More Llano Esticado images…

Llano Estacado

Canyons that look like gentle hills when flying 35,000 feet overhead are, in fact, beautiful when seen up close while camping and hiking. These scenes are in the Llano Escatado of west Texas, April 2008.

Mid February Scenes…..

Scenes from north central Texas on a getaway from the daily grind….

Spring Creek fall hike…

Fern Sanctuary

Images from a small spring-fed tributary to Cottonwood Creek in Allen. Here you can find the rarely seen Southern Maidenhair Fern along the limestone seeps. The place is surrounded by subdivisions and is out of sight and mind, except for mine. And the water was green…not sure if its algaecide, naturally occurring, or what.  One botanist seems to think this species isn’t found in Collin County.

Pumpkins

Location: Spring Creek Farm, managed by Owen Sausage Company in Richardson, Texas

Cameras: Nikon D50 and Canon S3

Ocean to Prairie…

The Fort Worth prairie is one of the most endangered ecosystems around…a cretaceous sea was uplifted and the land slowly developed a rich prairie soil with plants and prairie fauna. Many of the original prairie inhabitants are now extinct. The soil was too thin to plow and was used by German immigrants as hay fields… a few thousand acres are intact on progressive ranches such as Dixon Water Foundation’s Bear Creek Ranch.

Bear Creek Ranch is a 2200 acre organic, grass-fed cattle ranch near Weatherford and Aledo, TX . So close to Fort Worth you can see the skyline yet rich and lush with tall grasses and healthy cattle.

Now owned by the Dixon Water Foundation and managed holistically, the ranch is hosting this field day to help guests understand why Holistic Management works, to introduce several wonderful networking groups to support your informed management and to illustrate an idea that can help keep land in agriculture by dedicating a small portion to green development. Further information on holistic range managment can be found at Holistic Resource Management of Texas

Old slides

I rediscovered some old Kodachrome slides (the ones with cardboard mounts)….scanned them on a decent scanner (Canon 4400F which is Vista friendly), photoshopped them and here they are. Scanned at 4200 dpi and reduced to web size…enjoy. These are from around Moab, Utah…..Canyonlands National Park.

Bob Woodruff Park…end of summer

Beck Branch revisited….

Late summer images of Beck Branch in north central Texas….one of the many spring-fed streams close to Dallas…