Grey Skies

Here's a local butte, taken on a recent hike on a rare cloudy morning. I prefer sunny skies.

Skywatch Friday

Ruby Falls!

I've shown you some of the Ruby Falls cavern (which you walk through to get to the waterfall) in the last couple of posts, but the spectacular part is the destination, completely within part of the cave. After walking for a while the waterfall becomes audible, and eventually you come to its cavern.

The lights change as you watch.

In my opinion you don't get to spend enough time at the waterfall, but it's certainly impressive while you're there.

Hippo (1)

From the zoo, here's a playful hippopotamus for Camera Critters and Saturday's Critters.

Peak Moods (12) - Stormy Again

With all the stormy and snowy photos I post my readers must think that I live in a cold place with a horrible climate. Here's another cold and stormy photo, for my Peak Moods series of photos linked with Skywatch Friday, which are of Pikes Peak taken from my front porch, always within the previous week.

In fact it's usually sunny and rarely cold where I live, but that doesn't make for good photos so you don't see it as often. This weekend I went for several walks with the dogs in the warm sunshine, including in a nearby forest.

Ruby Falls Formations

Here are some lovely natural rock formations in the cave that leads to Ruby Falls.

Part of the attraction was how well everything was lit.

Next week I'll show you the actual waterfall.

Our World Tuesday

White Flowers

I took these photos Thursday morning.

Yes, it's been snowing again! (This last photo was taken with my brand-new lens, a 6.5 mm fisheye, providing an incredibly wide angle of view.)

Floral Friday

Seasons

Birds, Birds, Birds!

Skywatch Friday

Ruby Falls (1)

Ruby Falls is in a cave near the Tennessee/Georgia border, near Rock City about which I've already posted. It's your basic tourist trap, but definitely worth seeing.

For this post I'm showing you the well-lit trail through the cave; there's more to come.

Our World Tuesday

Uncle Sam!

I don't remember the details behind this photo, but I took it in 1990 when I lived in the Washington DC area. I discovered it when going through some old scans. It wasn't in good shape but I cleaned it up the best I could.

Peak Moods (11) - Refreshing

This photo was taken for Skywatch Friday yesterday morning from my front porch. I loved seeing all the new overnight snow on this 14,115-foot (4,302 meter) high mountain. Notice the very clear snowline just below treeline.

Palmer Reservoirs

Palmer Reservoirs is one of my most frequent hikes because it's nearby...

...but still has some nice views.

These photos are actually from last summer, but I'm sure I'll have more in the next few weeks.

Our World Tuesday

Grizzly

Camera Critters

Saturday's Critters

Zoo View (2)

For Skywatch Friday, here's another view from the wonderful Cheyenne Mountain Zoo here in Colorado Springs.

Winter Blast

We had a warm, sunny winter. But spring has seen snow, the most recent on Friday night and Saturday, when about 8 inches (20 cm) fell in our neighborhood.

It's been cold too, with temperatures falling to 23 °F (-5 °C) Saturday night. But it does make for some pretty scenes.

It's already mostly melted and hopefully winter won't make another return, although snow in May isn't unusual at our elevation of 7,100 feet (2,164 meters) above sea level. And that's a cold entry for Our World Tuesday.