Last weekend Tanya and I traveled on a Colorado adventure [thanks to my amazing American Airlines travel voucher]. We pulled in roughly 850 miles and visited two different National Parks on my ‘to-do’ list, all while suffering from high-altitude sickness and non-sleepage. Our first stop was the Great Sand Dunes National Park, containing North America’s tallest sand dunes. I think their tag line should be ‘the fastest sand carrying winds in North America’ or ‘don’t exfoliate your skin before you come here park’. Enjoy the pics!

About: Great Sand Dunes National Park

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Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve is a United States National Park located in the easternmost parts of Alamosa County and Saguache County, Colorado, United States. Originally designated Great Sand Dunes National Monument, Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve was created by an act of the United States Congress on September 13, 2004. The park contains the tallest sand dunes in North America, rising about 750 feet (230 m) from the floor of the San Luis Valley on the western base of the Sangre de Cristo Range, covering about 19,000 acres. They are likely 12,000 years old.

One of my favorite places is up in Central California by Monterey and is a small little park on the ocean called Point Lobos. I’ve visited Point Lobos probably a good 7-8 times since I’ve moved out to California and every time it’s always a great treat- especially at sunset.

Point Lobos State Reserve

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Point Lobos State Reserve commonly referred to as simply Point Lobos is a sea side state reserve south of Monterey, California, north of Big Sur. The very precipitous drop in the ocean floor off Point Lobos (reaching levels characteristic of the mid Pacific within a few kilometres of shore) gives rise to strange tidal effects, with unusual levels of oxygen being injected into the ocean water. This in turn has attracted an unusual collection of plant and animal life, ranging from high plankton concentrations, moving up the food chain to large mammals.

Somehow the Salton Sea has put itself on my list of places to visit at least once every year, and every time I come by I think I take better pictures as well as appreciate it’s uniqueness more. I even broke down and bought the ‘Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea‘ documentary that I’ve always been wanting last week. It’s a seriously cool place, and if you’re anywhere near the SoCal area you really need to go check it out. Here are a few great areas to see when you go down there.

Bombay Beach

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Bombay Beach is located on the east shore of the Salton Sea and, like many communities along its shores, has had to contend with rising and falling water levels. A berm now protects the west end of the town but a portion of the town beyond the berm is either sunken under water or is half-buried in mud.

One of the more random places we stayed in Ireland was in Malin Beg. It is a small quaint little area up in picturesque Donegal Ireland. Also in the general area are the ‘Largest Sea Cliffs’ in Europe, the Slieve League.

See More Malin Beg + Slieve League

In continuing with my week of crazy photo editing, here is some of the Killarney National Park set. We hit up the park on the way down from the Dingle Peninsula to the Ring of Kerry.

Some More on Killarney National Park via Wikipedia.org:

Killarney National Park is located beside the town of Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland. It was the first national park established in Ireland, created when Muckross Estate was donated to the Irish state in 1932. The park has since been substantially expanded and encompasses over 25,425 acres of diverse ecology, including the Lakes of Killarney, Oak and Yew woodlands of international importance, and mountain peaks. It has Ireland’s only native herd of Red Deer and the most extensive covering of native forest remaining in Ireland.

Enjoy the photos! See the rest of the Killarney National Park Series.

So I finally got some of the Ireland photos up and going, it feels like it’s going to take forever to get through all of these but they’re turning out quite nice. First up is the Dingle Peninsula, specifically Slea Head where we ended up staying for the night. The youth hostel was in Dun Chaoin, which had a gorgeous view over the Great Blasket Islands. In the morning when we left we got some gorgeous morning light which made getting up that early pretty easy.

Some More on the Dingle Peninsula via Wikipedia.org:

The Dingle Peninsula is the smaller and northernmost of the two peninsulas that make up County Kerry, in Southwest Ireland. The landscape is wild and beautiful from the eastern spine of the peninsula in the steep Slieve Mish (mountain of phantoms) to the western end where the land breaks into a scattering of uninhabited and dramatic islands and cliffs and beaches alternate around the coast. Dingle town (An Daingean) is small enough to walk and big enough to be lively.

The Great Blasket island to the west, which was evacuated in the 1950s produced at least three well-regarded Irish writers, the most well-known being Peig Sayers. Until recently the western end of the peninsula, including Dingle was very cut off from the rest of Ireland by sheer distance and poor roads.

Once described by the National Geographic Traveler as “the most beautiful place on earth�, the Dingle Peninsula is a place of intense allure, with a plethora of green landscapes, rocky hills, long sandy beaches and staggering cliff edges. The warm Gulf Stream reaches the peninsula, giving has a wonderful mixture of sometimes rare and unusual flora and fauna.

Enjoy the photos! See the rest of the Dingle Peninsula Series.

Hey folks,
I’m doing a little holiday sale for my photo site- it’s a nice way to save a little extra money if you want to give the gift of photography this year! I have some fantastic looking prints ready for your giving pleasure and for this weekend only you can save 20%! Grab it while the goods are hot! Here’s my little bit that’s going around:

iNationalPark.com is one of a few art galleries in the world devoted specifically to US National Park photography. It is currently in it’s 6th year of operation, and has sold over 700 photographic originals to various collectors and museums worldwide. For this weekend only [ending Monday the 10th] they are offering 20% off all fine-art photographs offered on the site. To take advantage of the offer, enter HOLIDAY07 when you check-out, for a truly unique holiday gift this year!

View the iNationalPark.com Store

Just a reminder! You’ve got 2 Days Left to take advantage of our $15 8×10 Print Sale [aka: we’re giving them away sale]. Go to iTravelStockPhoto.com now to get a gorgeous gift for the family that they’ll really appreciate [normal print with mat price is $100]. Sale ends Sunday at 11:59am!

I like when people give me sales, so I’m sending you one from me. From now through this weekend [Nov. 1st - 4th] all our photo collection is available for only $15! You get a gorgeous fine-art print hand prepared by mwa in the perfectly frameable size of 8 inches by 10. I normally sell these little guys matted for $100, so grab them while you can.

Location: Manhattan Beach, CA // Google Maps
See the Fine Art Photo Gallery / See The Rest of the Manhattan Beach Photo Gallery

The next stop on the Los Angeles beach list is Manhattan Beach, a few towns down from me and home to good surfing and lots of volleyball.

via wikipedia.org;
Manhattan Beach is a city located in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, USA. The population was 33,852 at the 2000 census. Of a rotating City Council of five members, Nicholas W. Tell, Jr. is the current mayor. The city is on the Pacific Ocean coast, to the south of El Segundo, and to the north of Hermosa Beach. To the east are the cities of Lawndale and Redondo Beach. It is one of the three Beach Cities in the South Bay.

Residents divide the city into several distinct neighborhoods, including the Sand Section, Hill Section, Tree Section, Gaslamp Section, Manhattan Heights, East Manhattan Beach, Liberty Village, and El Porto. Liberty Village is located at the north-easternmost section of Manhattan Beach. It is characterized by World War II era housing that originally serviced the employees of the then dominant local defense contractors such as Lockheed, Northrop and Hughes. Since it is considered to be among the most desirable cities in Los Angeles, and the city zoning provides for relatively lenient dwelling-to-land coverage, much of Manhattan Beach’s housing stock has been remodeled from small single family houses into larger houses ranging to 4,000 square feet on lots approximating 5,000 square feet.

Manhattan Heights is located to the east of Sepulveda Boulevard. Sand Section is notable for its proximity to the beach, high density, and high rate of multifamily properties relative to the rest of the city. One of its primary streets, The Strand, features beachfront homes.

Location: The Eiffel Tower - Paris, France // Google Maps
See the Fine Art Photo Gallery / See The Rest of the Eiffel Tower Photo Gallery

Since for some reason I haven’t finished posting all my France images, here is my Eiffel Tower photo collection. I love the tower, and have fond memories of walking around Paris and using the tower as a guide to what direction I was headed. I still haven’t been to the top of it though.

via wikipedia.org;
The Eiffel Tower is an iron tower built on the Champ de Mars beside the River Seine in Paris, France. It is one of the tallest structures in Paris and possibly one of the most recognized monuments in the world. Named after its designer, engineer Gustave Eiffel, it is the most visited monument in the world; 6,428,441 people visited the tower in 2005 and more than 200,000,000 since its construction. Including the 24 m (78.7 ft) antenna, the structure is 324 m (1,063 ft) high (since 2000), which is equivalent to about 81 levels in a conventional building. In 1902, it was struck by lightning, which meant that 100 metres of the top had to be reconstructed and the lights illuminating the tower had to be replaced, as they were damaged by the high energy of the lightning.

Location: Marina del Rey, CA // Google Maps
See the Stock Photo Gallery / See The Rest of the Marina del Rey Gallery

One of my favorite areas of Los Angeles is Marina del Rey, a quiet little port where there is great shopping, quiet parks where you can walk around the boats, or actually get in a boat and take it out to Catalina island. My girlfriend Tanya and I like to rent Kayaks from UCLA and play frogger with the much bigger boats coming in from the Pacific. If you’re a tourist and don’t want the Hollywood experience or want a quieter Santa Monica, this is the place to go- especially Fisherman’s Village [pictured below].

via wikipedia.org;
Marina del Rey, Spanish for “Navy of the King”, or “Seacoast of the King”) is a census-designated place seaside community located in an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 8,176 as of the 2000 census. Marina del Rey is only four miles from the Los Angeles International Airport, close enough to provide easy access by car or public transportation, yet far enough away that residents are not disturbed by the airplane noise. The Fisherman’s Village offers a good view of Marina del Rey’s dominant feature, the largest man-made small boat harbor in the world, with about 7000 pleasure boats and yachts. The marina is surrounded by many high-rise luxury Condos, hotels, apartments, shops, and restaurants, as well as the USC Information Sciences Institute and ICANN, currently the closest thing the Internet has to a governing organization. There are also a large number of shopping centers lining Lincoln Boulevard just to the east.

Location: Big Sur, CA [and Limekiln State Park] // Google Maps
See the Stock Photo Gallery / See The Rest of the Big Sur Photo Galleries

Tanya and I made our yearly [and sometimes multi-year] trip up north to Big Sur, a coastline region of big cliffs and small roads. It turned out to be a great time to go up there as everything was in bloom and it wasn’t too overly packed with tourists. We went camping up in Limekiln State Park which is a beach and redwood area right off one of the cliff bridges. We had a beach campground which was fantastic and saw a nice fog sunset complete with gulls and roaring waves. If you’re yet to go to Big Sur, its a fantastic drive and always a great time.

via wikipedia.org;
Big Sur is a thinly-settled region of the central California coast where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. This geology produces stunning views and has become a magnet for global tourism. Big Sur’s Cone Peak is the highest coastal mountain in the lower 48 states, ascending nearly a mile (5,155 feet/1.6km) above sea level, only 3 miles (4.8 km) from the ocean.[1] Although Big Sur has no specific boundaries, many definitions of the area include the 90 miles (145km) of coastline between the Carmel River and San Carpoforo Creek, and extend about 20 miles (32km) inland to the eastern foothills of the Santa Lucias, while other sources limit the eastern border to the coastal flanks of these mountains, only 3 to 12 miles (4.8-19km) inland. The northern end of Big Sur is about 120 miles (193km) south of San Francisco, and the southern end is approximately 245 miles (394km) north of Los Angeles.

Location: Playa del Rey, CA // Google Maps
See the Stock Photo Gallery / See The Rest of the Playa del Rey Photos

Welcome to my hometown of Playa del Rey, CA- it’s a beautiful place and has really made Los Angeles my home. As far as LA beach communities go, it’s quite easily the most quiet- somehow getting stuck in the 50’s in every sense while next door Marina del Rey, Venice, Manhattan Beach, etc went the trendy route. It’s section of the bike path [it runs all the way down the LA coastline] in my opinion is the best as it has its own jetty with water on both sides as you head into Marina del Rey. Also in Playa is the last of LA’s marshes, the Ballona Wetlands. Hope you enjoy the photos, come say hi if you’re ever in town!

via wikipedia.org;
Playa del Rey (Spanish for “Beach of the King or King’s beach”) is a community of the City of Los Angeles, California. It is the section of beachfront just south of the Ballona Wetlands and Ballona Creek and Marina del Rey; thus, the beach population is divided here. This makes Playa del Rey an enclave and keeps the crowds a little smaller. Playa del Rey has a ZIP code of 90293 and an area code of 310. It is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the west, Marina del Rey to the north, Playa Vista to the northeast, Westchester to the east, and El Segundo to the south.

Playa del Rey in the 1970s was known as a great Los Angeles area “surfing spot,” but due to the many rock jetties that were built to prevent beach erosion, the good surf is mostly gone. Most surfers now flock south of Dockweiler Beach, to “El Porto”, the most northern part of beach in the city of Manhattan Beach. The lifeguard and park services are uniform across the entire twenty mile stretch of beach, a fact which goes unremarked in Los Angeles.

The Ballona Wetlands are the last significant wetlands area in the Los Angeles basin, and is named for Ballona Creek which runs through the area. These wetlands are the subject of a battle between developers and environmentalists that has been ongoing for more than 15 years. A large mixed use development called Playa Vista was eventually approved by the City of Los Angeles, but numerous environmental lawsuits and the acquisition of a part of the Wetlands by a public trust has helped to protect a portion of this area. In 2002, remains of indigenous Indian villages and artifacts were found during excavation on the Playa Vista site that have fueled the controversy over the development.