Ancient bristlecone pine tree, rising above the arid, dolomite-rich slopes of the Schulman Grove in the White Mountains at an elevation of 9500 above sea level, along the Methuselah Walk. The oldest bristlecone pines in the world are found in the Schulman Grove, some of them over 4700 years old. Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest.
Species: Bristlecone pine, Pinus longaeva
Location: White Mountains, Inyo National Forest, California
Image ID: 23233
Giant redwood, Lady Bird Johnson Grove, Redwood National Park. The coastal redwood, or simply 'redwood', is the tallest tree on Earth, reaching a height of 379' and living 3500 years or more. It is native to coastal California and the southwestern corner of Oregon within the United States, but most concentrated in Redwood National and State Parks in Northern California, found close to the coast where moisture and soil conditions can support its unique size and growth requirements.
Species: California redwood, Coast redwood, Giant redwood, Sequoia sempervirens
Location: Redwood National Park, California
Image ID: 25795
Sol Duc Falls. Sol Duc Falls is one of the largest and most beautiful waterfalls in Olympic National Park, seen here from a bridge that crosses the canyon just below the falls. Surrounding the falls is an old-growth forest of hemlocks and douglas firs, some of which are three hundred years in age.
Location: Sol Duc Springs, Olympic National Park, Washington
Image ID: 13747
Multnomah Falls. Plummeting 620 feet from its origins on Larch Mountain, Multnomah Falls is the second highest year-round waterfall in the United States. Nearly two million visitors a year come to see this ancient waterfall making it Oregon's number one public destination.
Location: Multnomah Falls, Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, Oregon
Image ID: 19313
Panorama dimensions: 12453 x 4705
Black bear portrait. American black bears range in color from deepest black to chocolate and cinnamon brown. They prefer forested and meadow environments. This bear still has its thick, full winter coat, which will be shed soon with the approach of summer.
Species: American black bear, Ursus americanus
Location: Orr, Minnesota
Image ID: 18742
San Clemente Island aerial photo, Pyramid Head and Balanced Rock at the southern end of the island. San Clemente Island Pyramid Head, the distinctive pyramid shaped southern end of the island, exhibits distinctive geologic terracing, underwater reefs and giant kelp forests.
Location: San Clemente Island, California
Image ID: 38485
Panorama dimensions: 4232 x 12542
Garibaldi and Brown Gorgonian Muricea fruticosa, Catalina Island, with giant kelp stands reaching from the reef to the surface of the ocean in the distance. The clown prince of the kelp forest, the Garibaldi, alternately poses for me and chirps at me to move away from his gorgonian.
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 37157
Pyrosome drifting through a kelp forest, Catalina Island. Pyrosomes are free-floating colonial tunicates that usually live in the upper layers of the open ocean in warm seas. Pyrosomes are cylindrical or cone-shaped colonies made up of hundreds to thousands of individuals, known as zooids.
Location: Catalina Island, California
Image ID: 37166
Roosevelt elk, adult bull male with large antlers. This bull elk has recently shed the velvet that covers its antlers. While an antler is growing, it is covered with highly vascular skin called velvet, which supplies oxygen and nutrients to the growing bone; once the antler has achieved its full size, the velvet is lost and the antler's bone dies. This dead bone structure is the mature antler, which is itself shed after each mating season. Roosevelt elk grow to 10' and 1300 lb, eating grasses, sedges and various berries, inhabiting the coastal rainforests of the Pacific Northwest.
Species: Roosevelt elk, Cervus canadensis roosevelti
Location: Redwood National Park, California
Image ID: 25890
Ancient bristlecone pine trees in Patriarch Grove, display characteristic gnarled, twisted form as it rises above the arid, dolomite-rich slopes of the White Mountains at 11000-foot elevation. Patriarch Grove, Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest.
Species: Ancient bristlecone pine, Pinus longaeva
Location: White Mountains, Inyo National Forest, California
Image ID: 28526
San Diego city skyline, showing the buildings of downtown San Diego rising above San Diego Harbor, viewed from Point Loma at sunset, with mountains of the Cleveland National Forest rising in the distance. A panoramic photograph, composite of six separate images. Mount San Miguel is on right and Lyons Peak to the left.
Location: San Diego, California
Image ID: 22252
Panorama dimensions: 3144 x 16621
Isla San Pedro Martir at sunset with extensive forest of Cardon Cactus seen on the summit ridge of the island, aerial photo, Sea of Cortez, Mexico. San Pedro Martir Island and its marine life are, since 2002, part of the San Pedro Martir Biosphere Reserve, and is regarded as a natural laboratory of adaptive evolution, similar to that of the Galapagos Islands. It is home to 292 species of fauna and flora (both land-based and aquatic), with 42 species protected by Mexican law, and 30 listed on the Red List of Threatened Species. San Pedro Martir is also unique in the area for its year-round quantity of birds. The island is the only island in the area with a perpetually swirling cloud of sea birds. This is because the water around the island, has some of the most successful marine productivity in the world.
Location: Isla San Pedro Martir, Sonora, Mexico
Image ID: 40397
Red gorgonian on rocky reef, below kelp forest, underwater. The red gorgonian is a filter-feeding temperate colonial species that lives on the rocky bottom at depths between 50 to 200 feet deep. Gorgonians are oriented at right angles to prevailing water currents to capture plankton drifting by.
Species: Red gorgonian, Leptogorgia chilensis, Lophogorgia chilensis
Location: San Clemente Island, California
Image ID: 25394
Kelp fronds and pneumatocysts. Pneumatocysts, gas-filled bladders, float the kelp plant off the ocean bottom toward the surface and sunlight, where the leaf-like blades and stipes of the kelp plant grow fastest. Giant kelp can grow up to 2' in a single day given optimal conditions. Epic submarine forests of kelp grow throughout California's Southern Channel Islands.
Species: Giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera
Location: San Clemente Island, California
Image ID: 25396