PAVAN MICKEY

Walter’s Wiggles on Angels Landing Trail, Utah

Walter’s Wiggles on Angels Landing Trail viewed from above in Zion National Park, Utah, USA. Walter’s Wiggles are a series of 21 short switchbacks carved into the face of the cliff, the serpentine switchbacks steeply ascend the north face, each wiggle no more than 20-25 feet in length. The trail was cut from a sheer drop of solid rock in 1926 and remains one of the park’s most spectacular construction wonders. The top offers wonderful views of Zion Canyon. This area was protected as Mukuntuweap National Monument by President William Howard Taft in 1909 and was later renamed Zion National Park. Zion is located on the Colorado Plateau, but borders the Basin and Range Province.

21 sharp zigzags to a scenic plateau. Photo credit Cattle dog guy

Elevations in the park vary from 3,600 to 8,700 feet, allowing for a wide range of animal and plant life, all of which are adapted to the area’s arid conditions. Elevation differences and geologic processes such as tectonic uplift, erosion, and sedimentation have created environments ranging from high plateaus and riparian environments to deserts and deep sandstone canyons. The park is located in Washington, Iron and Kane Counties in southwestern Utah.

The top of the switchbacks at The Notch us enter the remarkable Refrigerator Canyon. This slot between the sandstone walls is stunningly beautiful and contains many pine trees and scrub foliage. Judging by the amount of sand that covers the paved walkway, there is no doubt about the occasional flash flood and heavy wind gusts that rush through. It climbs gradually northward about a quarter mile until reaching one of the highlights of this trek, Walters Wiggles. The wiggles take their name from Walter Ruesh, Zion’s first superintendent, who in 1926 began constructing this trail to Angels Landing. The concrete for the job was hauled in by helicopter, taking a total of 258 flights. Once we reach the top of Walters Wiggles, The first close-up view of Angels Landing.

Photo credit Stevo

West Rim Trail - Walters Wiggles. Photo credit Mark Bayes

Photo credit Russell Evans

Walters Wiggles, Angels Landing, Utah. Photo credit Stephanie Quillen

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Walter's Wiggles, Angel's Landing Trail. Photo credit Liz Blair

Walter's Wiggles leading down through Refrigerator Canyon into the Main Canyon. Photo credit Glenn

The Temple of 1,200 Statues in Kyoto, Japan

Otagi Nenbutsu-Ji is a Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan. The temple, originally called Otagi-ji temple, was founded in the Otagi District. This Buddhist temple is a pack of many stone figures. The 1200 Rakan figures were carved by worshipers of this temple from 1981 to 1991 to pray for the prosperity of the temple. Different from usual Buddhist figures, these Rakans seem like having been sculpted with humor and fun.

Photo credit a2zumac

The principal image of this temple is Senju Kannon (the Goddess of Mercy with 1,000 hands). People call this temple The Temple of 1,200 Rakan (the stone statues of Buddha's disciples). Otagi Nenbutsu-ji was founded by Empress Shotoku in the middle of the 8th century. Though was destroyed by the flooding of the Kamo River, it was rebuilt as an offshoot of Enryaku-ji, a nearby temple. During a civil war of 13th century, it was again destroyed. The temple was moved to its current location in 1922, later suffering typhoon damage in 1950. After 31 years in 1981 the damage structure was finally repaired, worshippers at the temple decided to donate rakan sculptures to the temple in honour of its refurbishing. A famous sculptor, Kocho Nishimura taught hundreds of sculptors, amateur and professional alike how to carve statues from stone, and the result is a delightful mix of serene and scary, somber and silly.

Photo credit Trout Monroe

Photo credit Amy Jane Gustafson

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Photo credit Steve Zdawczynski

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Photo credit Trout Monroe

Photo credit a2zumac

Glowworms Transform a New Zealand Cave into an Enchanting Starry Sky

By venturing into the 30-million-year-old limestone caves on New Zealand's North Island, photographer Joseph Michael was able to capture magical images of the glowworms that call this place home. Against the natural backdrop that the cave provides, it looks as though there are hundreds of miniature, blue-tinted stars, but this is actually the work of glowworms known as Arachnocampa luminosa. Using a long-exposure method, the photographer was able to capture the glowworm larvae and their enchanting light in a way that makes the limestone formation look as though it's an indoor, starry sky.

In the close-up photos, you may notice that something is hanging from the bioluminescent gnat larvae. These are the twinkling larvae's nests, which are composed of up to 70 silk threads that contain droplets of mucus. In order to attract prey into these threads, the larvae glow bright, but not all continue to do so once they become adults. Male glowworms will stop glowing a few days after emerging from the nest, while the females' glow will increase in order to attract a mate. With this in mind, it seems that the photographer caught the glowworms at the perfect time for his Luminosity series.

Mirror Installations in Nature Offer a Sense of Peace and Self-Reflection

London-based installation artist Lee Borthwick has an extraordinary gift: she is able to seamlessly combine manmade mirrors with wooden stumps found in nature to form beautifully surreal works of art. The expert designer, who has presented her work as stand-alone wall art indoors and as a hidden exhibition in the middle of an otherwise untouched forest, creates pieces that are consistently eye-catching, regardless of its location.

Each sculpture and installation utilizes natural, organic, and reclaimed materials to present visual unity between man and nature. For her pieces that are taken out of their natural environment, chunks of wood are bound together by wire and hung from an unvarnished branch. What you may not realize at first is that the mirrors have actually been cut to resemble the distinct bumps and curves of the wooden surfaces they're attached to. This presentation allows for a bit of modernity to bond with nature in a harmless fashion.

Borthwick's outdoor installations are an equally spectacular sight. In the middle of nowhere, while out on a stroll, one can come across a section of woods that is inhabited by mirrors of all shapes and sizes. Thanks to Borthwick's fluid technique, the mirror-covered stumps allow any audience that stumbles upon them to have a moment of reflection in an unconventional way.

A Beautiful Valley of Kamchatka Krai - Russia

Kutkhiny Baty an amazing place in terms of geology and extraordinary in its beauty, located in Ust-Bolsheretsky district, Kamchatka Krai, Russia, near the place where the river headed originates from Kuril Lake and the lake are formed by large volcanic explosions, First 41,500 radiocarbon years ago and the second around 6440 BC. The huge amount of material ejected during the second explosion, comparable to some of the largest eruptions in recorded history, produced by thick pyroclastic flow deposits around the countryside, and some ash fell more than 1000 km away on the Asian mainland. Thus formed porous rock - pumice. Over time, this place was covered with earth and raised new forests. But things are changing. And the small creek began to grind the rock, and the wind completed the initiative and opened it for public gaze the white cliffs. The beautiful valley Kutkhiny Baty, appears in the middle of the green mountains like an white oasis in this view from the air, it is a natural depression formed by unique rock pumice, also known as pumice.

Photo credit Commons.Wikimedia

Name Kutkhiny Baty or Kuthiny baht went legend about the main character of Kamchatka - Kutkh. Usually Kutkh appeared before the people in the guise of a crow. According to ltelmen's or the native tribes also have a legend explaining how the valley was formed – they believed that the valley is a storage place for a god’s canoes. Kutkhu - the Lord and the Creator of Kamchatka - used to live on the Kurile Lake for some time, and used to go fishing on the lake and to the ocean in these canoes. Before leaving Kamchatka, Kutkhu put up his boats "Baty", and since then this place has been considered sacred among the locals. There are many stories on this topic, while local artisans can be purchased Kutkh figurines of wood, as well as bone.

The valley is made from whitish pumice stone. Pumice is a very light volcanic rock. Pumice is created when super-heated, highly pressurized rock is violently ejected from a volcano. The unusual foamy configuration of pumice happens. This is how famous "Kutkhiny Baty", "obelisks" made of pumice and resembling gigantic canoes left to dry, look like from a helicopter. Each "boat" is approximately 16 stories tall. Kurile Lake is a national wildlife preserve and a national monument. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the listings of composition of the volcanoes of Kamchatka.