Mount Tamalpais State Park, California
We’re standing on Mount Tam at an elevation of roughly 2000 feet (call it 600 meters) looking out on the Pacific Ocean. Note the whitecaps on the waves below.
The layer of clouds in front of us is the marine layer, a foggy boundary between the cold air from the upwelling ocean and the warmer air higher up. This thermal ordering is not the usual way of things and is also called a thermal inversion. The term coastal fog is often used for this phenomenon.
The marine layer is common during the summer months along the California coast. On this particular summer day the marine layer was standing off the coast.
The name Tamalpais is “west hill” in the indigenous Coast Miwok language. The locals refer to it as simply “Mount Tam”.
Tags: California Marin County Mount Tam Mount Tamalpais Mount Tamalpais State Park Mt Tam Mt Tamalpais Pseudotsuga menziesii Tamalpais USA United States coastal fog douglas fir fog landscape marine layer ocean pacific pacific ocean park sea sky state park summer tree water
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Eastern Sierra, California
The south fork of Bishop Creek appears out of the underbrush and sweeps past, turning to our right.
Tags: Bishop Creek California Eastern Sierra Inyo County Inyo National Forest Populus tremuloides Sierra Sierra Nevada South Fork USA United States aspen autumn creek fall landscape tree willow
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Yosemite Valley, Yosemite, California
The cliffs surrounding Yosemite Valley are continually shedding rock into the valley below. The resulting accumulations are called talus piles. The last glacial advance cleared the talus piles from the eastern end of the valley, so any present accumulations date from the last 15,000 years or so.
Here a pile of large and small boulders have formed a shallow cave. I don't think it is deep enough to satisfy a bear (and it is much too close to a trail), but I suspect similar constructions might be used by hibernating bears in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Tags: California USA United States Yosemite Yosemite National Park Yosemite Valley boulder cave landscape national park outdoor spring talus tree
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Death Valley, California
High up on a dry wash, a channel cuts through the scene. Colorful soft sediments form a backdrop within the badlands. A hard plug of material in the foreground vainly resists the persistent erosive force of water.
Tags: 20 Mule Team Canyon California Death Valley Death Valley National Park Twenty Mule Team Canyon USA United States badlands landscape national park park
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Zabriskie Point, Death Valley, California
We are looking west across Death Valley from a ridge line along the north side of Zabriskie Point. The sun has cleared the mountains in the east and is lighting Manly Beacon, a peak between Zabriskie Point and Golden Canyon. Over Manly's south shoulder we see the salt pans on the valley floor giving way to an alluvial fan at the base of the Panamint Mountains.
What strikes me about this landscape is how thoroughly it has been created by water. Zabriskie Point and its companion Golden Canyon are badlands of soft eroded sediments. The valley floor is 2400 meters of deposits washed down from the mountains. The salt pan arises from evaporation of the endorheic (no outflow) prehistoric Lake Manly. The alluvial fan is a classic water deposition feature.
Yet this area is beyond arid. Death Valley is in the rain shadow of four successive mountain ranges. It is one of the hottest places on the planet. It receives an average of five centimeters of rain per year, but its evaporation rate could carry off 325 centimeters.
Tags: Death Valley National Park peak salt pan alluvial fan National Park salt flats Zabriskie landscape Death Valley Panamint Zabriskie Point badlands Manly mts beacon mountains California dry arid
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