fstopandsee

A quick hike up 400 steps to the top of Mount Royal rewards you with this view of Montreal! We made it up here just before sunset and were able to spot the places we had been earlier in the day throughout the city.

The hike to Lake Aloha is well worth it, especially if you take the water taxi across Echo Lake to cut off a few miles. This ended up being a 13 mile hike with a few extra detours. I took the extra trip up the loose rocks to get a good view of the whole lake and Pyramid Peak hanging on to some late summer snow.

A very wet and misty day set the mood for my trip to Mount Rainier. No big views of the volcano, but I quite liked the clouds and fog that were everywhere.

This angle of Christine Falls is not the one you normally see. I took this from the bridge very close to the falls, where the water drops straight down below you only a few feet away. There is a viewpoint down the road, but I decided to get up to the edge of the bridge, and shoot it top to bottom in a vertical panorama. This distorts the height of the falls and makes it feel like it is snaking through the rocks in front of you.

One thing I love about the San Francisco Bay Area is the diversity of the surroundings. You can look to the east and see the rolling brown hills, look to the west and see green and trees. In the early morning there is often a layer of clouds that quickly burn off for a day of blue skies. This one spot seemed have all of those different environments at the same time.

As a kid I remember catching snowflakes on my finger or on my tongue. This wolf wants in on the action as well, and is happy to let the falling snow pile up on his nose.

I was very close to this wolf, but was also pretty safe from him at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. These particular wolves can’t be released into the wild for various reasons, but can be observed quite close up. I was not enjoying the very cold weather, but this wolf didn’t seem to mind. We could both appreciate the falling snow, for me because it meant I was going skiing the next day, and the wolf just seemed to like having snow on his nose.

The redwoods generally steal the show at Mt. Tam, but these rolling hills are what caught my eye. Different layers of grassy hills make their way to the ocean for this awesome sunset.