Mountains – Alexander S. Kunz Photography

Middle Basin Morning

2023/02/082023/01/23

A sliver of warm morning sunlight falls onto the vast expansive of Middle Basin, with an ephemarl rivulet winding through the coarse desert landscape. Interesting cloud shapes hang over the snow-covered peaks of the Panamint Range. Death Valley National Park, California; January 2023.

After the sunrise at Zabriskie Point we went on to hike Desolation Canyon, which is just a short distance away. As mentioned in the previous post, clouds began to move in quickly. We drove down from Zabriskie Point, made our left turn from CA-190 onto Badwater Road, and wow! A beautiful stripe of warm morning light illuminated the landscape.

August 2012 Throwback (to the Eastern Sierra)

2022/08/162022/08/15

View of Half Dome from Olmsted Point, Yosemite National Park, California; August 2012.

In August 2012 we visited California’s Eastern Sierra, and it was the first time to see with my own eyes the landscapes that have inspired John Muir, Ansel Adams, and countless other photographers, artists and activists. Join me as I reminisce in some Sierra memories in my throwback to August 2012!

The Shadow of Reality

2021/07/03

Mount Scott, the shadow of Watchman Peak, and last light on the cinder cone of Wizard Island; Crater Lake National Park, Oregon; September 2013.

“As long as you seek for something, you will get the shadow of reality and not reality itself.” (Shunryū Suzuki)

The Unknown in the Familiar

2022/03/062021/02/19

View of Laafeld from Mauslochsteig. In the background, Funtenseetauern to the left and Grosser Hundstod to the right. Nationalpark Berchtesgaden, Germany, October 2010.

“We are torn between nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange. As often as not, we are homesick most for the places we have never known.” (Carson McCullers)

Königssee, Obersee, Hochgschirr, Königsbachalm Loop

2023/02/162019/10/04

View north from Hochgschirr saddle, with Fagstein on the left, Windschartenkopf and Hochseeleinkopf on the right. In the distance the sunlit snow of Hoher Göll and Hohes Brett. In the depression at the bottom, Seeleinsee. Nationalpark Berchtesgaden, Germany, October 2019.

Thirteen photos and story from a loop hike that I did in October 2019 in Bavaria’s Berchtesgaden National Park.

Kneiffelspitze, Berchtesgaden

2020/07/132019/10/03

For the sake of completeness, here’s a “single B-side” from my Germany trip in 2019. After hiking back down into the valley from Reiter Alpe through the first snow of the season and dropping off Simon and Florian at their car, I continued to Berchtesgaden, where I had booked a room at a hotel for two nights – and I was definitely looking forward to a hot shower!