Fuming Volcano

To Anil the highlight of our trip to Big Island was the night swim with Manta Rays. To me it was seeing an active volcano. The most active volcano on Earth, in fact, Kilauea, which current eruption has started over 30 years ago, in January of 1983.

During the day, when the sun is high above the horizon, the volcano doesn't look very impressive or scary. Then it's simply a giant hole with a bit of white fume coming out of it. It's during the night when the volcano starts to look both imposing and magical at the same time. I was almost hypnotized by its radiant beauty, and despite the cold of the evening and occasional rain, I felt the red warmth of the volcano working its way through my body to keep me warm, engaged, and happy.

Kilauea at night.

Kilauea at sunrise.

UCLA Campus at Night

Below are a few photos of University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus that I shot over several summer evenings this year.

It's a very pretty campus. It is very green, there are several gardens, many sculptures and fountains. The buildings represent a mix of architectural styles, but they all fit well together and are all well-kept. I like the most the buildings that were build in the Romanesque Revival style, which were the first structures built on campus.

The location of the campus is pretty good as well. It is located in the residential area of Westwood, bordered by Beverly Hills, Bel-Air, and Brentwood, just a few miles away from the beaches of Santa Monica. It definitely looks like a great place to study.


Royce Hall, one of the original four buildings of the campus, has become the symbol of UCLA, taking inspiration from Italian Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio, in Milan:

Powell Library:

A few other buildings in the Romanesque Revival style:

And some buildings in the modern style:

Kayaking in Tomales Bay

In June, Anne and Sebastian invited Anil and I to join them and our common friend, Sophie, on a kayaking trip in Tomales Bay. It was a very first kayaking trip for Anil and he was very excited about it.

The day was perfect: it was sunny, warm but not hot, and there was no sign of fog (which is somewhat unusual for that area.) The water was also pretty quiet: there were almost no waves and the current was not too strong. All that made for a perfect first kayaking experience for Anil and very enjoyable trip for the rest of us.

Then, to top it off, Tomales Bay is an amazing destination for kayaking. There is lots of wildlife (mostly birds) and it is completely oblivious to kayaks and people in them. Thanks to that you can get pretty close to any animal you encounter, and you can observe it in its natural environment.

Anil and I definitely had a great time during this little expedition, even though we were unable to make our kayak go straight forward... I guess we need a lot of practice. We definitely should try to go kayaking again some time soon.


A few photos from our trip:

Views from Twin Peaks

When Bartek and Gary visited me in San Francisco, I took them to the top of Twin Peaks. We went there around sundown, which is the best time to take pictures of the city from this viewpoint. Sadly, there was a lot of haze that day over San Francisco downtown, so the pictures did not come out as well as I would have wished for.

Bartek and Gary at top of Twin Peaks:

Bartek, the photographer:

San Francisco's downtown and the Bay Bridge:

Yosemite NP - Wapama Falls Hike in Hetch Hetchy Valley

On the second day of my visit to Yosemite NP I went hiking in Hetch Hetchy Valley.

In 1932 a dam was built on the Tuolumne River flowing through the valley, creating a reservoir that until today supplies water for the San Francisco Bay Area. Already then building of the dam was highly controversial, and one of its biggest opponents was John Muir. Also today the Sierra Club continues fight to remove the dam and restore Hetch Hetchy Valley. As much as I would like to see it happen, I doubt that it will. First, an alternative water supply source has to be offered to the Bay Area inhabitants and so far I've not heard about any. Second, after hundred years under water it probably will take at least twice as much time for the valley to recover. (This, of course, is not an argument against doing it. I'm just saying that I'm not likely to see restored Hetch Hetchy Valley within my lifetime).

In Hetch Hetchy I went for a 5.4 mile hike to Wapama Falls. It is an easy hike, with not much elevation change (800ft), that takes around 2.5 hours to complete. The trail goes parallel to the shore of the reservoir, offering great views throughout, and culminates at spectacular Wapama Falls. At the base of the falls there are several wooden footbridges that can be dangerous to cross when the water is high. I was a bit worried that that part of the trail might be closed, but luckily it wasn't and I managed to get close to the falls and take a few cool shots of them.

I would strongly recommend making this small detour and visiting Hetch Hetchy during your next visit to Yosemite. It is equally beautiful as Yosemite Valley, but less crowded and more serene.


Wapama Falls, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and a piece of O'Shaughnessy Dam:

O'Shaughnessy Dam:

Wapama Falls and Hetch Hetchy Reservoir:

A tunnel at the entry into the Yosemite Wilderness:

Bartek and a small waterfall on the way:

Hetch Hetchy Valley:

Kolana Rock:

Wapama Falls:

Yosemite NP - Nevada Fall Hike

I've been to Yosemite Valley several times before and I went for many hikes there. They were all good, offering great views, good trails and many of them culminated at waterfalls making the hikes even more attractive. The only problem with all these hikes is that they are hikers' highways and no matter what time of the year or day you go there, you are bound to meet hundreds of other nature lovers.

The Nevada Fall hike was not exception to this rule. It was lovely, but very busy with hikers.

The trailhead for the hike is at Happy Isles, near the shuttle stop number 16. From there, one has to cross the road bridge on the Merced River and follow the trail on its east (true right) bank. Soon the trail becomes paved and starts ascending gently to reach the Vernal Fall footbridge from which there are fantastic views of Vernal Fall and Merced River (see the photo below). A few minutes after the bridge there is a fork in the trail. The trail to the right is the John Muir Trail, which I took to get to the Nevada Fall. The falls can also be reached by the other trail, the Mist Trail, which is shorter and steeper. As it was raining, I decided against hiking on the latter as I was worried that it would be too slippery. However, in future I'll try to make the full loop and hike to the Nevada Falls on the John Muir Trail and return back to Yosemite Valley on the Mist Trail.

The hike, depending on the route chosen, is around 6-7 miles long, ascends 1850ft, and takes around 3.5 hours to complete.


Vernal Fall and Merced River from the Vernal Fall fotbridge:

Above the clouds:

First sight of Nevada Falls and Liberty Cap:

Nevada Falls:

Nevada Falls and Merced River viewed from the top of the falls:

Yosemite Valley

Memorial Weekend is one of the two worst weekends to visit Yosemite NP (the other one being 4th of July weekend). During these two weekends the park is insanely busy with tourists, which takes away from the experience. Suffice to say that the only accommodation that I could find for that weekend was more than 40 miles away from the park! (Admittedly, I only decided to visit the park and look for accommodation there 3 weeks before the trip). If you can, visit the park during any other weekend, or even better on a weekday.

As I'm extremely busy with work these days, I had no other choice but to go to Yosemite NP on the Memorial weekend, if I wanted to visit the park in the prime season to see its waterfalls. Usually they run highest in May and the rumor had it that this year all waterfalls were running even higher than usual due to the largest snowpack in 30+ years. E.g. for the Merced River drainage this year's snowpack was 199% of previous years' average. In fact there was so much water in some waterfalls that it was impossible to take photos of them! I tried to get to the bottom of Bridalveil Falls to take a picture of them, but I did not manage. They were splashing so much water that it felt like being caught in the eye of a rainstorm.

I had more luck with other falls and managed to get some pretty good shots of Yosemite, Vernal, Nevada and Wapama Falls.

Yosemite Falls:

A little church in Yosemite Valley. Notice a man carrying a bridal gown:

El Capitan and Merced River:

Merced River:

Yosemite Falls:

Merced River:

Yosemite Falls:

Bartek and Half Dome: