In early September, I was in Bridgeport, California for a painting class. I got up early and went to photograph the morning light on the Bridgeport Valley and Mono Basin. This is a view on the Twin Lakes Road looking south westerly.

A newer national park near Arches is Capitol Reef National Park. In this park they will still have some of the original farmsteads back dropped with the massive red steep cliffs.

Having an old barn in the painting brings life and humans into the harsh southwest landscape.

In mid summer a few years, I visited Tetons and Yellow Stone Park. Just a few years prior, large forest fires had come through the park and left big burn scars on the hills. You can see where fires were and new, lighter green vegetation and older darker green still forested areas.

Here is another painting of a view in the Carrizo Plain area during a super bloom. Yes.. those whole fields and hills are carpets of yellow and orange flowers or “gold fields” that are all blooming at the same time with primarily the same flower.

If you visit the Carrizo Plain at the right time (March /April), you will look at vistas of large yellow flowers in the near view and then look at distant mountain ranges in that are blooming as fields 20 miles or 30 miles aways that appear golden and yellow in the distance.

This view from a small hill looking down on Soda Lake toward the north east.

Carpets of wildflowers appear for a short time in the Carrizo Plain National Monument, in California. Usually in the late March or April time frame and very dependent upon the fall and winter rains, the Carrizo Plain offers endless view of carpets of yellow wild flower or other colors too. At this rock, the flowers were collections of poppies.

A few summers ago I visit Arches National Park. We were there to do mainly photography and we got up very early to capture the sunrise through some of the arches. In the summer, the sun comes up fairly early around 5:30 and we had to drive from Moab and into the park and to the arch area long before sunrise. The sky here is still pre-sunrise.

Just across the bay from San Francisco is the small city of Tiburon and this small park of the Richardson Bay Audubon Center and Sanctuary.

Marin county is a magical place. You can drive over the Golden Gate Bridge and jump on to Hwy 1 and head North along a very rugged and natural environment compared to the highly developed communities to the south.

This painting was from a scene at the corner of Hwy 1 and the turn off to Bolinas, CA.

I did a short weekend trip to Marin county and stumbled upon this historic old bay location called China Camp State Park. The light changed from foggy to blue and sun and then back to fog! At this historic landing was this old boat that was meant to be painted!