folklore, and is the site where local hero Depati Parbo meditated to supposedly gain invulnerability to Dutch bullets during the war for Kerinci.

See more detailed descriptions of the pictures at www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.592735630778650.1073741...

and read more about the Kerinci area at www.wildsumatra.com

A Titan Arum (Amorphophallus Titanum) in the wild, near the edge of the Kerinci Seblat National Park, Sumatra, Indonesia

www.projectnoah.org/spottings/22087212

The Creighton Lied Art Gallery presents the Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibit of four senior students Rachel Bennett, Heather Burk, Michael Mayer and Peter Walsh. Each student is required to present his or her most recent work and identify the themes. These four candidates offer a wide range of artistic forms:

Rachel Bennett presents Dichotomies – figurative paintings

Heather Burk presents Off The Beaten Path – graphic design

Michael Mayer presents The Process – photographic new media

Peter Walsh presents Self In Story – figurative sculpture in installation

For more information, see

www.creighton.edu/ccas

www.facebook.com/creightonccas

www.twitter.com/creighton_ccas

The Creighton Lied Art Gallery presents the Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibit of four senior students Rachel Bennett, Heather Burk, Michael Mayer and Peter Walsh. Each student is required to present his or her most recent work and identify the themes. These four candidates offer a wide range of artistic forms:

Rachel Bennett presents Dichotomies – figurative paintings

Heather Burk presents Off The Beaten Path – graphic design

Michael Mayer presents The Process – photographic new media

Peter Walsh presents Self In Story – figurative sculpture in installation

For more information, see

www.creighton.edu/ccas

www.facebook.com/creightonccas

www.twitter.com/creighton_ccas

The Creighton Lied Art Gallery presents the Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibit of four senior students Rachel Bennett, Heather Burk, Michael Mayer and Peter Walsh. Each student is required to present his or her most recent work and identify the themes. These four candidates offer a wide range of artistic forms:

Rachel Bennett presents Dichotomies – figurative paintings

Heather Burk presents Off The Beaten Path – graphic design

Michael Mayer presents The Process – photographic new media

Peter Walsh presents Self In Story – figurative sculpture in installation

For more information, see

www.creighton.edu/ccas

www.facebook.com/creightonccas

www.twitter.com/creighton_ccas

The main entrance into Civita di Bagnoregio.

Mt. Kunyit is an active volcano in the Kerinci Seblat National Park, Sumatra, Indonesia. The trek to the crater takes about six hours, and passes through beautiful cloud forests and beside fumrole volcanic vents. In the middle of the crater lies a bubbling hotspring, and what locals call "Taman Dewa" or "The Garden of the Gods." It has a spiritual, mythical place in local folklore, and is the site where local hero Depati Parbo meditated to supposedly gain invulnerability to Dutch bullets during the war for Kerinci.

See more detailed descriptions of the pictures at www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.592735630778650.1073741...

and read more about the Kerinci area at www.wildsumatra.com

This 75m waterfall is about a three hour hike from the village of Pulau Tengah, Kerinci, Sumatra.