West Fork Oak Creek

West Fork Oak CreekWater en route to Arizona's Oak Creek pauses to reflect.

but the American Southwest

Independence Monument is one of a thousand features in Colorado National Monument

A gopher snake appears to comtemplate a fruit growing in the underbrush of the high desert

Cuernos del Paine is the center-point of Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonian Chile and the southern reaches of the continental Andes Range

Fishhook barrel cactus is so called because of the long curved spines

Mineral-rich Round Spring

Ninety-one stairs ascend each of four sides to arrive at a final step up

Typically much human activity surrounds the area but due to a lightning storm at the time of this image capture all had retreated

A sand hillock tucked between the monuments has its own dominance

below the Teton Range  water en route to Jackson Hole hesitates long enough to mirror the mountain peaks

Naturalist photographer Greg Lawson’s California image collection conjures up just such a possibility with page after page of Golden State imagery featuring flora and fauna along with landscapes and seascapes with little visible impact by the footprint of man

Texas slowly mesmerizes