Classic Zion National Park in Autumn

We have traveled many places in but we had never been to Zion National park in Utah until this Fall. For some reason, we always thought it was so far way in Utah. But when I sit down and researched, it was only about 6 hours drive from Orange County. It was not that far. We arrived at on late Saturday afternoon and had a few hours to explore outside of the park. It was so beautiful. We took a stroll along the Pa'rus Trail which next the Virgin River. Then I stumbled upon this viewpoint of the Watchman. I quickly set up my tripod and captured some photos as the sun setting. To be honest, I looked at so many photo of the Watchman bridge view that I didn't even want to go directly there.

But as you can see in the following photo, we did come to the Bridge the next day and took the post card shot. Even though the weather was not as good as the day before, we had a blast. There were so many photographers on the Bridge that we didn't have a place to stay.

It was dry and warm this year so foliage was not at its peak condition. However, it was still the most gorgeous place that we have been to recently.

The park was so beautiful. I wish we had time to stay for a few days instead just a weekend. But work and life had to come first.

The Grand Canyon - South Rim

The Grand Canyon is one of the most visited National Parks in the US. Yet, we didn't have a chance to visit it until last week. This was the first place we traveled outside of California. We tried to explore California as much as we could before venture out to a different state.

For some reason, we used to think that Grand Canyon is a dried up kind of place like other desert areas (namely Death Valley). But it turned out to be a lot greener than we expected. We arrived in the South Rim on the Labor day weekend and it was crowded; however the weather was really nice comfortable. It had been on and off for months and it just stopped a day or two before our visit (ugh, we wanted a lot of cloud). It was a sunny and hazy day. It was not a really great day weather-wise for photographing but we had a blast anyway.

We just visited a tiny part of this national park and it took a whole day. There are so many places that we planned to visit but didn't have a chance. We'd love to come back one day and explore different part of this wonderful place which has been reserved in time for billions of years.

Lotus - The flower of Enlightenment

"While growing from mud, it is unstained." - Zhou Dunyi

 Lotus is a beautiful aquatic plant that has a deep cultural meaning in Asian cultures.It is also a key symbol of Buddhism. Raising above the murky water, its flowers give a wonderful scent which people use to infuse into tea for thousand of years. Lotus is my favorite flower to capture maybe because I am Vietnamese. The flower always has some deep meaning to me whenever I set out to photograph it. It is beautiful yet it is hard to capture right. Every early summer or late spring, lotus blooms vigorously in the northern hemisphere. And as always, we drive to our local park and capture its beauty. Year after year, but I'm still intrigue. Enjoy.

 

 

Total Lunar Eclipse - First of the Tetrad

Living in the United States, we are in for some treat. For the next 18 months, we will witness 4 consecutive total lunar eclipse also known as the Tetrad. The first one occurred on April 15, 2014. Luckily, we didn't have to go anywhere to witness this spectacular event. We just sat in out front yard with the camera pointed at the sky. We were drinking hot tea, eating snacks while waiting for the event to unfold. We still have 3 more to go; so if you missed this one, there is still chance.

Lake Siskiyou & Mt. Shasta - Shasta Cascade, Northern California

Mt. Shasta has to be one of the most iconic landscape features in Northern California. Rising more than 14,000 feet above the sea level and with impressive snow cap, Mt. Shasta has been dubbed "the Fuji of North America." It is an active volcano which erupt every 600 years and the last eruption happened about 200 years ago. So it will not happen again (not anytime soon). It is part of the Cascade mountain range stretching all the way into Canada. Mt. Shasta is also the second highest peak in the range after Mt. Rainier in Washington.
There are many places where you can take photo of Mt. Shasta. You can see it while driving on the freeway or by hiking for miles into the wilderness. My favorite viewing location is Lake Siskiyou. On a clear and calm day, you can clearly see the reflection of the mountain onto the crystal clear lake.  This location is easily accessible. You can drive to the parking lot just about a mile from the Interstate freeway 5, then hike a few hundreds feet to reach the lake. It's a great quick getaway during a long drive.

 

Sadly, California has a driest year on record. Thus, lakes and streams have been dried up even early in Spring. You can clearly the drought on lake Siskiyou. Water has receded and exposed a lot of trash and debris from the lake bottom. Hopefully, we'll get more rain this year. But regardless, lake Siskiyou is still strikingly beautiful place to view Mt. Shasta. I come back to this place every time I come to visit the Shasta Cascade region. So if you ever drive by this area, just go visit the lake. It only takes a few minutes but it will leave an impression of a lifetime.