Some Tiger Pictures From This Weekend - Tiga and Connor - San Diego Zoo

I spent all morning Saturday with Tiga, one of the female Malayan Tigers at the San Diego Zoo.

On my way out I managed to get a few shots of the Fishing Cat as well.

I went back on Sunday morning to see if I could get a few shots of Connor, the young male Malayan Tiger. He was only visible for a short part of the 2 1/2 hours I was there, but it was worth the wait. There are a lot of bright green leaves hanging in front of the enclosure this time of year, which often wind up as out-of-focus blobs of green.

Connor seems happy to see me.

Well, maybe not.

Click here to see a few more pictures of Tiga the Malayan Tiger from Saturday morning, June 22, 2013. There are a few more shots of the Fishing Cat here too.

Click here to see a few more pictures of Connor the Malayan Tiger from Sunday morning, June 23, 2013.
     

Recent San Diego Zoo Pictures

Here are a few more pictures from the San Diego Zoo on June 1 and June 9, 2013. I got sidetracked with the road trip pictures and am just now getting around to putting these up.

One of the Snow Leopards was sprawled out on a big rock.

The Siberian Lynx were running all around.

Here's Tiga, one of the Malayan Tigers, looking up from gnawing on a giant femur bone.

This is not a very good picture of Ubon, the big male Malayan Tiger, but it's one of the last ones. This was taken on Saturday June 1. Ubon died the following Friday. He'll be missed.

Click here to see a few more images from the San Diego Zoo taken on June 1 and June 9, 2013.
    

California Mountain Road Trip - May 2013 - Part 6 - Traveling South Along the Eastern Sierras

Our last day on the road . . . 340 miles from Bishop to San Diego. We didn't intend to make many stops, but we did want to see the old fish hatchery building and Manzanar, as well as the views of the mountains.

Back around 1919 it was decided to build a "highway" from Los Angeles to Lake Tahoe. Here's what's left of the original 8' wide concrete roadway, a little ways south of Bishop.

Looking west, towards the mountains. It's pretty dry out here.

We stopped off to see the Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery, which was built in 1916, from 3,500 tons of granite. The sign said that the two to three foot thick walls were built with stones not cut to size but rather "collected and sorted to fit".

Our last stop was the site of the Manzanar War Relocation Center. Over 10,000 Japanese-Americans were held here during WWII. The National Park Service, working with some volunteer groups, has rebuilt a few of the buildings and has now opened the area for visitors. We didn't go inside any of the buildings, but we did drive the unpaved auto tour road around the perimeter of the camp.

The guard tower has recently been rebuilt.

At the back of the camp, there is a memorial and a small cemetery.

Click here to see a few more images of the Manzanar War Relocation Center.
   
Click here to see more images from along US 395.
     

California Mountain Road Trip - May 2013 - Part 5 - Along the Eastern Sierras

We left South Lake Tahoe on Monday morning, heading south towards US 395, which, if the original highway alignment was still intact, would take us to within a few blocks of our house. The pass on the Nevada side from Lake Tahoe down towards the Carson Valley has some great views.

We crossed the wide Carson Valley and eventually connected up to US 395.

Once in California the road follows the Walker River for a while.

The high-elevation desert looks similar to the basin and range topography of much of Nevada and other parts of the West.

At one point you come over the crest of a pass and see Mono Lake stretching out in the distance. You can see the highway continuing south in the foreground.

There's a scenic vista overlook point with some information panels at the top of the pass, and people have decorated up the guard railing with all sorts of stickers and notes.

It just didn't seem right to leave without making a contribution of our own. I knew that Sharpie marker I always have in my briefcase would come in handy one of these days.

As we continued south the views of the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the west just kept getting better.

We took a few detours into the mountains to check out some alpine lakes and mountain views.

The high point of the drive was Minaret Vista, which probably has a spectacular view when there isn't a storm coming in. Even so, it was still pretty good.

As we were driving out from the view point we spotted the gondola at Mammoth Mountain off in the distance.

Once we figured out that the gondola was running we just knew we had to take a ride.

The sign at the top said it all. We made certain we didn't miss the last ride down. Besides, there wasn't much of view with all the clouds at the top.

The alpine lakes on the eastern side of the Sierras are beautiful. It was very windy on Monday afternoon. No calm reflecting lake views this time. This is looking west, towards the setting sun.

The sunset view from our hotel room in Bishop was not bad . . . once I cropped out the bowling alley building in the foreground.

Click here to see more images from our drive down US 395.
    

California Mountain Road Trip - May 2013 - Part 4 - Tallac Historic Site (Lake Tahoe)

On the southern shore of Lake Tahoe, part way between the town of South Lake Tahoe and Emerald Bay, is an area of US Forest Service land now known as the Tallac Historic Site. In the late 1800's it was known as the site of a grand resort and several large estate homes. We toured the grounds, the Baldwin Estate (now the Visitor Center) and the Pope Estate mansion, as well as the site of the former "Lucky" Baldwin resort hotel complex that was dismantled in the early 1900's. The Tahoe Heritage Foundation in conjunction with the US Forest Service have done an excellent job of restoring the old buildings and opening them for tours.

The Pope Estate is a very impressive home, which was only used in the summer. The volunteer docents provide a very good tour, with lots of information about the history of the estate and the area.

Apparently that door on the second floor used to open to a fire-escape, until a tree fell and sheared it off. Now it's a "door to nowhere".

These estates sat on some prime lakeshore, which is now open to the public. Our guide mentioned that of Lake Tahoe's 72 miles of shoreline, only about 17 of that is public access. 

Click here to see more images from the US Forest Service's Tallac Historic Site at Lake Tahoe.