The American West

September 2026
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Joe Benning

The American West

The American West is something to behold. For one thing, the scenery is just spectacular. It can really make a difference in how a person views nature, and natural surroundings.

Montana and Wyoming, which is where Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons are located, are very sparsely populated. Montana has a population of only about 1,450,000. It ranks 43^rd among US states.

The Yellowstone River curves through open grassland beside a quiet road, framed by blue sky, summer clouds, and distant hills.

Wyoming comes in dead last at 50. Slightly less than 600,000 call Wyoming home. The combined population of both states is right around 2 million people. To put this in perspective, Manhattan’s population is about 1,630,000, which is slightly greater than the entire state of Montana and close to 3 times the population of Wyoming.

The Upper Falls of the Yellowstone River plunges into the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, with a historic bridge visible upstream and turquoise canyon water flowing below. Lodgepole pines frame the view from an elevated overlook under a dramatic partly cloudy sky. Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA.

Upon seeing the physical beauty of the place, it makes you wonder why there are not more people living there. The winters can be brutal though. Then again, the fact that 4th of July baseball games can get called off because of snow might have something to do with it.

A large herd of elk grazes calmly in a lush green meadow at Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone, with dramatic grey eroded mountain slopes rising in the background.

This is without doubt cowboy country–both the real ones and the make believe ones. The locals love telling stories about how the make believe cowboys like to strut around Jackson Hole wearing their newly purchased $2,000 cowboy clothes. Being a Rhinestone cowboy can get pretty expensive pretty fast. For instance, in Bozeman, Montana (pop 60,000), discounts of up to 20% can be had on cowboy boots–but only for the ones starting at $800 a pair.

The restaurants have lots of Elk burger, but they also have large selections of Martinis not to mention avocado toast and other stuff you would find in Manhattan. And they (the restaurants) are pretty good too.

Old Faithful geyser sends a towering column of steam and boiling water into the sky as crowds of visitors line the boardwalk viewing area to watch the famous eruption. Conifer forest and rolling hills form the backdrop under a partly cloudy blue sky. Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA.

We did get a chance to see Old Faithful erupt. And we also went to a rodeo, complete with horses and bulls trying to throw their riders off. Which they did with some regularity. Apparently staying on a bucking bronco for 8 seconds is a big deal. Finally there was a ride on a raft down the snake river–with about a zero chance of even getting wet, much less getting tossed off the raft.

All in all Yellowstone should not be missed. We’d go back in a heartbeat.

JFB

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Joe Benning

Ginkgo Grove 2023

The state of Virginia maintains an arboretum, complete with an experimental farm (The Blandy Experimental Farm) that is managed by the University of Virginia. There students and ecologists maintain the farm and conduct experiments using a wide range of trees and plants.

Blandy’s Ginkgo Grove is one of the largest public Ginkgo groves in America, with over 300 trees. Every Autumn the Blandy Experimental Farm has a GinkgoFest. This year it was held just recently, on October 28. We visited the arboretum with friends on Monday for a picnic and to see the Ginkgo grove and the changing colors of the Autumn foliage. The views were spectacular.

Here below are a few photos from the visit. Please note, photos on this site will generally be available for licensing by download (without the watermark) at the Evocative Photos website. In the future clicking on a photo in the travel blog will usually take you to a full resolution version of the photo at Evocative Photos.

A wide angle colorful photo of a trees in the lush Virginia State Arboretum

A wide angle photo of a picnic area in the lush Virginia State Arboretum

A wide angle vertical format photo of Ginkgo Grove in the Virginia State Arboretum

A photo of Ginkgo Grove against a blue sky backdrop in the Virginia State Arboretum

A wide angle vertical format photo of falling Autumn leaves in the Virginia State Arboretum

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Joe Benning

Great Falls National Park in Autumn

We had some visitors from the wilds of New Jersey the other day. Mary Anne’s sister Ellen and her husband Steve came by our neck of the woods for a visit. The four of us took a walk around town and then made our way to Great Falls National Park in McLean Virginia. Among other things, the park is known for its stunning views of the Great Falls of the Potomac. Here (below) are a couple of shots taken in the park, along with one photo taken on a hiking trail by Lake Anne in Reston.

JFB

Wide angle shot of the Great Falls waterfall in Fairfax, Virginia

Great Falls Park on an Autumn afternoon.

A close-up photo of tree leaves that have turned from green to burnt orange.

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Joe Benning

Autumn Arrives

Fairfax County Virginia has an extraordinary system of public parks. There are lakes and nature trails everywhere you turn. In addition, Great Falls National Park in McLean Virginia features a spectacular series of waterfalls in addition to picnic grounds and hiking trails. Now that the end of October has arrived, the trees are bursting with fall colors; kayakers are braving the rapids of the Great Falls and fishermen are casting for perch and bass in the lakes. Have a look below at recent photos taken in the parks.

JFB

Gone Fishing

Royal Lake in Fairfax County

Tree Leaves Turning Color by Royal Lake

Man in a Maelstrom

Long Exposure Shot of the Falls

Picnic Area in Lake Fairfax Park

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Joe Benning

On to the Caribbean—Aruba

After traversing the Panama Canal, we arrived in the Caribbean Sea, leaving South America behind us. Our first stop in the Caribbean was Aruba. It is a small island, just 19 miles long and 6 miles wide and a population of about 104,000.

The geography of Aruba is very interesting. One side of the island is the Caribbean. That is the side with the large tourist hotels and white sandy beaches. The other side faces the Atlantic Ocean where the sea is fairly turbulent. The Atlantic here is violent enough to have carved out from the cliffs the highest and most spectacular natural bridge in the Caribbean. (It collapsed in 2005).

Aruba’s Atlantic Coastline

We went touring mostly on the Atlantic side of the island, visited the rocky shores of the Atlantic side as well as desert-like areas and a butterfly farm. Some photos are below.

Cactus Plants

At a Butterfly Farm

Atlantic Ocean Crashes into the Coast

Desert Like Area in Aruba

JFB

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Joe Benning

Frodo Lives!

When Peter Jackson filmed JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy, he was determined to be as true to the book as possible. One of the first problems he faced was finding a location that looked like the Tolkien’s description of the fantastical Middle Earth which he dubbed “Endor”. Endor had snow-capped mountains, golden grass covered plains, sandy beaches and rain-forest creeks. As it turns out, New Zealand’s 400,000 hectare Kahurangi National Park fit the bill perfectly, which is why Jackson filmed Lord of the Rings there.

Which, in turn, is why we went there on a tour. It is not to be missed. The park has towering snow-capped mountains that slope down to a valley with wide open plains where some of the climactic battle scenes were filmed. First, we went to Lake Clearwater that served as a backdrop, as seen below.

Looking over Lake Clearwater

After Lake Clearwater, we were off to the mountains and valleys in the park. The shear scope of the landscape is hard to imagine. The valley is huge; it is home to rivers and streams and is surrounded by snow-capped mountains. One of the photos below has a woman in the lower left quadrant to give some perspective on how vast the expanse of land is.

Woman in Valley

Snow Capped Mountains

Anyway, the next two stops are Nelson and Wellington, so we’ll see what adventures await us there.

JFB

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Joe Benning

Stewart Island / Rakiura

We made our way to Stewart Island, also known as Rakiura by the Maori people who arrived from Polynesia about 800 years before Captain James Cook claimed it for the British Crown. It is the 3^rd largest of the New Zealand islands measured by size. But the population is only about 400 people. So, we docked in the Tasman Sea and took tender boats over to the island to look around, which took all of 5 minutes, and then we were off with a local on a boat ride in the Tasman Sea.

While cruising around the Tasman Sea we were able to see a bunch (actually a rookery) of Albatross searching for fish, made easier for said Albatross by the ship’s mate who tossed fish over the side to attract them. If you get a close up look at these birds you understand why you don’t want an Albatross around your neck. They are big and aggressive, with large beaks which they do not hesitate to use.

We were also able to sail by the rock formation where the penguins hang out in the neighborhood, and saw lots of them, maybe numbering about 100. After that we headed back to the big ship to continue to sail on to Dunedin, which we reached the next morning.

Here are some photos of Albatross, Penguins and rock formations in the Tasman Sea.

Penguins Hanging Out on their Favorite Rock

A Pair of Albatross

Rock Formation in the Tasman Sea

Albatross Makes Off with Food

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Joe Benning

Hobart, Tasmania

Hiking in the Rain Forest

We made it. By that I mean we successfully returned from a 2.5-hour hike through a Tasmanian rain forest in Mount Field National Park. The park is around 22,000 hectares (about 54,000 acres) and is part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. When we finished climbing up and down the mountainside (2 times no less), it felt like we covered the entire 22,000 hectares in one shot.

A Walk in the Rain Forest

But, truth be told it was well worth it, even considering that the forest lacked elevators.

The first thing you notice in the forest is the air quality. It is bracingly fresh and clean with the scent of the eucalyptus trees everywhere. The sights and scenery are just spectacular. We visited at least 3 waterfalls, and hiked through a field of tall trees with some trees being hundreds of years old. It turns out that these swamp gum trees are tallest flowering plants in the world.

Anyway, we finished the hike and we are on our way to Sydney.

JFB

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Joe Benning

Another Safari Day

Out in the Bush

When you head out to the bush country you just don’t know what you are going to find. For the second (of three) Safari days out in the bush, the plan was to find some elephants in the morning, and maybe more lions in the afternoon. That meant getting a wake-up call at 4:30 AM and piling into the jeep and into the woods by 5:00 AM.

As it turned out, we didn’t find any elephants until later in the afternoon. But we did find a male lion. We also found a cheetah hanging out by a watering hole. Watering holes are a popular spot to hang out in the bush, except for the fact that some of the animals regard the others as dinner. So, the animals likely to be targets tend to go as a group—safety in numbers—while the lions hang out around the periphery waiting for one of the targets to stray from the group. Then the lions pick them off.

Another thing. Looking at the stars from the pitch black African bush takes your breath away. Without any distracting ambient light, you can probably see the stars the way the sailors saw them hundreds of years ago.

Anyway, here (below) are some more photos of animals and the countryside out in the bush. Next, we head for a short stop in Maputo, Mozambique. There are more photos available at Evocative Photos.

JFB

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Joe Benning

A Little Macro Photography

Macro photography, which entails close-up photos of a subject, is particularly well suited for nature photography. So in order to learn about the art of macro photography, composition and technique, I went to a Visions Photographic Workshop run by Michael S. Miller. I might add that Michael’s classes and workshops can benefit any and all photographers, from beginners to more advanced practitioners. Michael is a great teacher, and his classes and workshops are a lot of fun to boot. Try going to the Visions Workshops website to have a look. You also might want to check out the Visions Facebook page.

Anyway, for the Macro Photography workshop Monday evening, the light and weather were perfect. So we spent the evening on the beach crawling around in the sand to get some close-ups of seashells and other stuff lying around in the sand. Here (below) are some of the resulting photos.

JFB

Seashell with a Heart

Broken-up Seashells Litter the Beach

Mussells, Pebbles and Seashells on the Beach

A collection of seashells lying on the beach

A seashell lying on the beach in late afternoon

Seashell on the beach Surrounded by sand pebbles in late afternoon

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Back in Spring Lake

We are back in Spring Lake after a 21 hour trip–but not before stopping at the Kealia Pond National Wildlife Refuge in Maui on the way to the airport. It actually bears a slight resemblance to the Edwin Forsythe Wildlife Refuge in South Jersey–except that it lacks the swarms of mosquitos that the Forsythe Refuge has.

Some photos from the Kealia Pond Refuge.

Joe

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On the West Side of Maui

Aloha

It’s getting close to the end of our trip so we decided to book into one of the resort hotels on the West side of the island for a couple of days. Needless to say, the views were spectacular. Among other things, we were able to sit on our deck and watch the whales go by and an occasional porpoise. The sunsets (and moonsets) were stunning as well. Not only that, we could watch the boats and Kayakers float by. Finally, we got to watch the divers leap off Black Rock into the waters below. Not something I would try.

We’ll be back soon to enjoy the springtime snow in New Jersey. Photos below (of Hawaii).