I've never seen her so dirty. It's good tho! It means she's feeling good enough to roll around like a dingus!

Moderate, 6.5 mi loop w spurs

1,207 ft elevation gain

Hiked 3/20/24

Flickr Album

A highly popular loop taking you along a gravel wash in lower sections before passing under the vertical face of Manly Beacon after taking a slight detour to the Red Cathedral geologic formation. Views of varying colored cliff faces and hillsides will mesmerize and the trek is filled with delights. This is still in that period where a decent amount of photos were lost, so I don't have better pictures of the Red Cathedral from up close unfortunately.

The Red Cathedral stands above a canyon of tan mounds. Various trails branching out from closer to the Cathedral allow you to access the mounds.

Two large rocky hillsides with layers of diagonal light and dark brown banding may be seen with a ridgeline in the distance on the other side of Death Valley.

Rolling hills of light and dark brown patterned rock may be seen with a sloped ridgeline on the right of frame. A separate ridgeline on the far end of Death Valley may be sen in the distance.

What looked like a fungus growing along a rock, which wouldn't really make much sense in a desert setting like this. I would assume it is connected to the plant seen on both sides of frame, and would possibly be for seed dispersal, but I am not sure what the plant is. There wasn't enough exposed plant material for me to get an id on it either, so it's a mystery to me.

It was the third largest amphitheater in the empire, holding 25000. Game of Thrones did some filming in the city.

I keep crying because I'm so happy.

Coledale, Lake District, England, UK.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/24675555

Today is my best friends birthday. He would have been 50. Sadly he died on the 7th of this month.

Here one with him with my son who will turn 21 in March. He was always a good uncle to my kids.

This was the last time we saw him in person. He had been living in a nursing home for last three years. With him is my middle son.

Though we couldn't visit often (we live so far away) I spoke on the phone with him almost everyday.

I will miss him, he was best friend a guy could ask for. Won't ever have other like him.

Nature Walk

No elevation gain- located at 282 ft below sea level

Hiked 3/19/24

Flickr Album

During my trip to Death Valley in 2024, I was lucky enough to see Lake Manly, which was the first time it held water in 40 years. Badwater Basin is the lowest point in N. America, at -282 ft. Wading in the shallow water was like walking through an Epsom salt bath and was a once in a lifetime experience.

Looking up towards the sign post which shows where sea level is, 282 ft above my location on a cliff wall.

A pile of salts that has precipitated when the water was a little higher. I lost the photos of it, but when underwater it had a little more structure to it, with a lot of nodules linked together.

A view across Lake Manly near sunset. The sky at this point was still mainly blue leading to a little yellow and then a salmon pink in the lowest horizon. A ridgeline may be seen extending on the far side of the lake through the center of frame. One thing to note is that the ridgeline seen would be barely above sea level, so only high in relation to my location at -282 ft.

Moderate to Strenuous, 4.4 mi loop w spur down

1,319 ft elevation gain

Hiked 3/19/24

Flickr Album

Journey around and into a maar (explosion pit) volcano which formed ~2,100 years ago. The rim hike will also take you to Little Hebe, a smaller and more well defined perfect circle crater. The return from the crater bottom, if hiked, is steep and gravel footing will test your legs, but so worth it.

Looking down into Ubehebe Crater, with a sign showing a person falling that warns to be careful around the edge as the footing may be dangerous.

A photo of a flowering Desert Fivespot, Eremalche rotundfolia that was growing on the rim of the Ubehebe Crater. With the wildflower not fully opened, it has a ball-like appearance in this photo. Flower is pink with five different red streaks on the interior (two seen in photo).

Looking over towards the Little Hebe Crater, which is located right beside Ubehebe Crater. In the distance, a mountain ridge may be seen with slight snow caps on a couple of peaks.

I still can't believe he got away with this. The US is truly fucked.

I took this on New Years Eve with my Graflex Speed Graphic 4x5 camera that I recently restored.

Some fun history about the place: it was originally built in 1876 and on Saturdays they do tours where you can even see it in operation. It's a working museum.

It's the only grist mill in Washington that has maintained it original structural integrity, mills with stones, and is water powered.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.ca/c/mildlyinfuriating/p/434770/the-shrinkflation

Just a paper bag now. At this point they’re gonna bring back the supersize but it’ll just be a large lol

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaster

It's a special halter for exercising that gets a horse to hold themselves a certain way when on a lunge line. If it works like I hope, Sandy will utilize her back end muscles more during exercises and can hopefully help her get a lil muscle on her booty.

Moderate, 4.16 mi out and back

1,138 ft elevation gain

Hiked 3/18/24

Named for the mosaic breccia that form its canyon walls, this hike takes you into a splendid canyon made up of smaller rocks cemented together and smoothed by water over. The hike becomes more difficult as you go further up the canyon, leading to some scrambles before reaching an impassible wall.

An arrow made of rocks points to the scramble up a cliff wall at the end of a canyon. Mostly vertical, but manageable with effort along the hand and foot holds. Trail ends not too far after this iirc.

A Chuckwalla lizard hangs out on the side of a cliff wall.

A half moon rises above the steep peaks of a canyon wall in mid-afternoon.

Easy, 2.5 mi loop

170 ft elevation gain

Hiked 3/16/24

A breath-taking view over a pristine lake which is also highly accessible. With an elevation of roughly 7700 ft, the crystal clear waters of this stunning lake act as a mirror to the nearby mountains. Views are highly accessible from the beginning and the trail is easy and flat around the lake.

I wish that I had more photos from this hike, but there was a 1-2 week period shortly after I got my camera that I accidentally deleted a ton of photos. The biggest disappointment was losing the descent into death valley when the hillsides where filled with spring flowers. Oh well, excuse to return. Luckily, I had pulled some of them (such as the four from yesterday and these two among others), so it wasn't a total waste.

Looking across Convict Lake towards Mono Jim Peak and Mt Morrison behind it, a slight breeze casts ripples across an otherwise perfect mirror image in the water.

We’ve actually been in Hita to visit an old soy sauce brewery. Turns out that the author of Attack on Titan is from around there. Which is why there are many AoT related things around there. The funniest of them being this statue, erected directly in front of a nearby dam.

Additional photos (Taken with my phone, not the camera, so they look different):

Edit: Made this post twice. When made it originally, Lemmy wouldn't display the preview pic, which in a community called "pics" does seem important. I first replaced it with a downscaled version, but that didn't fix it for me, so I tried deleting the old post, and creating it anew. But that didn't work either. After checking it on my phone though, it seemed to work without issues, so I assume it's an issue with my desktop or something. I tried to delet the re-post and un-delete the original. But now both posts are visible somehow? Seems I haven't figured out something about how exactly lemmy works. No intention to spam this community. Sorry.

We've actually been in Hita to visit an old soy sauce brewery. Turns out that the author of Attack on Titan is from around there. Which is why there are many AoT related things around there. The funniest of them being this statue, erected directly in front of a nearby dam.

Additional photos (Taken with my phone, not the camera, so they look different):