Minnehaha Falls

I am in the City of Minneapolis right now. One of my favorite places in the city is Minnehaha Falls. Minneapolis has an extensive park system. It's one of the highlights of life here for many people. This afternoon the air was breezy, thin, cold, and dry, but the sky was clear (besides some atmospheric pollution in the form of haze.) The early winter sunlight was beautiful (probably even enhanced, ironically, by the pollution.)

Minnehaha creek feeds into the Mississippi river—not far from Minnehaha falls. Today the water was flowing, it was quite interesting to watch the flowing water disappear into a shell of ice.

I have memories from when I was a teenager of climbing behind the frozen ice of the falls.

Today, I thought I could hear some of the ice cracking.

I have heard that the City turns on municipal water supplies to feed the creek. I am not sure if that's the case currently (as seen in the following photos.) Anyway, the falls are an impressive sight.

Here are some photos of Minnehaha Falls in the winter. There are a few more posted on my Flickr site.


Trees and Trail

So much clean snow. Quite a wonder.


Trees and Sky


Frozen Minnehaha Falls in the Winter


Top of the Falls


Mom

Peace! Namaste! May All Beings be Happy!

Winter Solstice Sunrise

I already posted this photo, but I am re-posting it because I want to remark that this was on the winter solstice: an awesome winter solstice Sun-rise!


7:30am Tuesday 21 December 2010
Rocky Mountains near Idaho Montana border

Glacier Park Lodge and Landscape with Mountains and Sky

This photo is from Tuesday the 21st of December 2010, the winter solstice. It's the view from the left side of an Amtrak coach train car on the West-bound Empire Builder (route #8). This is the Glacier Park Lodge, in East Glacier, the lodge is not in the park. This is in Montana. The photo is geo-tagged on Flickr.


view original size

Amtrak Train Empire Builder Route

Glacier National Park

BNSF Montana Train Passing

I rode the train from Washington State to Minnesota. Here's a sight from the train trip. This was in Montana, East of Glacier National Park. A BNSF locomotive passed the coach car where I was sitting. I turned my camera on the high-speed automatic shutter setting and here's what turned out.

Also try viewing here, this is probably a better way than the below slideshow:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rwhitlock/5293169585/in/set-72157625676718862/lightbox/#/

Rocky Mountain Sunrise

I am in Minnesota now. I rode the train from Olympia to Seattle, and then to Minneapolis/St. Paul. The above photo is of the rising sunlight reflecting on clouds over the rocky mountains somwhere in Idaho or Western Montana. I love all the color in the sky.

There is a lot of snow here in East Central Minnesota. Streets are narrower and the snow piles are high, it's regularly 3 to 5 feet high in between roads and sidewalks. I saw one mountain of snow that must have been 40 or 50 feet high. Lots of snow. That's for sure.

Well, happy holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Solstice, Happy Hannukah, Happy Kwanzaa, or whatever other festivity you might partake in around this time of year. Namaste, world peace, may all beings be happy.

Salish Summer

Street at Night

It's good to walk in the neighborhood at night. I appreciate the temperate late-fall weather this December in Western Washington. Last December was FREEZING cold. Lots of rain the past couple of days, but the air is relatively warm, with a Southwesterly breeze. Growing up in Minnesota, I really do appreciate the warmer air.

Rays on the Bay

Wednesday 8 December 2010
Budd Bay Salish Sea (Puget Sound) Cheetwoot (Olympia Washington)