Jewel Cave, May 11

We visited Jewel Cave in South Dakota, and it was our first experience being so far under ground. The tour was somewhat cheesy at points, but I got some cool pictures and we learned some neat things.

We thought this looked kind of like bacon:

OHMYGODSOSPOOKY!

I forget what this is called, but it's really rare (the vertical straw-like bit, not the brains-like bits)

Cave popcorn:

This looks like guts or something equally gross...

And this is actually called "cave bacon" because it really looks like a strip of bacon. The right amount of water coming down at the right angle with just the right minerals will create this ribbon of bacony-goodness.

-Lily

Yellowstone National Park, May 8 and 9

Our trip through Yellowstone was incredible. We will post a regular blog about it as soon as we can, but for now, here are some photos of what we saw.


We saw bison everywhere. And even more bison poop even more everywhere! By the way, these animals are HUGE. You read that they're 2000lbs, but it doesn't really sink in until you see one in person.
Yellowstone has the highest concentration of hot springs and geysers in the world. And all that hot water underground makes for some beautiful mineral salts and explosive bubbling.







Just a pretty waterfall.

Morning Glory Hot Spring. Apparently it used to look even cooler than this!


Awesome green "living thermometer". The different minerals make different colors at different temperatures in the water.

This shot came out really well. It doesn't look like it actually exists on this planet.
-Lily

Monterey Bay Aquarium, Dec 22

Some pictures from our visit to Monterey Bay Aquarium with my Grandma.

These frogs were really cool looking.



I think most of my family has seen the jellyfish exhibit at the MB Aquarium, and more than one of us has taken pictures, but I still wanted to post my best shot:

And the awesomest animal in the ocean, the Leafy Seahorse! (Or weedy seahorse... It's cool regardless of its name)

-Lily

Long-awaited Zion NP photos! Nov 23

So these photos are six months late... But we honestly forgot that we'd never posted them! Enjoy. (as always, click the image for a larger size.)













This was a really huge bug we saw at one of the parking lots. It was about two or three inches long! I had to uncover it a couple of times to get a good shot; it kept crawling under the leaves.

Maybe I could sell this next photo for millions of dollars and we could continue this trip forever (translation: I think this photo came out fantastic!).


Coming soon are shots from Yellowstone and Badlands Nat'l parks.

-Lily

Bryce Canyon National Park, Nov 21

The are pictures from Bryce Canyon NP, our favorite of the five Utah national parks. In Bryce Canyon, for at least 200 days a year, water freezes at night and then melts during the day. The expansion of the water between the rocks when it freezes at night forces the rock farther and farther apart, creating a series of rock towers called hoodoos. For shear multitude of cool rock formations, Bryce is the place to go. Instead of captions, Ben named each picture.

Fairyland

Tree

Into the depths

Straight and narrow

The path

Forest interrupted

White (sandstone) power

Red gate

City

Rock forest

Layers

Hell meets Earth

-Lily (with help from Ben)

Canyonlands National Park, Nov 16 & 17

Ben and I spent a couple days at Canyonlands NP and of course saw some amazing natural architecture. The Colorado and Green Rivers combine to create, over millions of years, a huge mesa called Island in the Sky. The mesa is surrounded by 2000 ft. deep canyons formed by the rivers on each side. Here are the pictures:





Ben took a hike to up to Upheaval Dome, a huge crater with mountains of salt formed at the bottom. The creation of the dome is a mystery, but some geologists believe it to be ground zero for a huge meteor impact millions of years ago.

These pictures were taken on top of Aztec Butte, where wind had eroded the sandstone and formed a series of caves at the top. Ancient Puebloans used these caves as granaries by building stone walls around the open end of the cave and storing their food. We couldn't believe it, because the hike up this butte was NOT easy.




And finally, our first nice picture of Inigo, now displayed on the travel blog.


-Lily