The Great Outdoors ....No, the real kind.

I just got back from camping in Sequoia National Park with my wife. I really love that place. It's beautiful and breathtaking (you have to see a giant sequoia in person to really understand how massive they really are). Plus, it's not nearly as busy as its neighbor Yosemite to the north. The hiking is exceptional and there is plenty of wildlife to examine.
Here are a few pictures I took that give a few peeks of what you can expect.

This first one is my wife in front of General Sherman, the largest living organism on the planet:


This is the roots of another fallen giant sequoia:


This is Moro Rock, one of the places we hiked. When you get to the top (the really little dots at the top are people) you can see the Great Western Divide:


This last one is us at the top of Moro Rock, with the Divide in the background:


There is plenty more to see in the park. The massive sequoias make you feel like you're on another planet. We also visited the Crystal Cave, but the lighting in the cave didn't really work out for our consumer camera, but it was also a sight to see.

If you're looking for a good place to get outdoors and not be overwhelmed by others trying to do the same, you can't miss at this park!

I'm doing a huge trip, leaving next Wednesday, to do this exact thing. Driving across the Northern part of the country, passing through Badlands, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, to visit friends in Portland. Tieman, I was going to just pass through Yosemite on my way back but your pictures have convinced me I should go through Sequoi - thanks. Maybe I'll post pictures when I get back.

Those pictures literally awesome. Jealous! I go on outdoor trips whenever I can.

I live in a kind of paradise. I'm thinking of taking up snowshoeing this year, that should make for some interesting shots.

Seabass... ugh. You continue to rip the jealously out of me everytime you post pictures.

What kind of camera do you have? The quality of those pictures is excellent.

I am going to hunt you down, Seabass. But instead of killing you out of envy, I'll end up moving in. What's the rent?!??

Good god is that gorgeous.

I live next to a swamp.

Buh, this thread is sleep inducing. Nature? Who needs it?

What's great about that shot (in this thread) is you don't realize the scale until you scroll to the bottom and see your teeny wife at the base.

And holy shit, Seabass.

I miss the mountains and forests of the North (grew up in North-Eastern PA). My backyard in FL here scares me. It'll eat you alive. There's no such thing as landscaping. It's basically "keeping the swamp from reclaiming your house"... Bugs, vegetation, reptiles, etc.

Seabass, I wish I had your camera for my trip. I am also interested in what camera you used for those shots.

And I need to visit Alkali Lake. How many hours north of Vancouver is that?

Those pictures are just gorgeous. I do have to confess to not being much of an outdoorsy girl myself, but I can sure appreciate the beauty in those shots. General Sherman is unbelievable.

Edited: Damn, my flickr account is acting funny...I'll post some after the weekend!

These are just point-and-shoot shots. The first and third were taken with a Nikon Coolpix 3200, and the second with a 5600. I prefer the 3200; there's something weird going on with the white balance on the 5600 and I end up with a lot of green skies.

I don't live in Alkali Lake, B.C. My location refers to the super secret home of the Weapon X Project from the X-Men movies. Check this out:

Logan, shocked at being found on film:



A shot of Mt. Lyautey, on the shore of Upper Kananaskis Lake:

I had a 5400 that a friend gave to me after he bought a smaller camera, and it took some pretty good shots the first month or so that I had it. After that, I ended up with some weird purple coloring, and then it just flat out died.

Still, I'm getting ready to buy an SLR in the near future, and I'll probably go with a Nikon...

Returning from the de-rail:

In Jersey, there's a region known as the Delaware Water Gap (referring to the Delaware River) that has hiking trails, including a segment of the Appalachian trail, which runs continuously from Maine to Georgia. There's no scenery here to rival what Tieman and Seabass have posted, but there's some neat stuff. Crater Lake and the Rattlesnake Swamp are pretty cool. There's also a rail that isn't open every year called the Rock Cores Trail that I just love. They were going to build a dam years ago, and drilled out massive core samples from the bedrock, the width of a large manhole and 50' long. They discarded them in the woods. Even if the trail isn't open, the cores are on the ground of a slope between the main road in the area at the bottom and the AT at the top of the ridge, so it's impossible to get lost if you have to do a little trailblazing to find it (you just wal back up or down the slope to get back on familiar teritory). The cores are kind of neat to look at, contemplate the scale of the industry necessary to pull them out of the earth. I've also seen bears here, which was an unheard of thing in New Jersey in my lifetime until recently.

Obvious as it may be, the South rim of the Grand Canyon can't be beat in my experience for raw scenery. A hike halfway down the rim and back is brutal, but was one of the best things I've ever done.

The Tony Knowles Coastal Trail in Anchorage is also exceptional. It's paved, which kind of takes away from the rustic outdoorsiness of it, and well used by everything from mountaion bikers to dog walkers. At times, you look to your left and you're almost in somebody's backyard. But at other times, you're plunged into patches of forest, and can leave the paved trail to follow trails made by the hikers and bikers over hummocks formed by the 1969 Good Friday Earthquake. You pass thru several parks along the way, including Earthquake Park, w/ interpretive signs about the quake, and some damned impressive drop offs formed by liquefying sediment and landslides. When you reach Point Woronzoff, you're at the foot of the Airport, and lanes are taking off over your head. You can stand at the lookout & see downtown Anchorage to your right and Mount McKinley to the left. Pretty impressive, even if you are sdtanding amongst picnic tables and next to a parking lot. I wasn't able to hike the whole thibg, but if you continue all the way to the end, you wind up in a park where moose sightings are a guaranteed daily occurrence. If I ever get back there, I'm hiking all the way to the end if it kills me. The whole thing is about 12 miles one way, mostly level if you stay on the paved part. One of the best things about my recent Alaskan vacation.

Cruising thru Glacier Bay to watch icebergs calve from the glaciers was also an incredible sight. If you ever get the chance, go do this. This was another of the best parts of my Alaska adventure.

One of the best parts of my Hawaiian honeymoon was hiking the Kalalau Trail in Kauai. You start out in rainforest, ascending a slope, until you look out over the coast. Then you descend to the coast itself, cross a stream that empties out into the ocean, and back up thru the rainforest alongside said stream until you reach a gorgeous set of falls. Then you have to go back. Round trip is just over 8 miles.

I was on the same island about 4 years back. Probably not the same trail (it was more interior), but our week-long vacation was rained on the entire time and I still had a blast. We hiked through the muddy rainforest with the wrong shoes (I had sandals) and hiked most of the way barefoot. My wife, who was into her 1st trimester of pregnancy, called it quits at the halfway point (which was also the highest part) becuase if she continued down the slope with us, she might not have the energy to make it back (ah pregnancy). The destination was a beautiful waterfall (which I scaled barefoot up the side). I still can't believe that I had the balls to jump off it, into the water far below (I couldn't lose face in front of my buddy's hot friend that took us up there). I wish I had the camera to prove that idiotic moment of my life (I had witnesses).

Honolulu sunset (off the back balcony of my friend's apartment). Maybe not "great outdoors" enough (being in the city), but just blocks away from the beach and breathtaking:



Primordial Skull Island or the deserted island from LOST? The foggy mountain jungle we hiked through:



Me surfing a longboard at Waikiki (North Shore was way too dangerous for me that trip with the week-long storm):

It had rained for the week before we got there as well. lessened the Maui experience considerably. I wonder if we were there the same time? I was in my full MMR (MaxiMum Ridiculousness) hiking gear; 12 year old pair of well broken in 8" high Timberlands, army fatigue pants, big blue LL Bean backpack, web belt & military style suspenders w/ 2 - count 'em 2 - 2 qt. canteens, battered black baseball cap, and 2 black wristbands. A unique get up, to say the least. My wife did not accompany me, and I was late getting back to the trailhead. She asked everyone who got off the trail if they'd seen a guy fitting my description. They all said "Yeah, we passed him about 15 minutes ago." Or something similar. Just before I got off the trail, some skinny fuck in a speedo and carrying his sandals passed me like I was standing still w/ a snide "On your left."

That wasn't you, was it?

Jersey is largely swampland. Maybe for that reason I'm biased, but I dig swamps. Hard to hike in, but fun to explore in some fashion.

These were taken back in March down on a shitty little beach by our house:




That spot (roughly) back in May:

Glad to see this thread didn't get completely wiped out with the revamp.

I just got back from a nice week-long vacation with my wife for our 2-year anniversary. We went to the Grand Canyon (by way of the train from Williams, AZ), Sedona, & Zion National Park.

Here's the Grand Canyon:


You really can't do the Grand Canyon justice with pictures. They just can't get across the massive scale. Here's just a hint:
Take a look at the upper right corner of this shot. The brown smudge is actually a hotel.


If you zoom in on the red-boxed area above, you will see two tiny dots (circled in red below). Those are hikers.


This is the view from our hotel room in Sedona, AZ

It's tough to see, but the rock formation on the far right is called "Snoopy Rock" since it looks like Snoopy laying on top of his doghouse.

Here's Checkerboard Rock in Zion National Park. As a side note, right after I took this picture, some little kid clocked me in the head with a block of ice (he thought the dirty snow on the side of the road would be good to throw at total strangers). Of course, when I turned and screamed "WHAT THE FUCK!" at him with blood trickling down my face, I think I got my revenge.


Zion also loses something when viewed through pictures instead of in person. This final shot looks even more impressive in real life:

I like the Grand Canyon, but I LOVE Bryce Canyon (which, despite the name, isn't a canyon at all). My mother and I went there last summer when we were roadtripping down to Arizona.



Sedona's nice, although I think the tourist overflow can be exhausting at times. Did you happen to visit the Cathedral of the Rock?



Annoying stuff: we were walking down the trail and this young couple, each carrying a drink, decided to dump their Coke on some flowers where it specifically said, 'Do not dump' (or something like that).

The advantage of going on vacation in mid-February is that there is not a glut of other tourists to deal with.

I had a bunch of pics up here that got lost in the revamp, but I have almost the same exact pictures of Zion and Bryce Canyon. I really wish I could be back there. It's nice being out in beautiful country.

I think I had some too, nevertheless, I'll post a link the rest of them:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/73886972@N00/

Tieman, the zoom in on the hikers probably doesn't give the scale of the canyon, but it impressed the hell out of me. Really have to get out there and see that...

This is an old (over 10 years!) picture, but one of my favorites*. My brother and I were in high school at the time, and we just didn't feel like going to school that day. So I distracted my parents that morning while he put the surfboards in the back of the truck. It was a winter month, so by the time we got to the beach the sun had just come up. The water was too damn cold for me, but he went right for it and was in there for over an hour.

It was taken on film, and the only print (lost the negative) caught some wear & tear over the years. I scanned it and tried to clean it up the best I could a couple of years ago, but it's still not in top quality. Still, you should be able to see him surfing on the left side of the shot, depending on your monitor. Full size version is here.



*Mainly because most of my pictures consist of drunken shenanigans. It's a rare good photo.

I think that's a freakin GREAT picture, WayDen

I went down to Acapulco to visit with family (hadn't been there in 14 years!) a couple of weeks ago, and bought a Nikon D80 right before I left. This pic's a little grainy (ISO was way too high), but it conveys one of the great views you get of the city as you drive down through the mountains (from the airport) towards the city. The whole city wraps around a bay on the southern coast of Mexico, and while the view is nice during the daytime, it's really stunning at night.

I stitched this together from 5 different pics taken at 30 second exposures. The panorama still needs a little bit of work, especially when viewing it at a larger size.

What's the scale of what I'm looking at? That place looks awesome.


Lots of great photos in here guys, thanks for bumping the thread.

Visit scenic Calgary indeed!

I have a big finish planned this year, too.

I've visited a bunch of places, but Australia, Jamaica, Peru, and Hawaii have some of the most beautiful vistas that I've seen. I'm not at computer with all my photos, but here are two I can post right now.



Hiking the Inca Trail to Macchu Pichhu (circa 2004).



Hiking the Kings Head trail in Maui and catching a rainbow over the lava rocks (circa 2007).


Keopuka Rock from the opening shot of Jurassic Park.


Scene from where my friends got married in Maui.

How long does that hike take to Machu Picchu?

The hoodoos are up to 200 ft high. That amphitheater gets to about 800 ft deep. This is from Wikipedia.