Crown Hair Salon, Petaluma CA
Pricing: 60"x40" (Aluminum) - $500, 54"x36" (Canvas) - $200, 36"x24" (Aluminum) - $200, 36"x24" (Canvas) - $150, 24"x16" (Aluminum) - $150
Many of the trees at Zion National Park in Utah have variable sizes and fantastic shapes because they grow in harsh and difficult conditions, on cliffs and bare rocks, in crevices and cracks. They grow in places that receive little water and where summer temperatures can soar daily above 100 degrees. These trees send their great roots down into joints and fissures in the rock, searching for available water and breaking the rocks into soil. High on the tops of hoodoos and out along the slick rock of the Mt. Carmel Highway, their twisted shapes resemble, perhaps, goblins and witches, giants and wizards. Often they look like Japanese bonsais, as if they have been carefully pruned and shaped and then placed for all to see and admire.
The Ibex Sand Dunes are an isolated set of beautiful sand dunes set against the backdrop of the Saddle Peak Hills at the southern end of Death Valley. The Ibex Dunes formed from sand blown east from the floodplains of the Amargosa River. The Saddle Peak Hills, a small cluster of mountains provide the stunning backdrop to the dunes; they also provide a barrier between Highway 127, and the dunes. Because of their semi-remote location, and the inability to see them from a paved road, they are one of the least visited dunes in the park. The dunes and the area surrounding them have been declared wilderness, meaning, you are not able to drive on or up to the dunes. You are free however to do the roughly 1.5 mile hike out to the them.
There are only a handful of places on Earth like Hot Creek's active geologic setting, where boiling, bubbling water rich in dissolved minerals emerges in turquoise pools rimmed by layers of travertine rock and shrouded in veils of steam. Hot Creek is a scenic wonderland containing dozens of natural hot springs bubbling up within the rocky walls of a river gorge and in the shadows of towering Eastern Sierra mountain peaks southeast of Mammoth Lakes, California. Within the shallow gorge, groundwater heated by subsurface bodies of molten rock (magma) reaches the surface and mixes with the cool waters of Hot Creek, creating a picturesque environment with otherworldly features. Below the hot springs, healthy populations of fish thrive off the abundant nutrition generated by the consistently warm waters of the creek. Delicate rock formations created by the precipitation of minerals rim the hot spring pools. Like most geothermal springs, the area is constantly changing and evolving. Once-active geysers and springs are now dormant or extinct, and new springs appear annually.
Sunset on Rodeo Beach, located in the Fort Cronkhite area of the Marin Headlands, one of the most special places in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area with access to multiple trails, fantastic views, a dog-friendly beach, fascinating geology, and an interesting history. As a pocket beach, Rodeo Beach sands do not migrate up or down the coast. Instead, they are carried a short distance offshore in winter, tumble about in the surf, and then return to replenish the beach in the spring and summer. Thus, the sands of Rodeo Beach are native to the Marin Headlands and reflect the Franciscan geology of the closest hills and cliffs. This earthcache focuses on the abundant radiolarian chert and rare carnelian pebbles.
One of the most recognized landmarks in Zion National Park, Court of the Patriarchs reach into the Utah sky. These three photogenic peaks bear the biblical names of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Towering above Birch Creek Canyon almost 2000 feet, the Court of the Patriarchs represents nearly a full layer of Navajo Sandstone. This exposed sandstone is one of nine Zion rock layers that together span 150 million years of sediment deposits. The Patriarch cliffs represent one of the thickest layers of sediment, making up some of the tallest cliffs in the world. Occasional flash floods in the Virgin River increase water volume by 100 times and bring down tons of loose rock and sand, scouring out new side canyons and re-channeling the river. Here in Zion Canyon this magnificent scenery is always experiencing change, but its subtleties are seldom recognized in such an immense canyon.
Antelope Canyon is a slot canyon in the American Southwest. It is on Navajo land east of Page, Arizona. Antelope Canyon was formed by erosion of Navajo Sandstone, primarily due to flash flooding and secondarily due to other sub-aerial processes. Rainwater, especially during monsoon season, runs into the extensive basin above the slot canyon sections, picking up speed and sand as it rushes into the narrow passageways. Over time the passageways eroded away, making the corridors deeper and smoothing hard edges in such a way as to form characteristic "flowing" shapes in the rock.
The fog rolls in at sunset at Battery Spencer, perched on a bluff on top of the Marin Headlands. Battery Spencer is about eye-level with the top of the north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge. Back during the early 1900’s, Battery Spencer was one of the main protection points for the San Francisco harbor. It featured multiple 12” guns that were manned by the military and a few buildings for housing the generators and shells. It was operated on and off until World War II when a lot of it was scrapped for war efforts.
The Ibex Sand Dunes are an isolated set of beautiful sand dunes set against the backdrop of the Saddle Peak Hills at the southern end of Death Valley. The Ibex Dunes formed from sand blown east from the floodplains of the Amargosa River. The Saddle Peak Hills, a small cluster of mountains provide the stunning backdrop to the dunes; they also provide a barrier between Highway 127, and the dunes. Because of their semi-remote location, and the inability to see them from a paved road, they are one of the least visited dunes in the park. The dunes and the area surrounding them have been declared wilderness, meaning, you are not able to drive on or up to the dunes. You are free however to do the roughly 1.5 mile hike out to the them.
These otherworldly "towers," located in California's Mono Lake, may look like eerie art installations, but they occur naturally and are made of limestone. Mono Lake is a shallow salt water lake located in the high desert on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, in California in the United States. The lake has no outlet to the ocean causing high levels of salts to accumulate in the waters. These rock towers form when underwater springs rich in calcium mix with the waters of the lake, which are rich in carbonates. The resulting reaction forms limestone. Over time the buildup of limestone formed towers, and when the water level of the lake dropped the towers became exposed.
The name Joshua tree was given by a group of Mormon settlers who crossed the Mojave Desert in the mid-19th century. The tree's unique shape reminded them of a Biblical story in which Joshua reaches his hands up to the sky in prayer. Joshua trees are fast growers for the desert; new seedlings may grow at an average rate of 7.6 cm (3.0 in) per year in their first ten years, then only about 3.8 cm (1.5 in) per year. The trunk consists of thousands of small fibers and lacks annual growth rings, making it difficult to determine the tree's age. This tree has a top-heavy branch system, but also what has been described as a "deep and extensive" root system, with roots reaching up to 11 m (36 ft). If it survives the rigors of the desert, it can live for hundreds of years; some specimens survive a thousand years.
