Travel

Yellowstone National Park, Final Post

Posted on July 7, 2011July 7, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Photography, Travel

Better late than never. I haven’t had great internet at home over the past few weeks, which made it somewhat tedious to upload files to my website. I recently moved, which actually made my situation worse. Until the Comcast guy comes, I now have no internet at home. But I’ve found a solution: I’m sitting in a lawn chair near my neighbors house picking up a “free” (and fast) wireless network. So finally, I can post the rest of my Yellowstone pictures. Previous Yellowstone posts here and here. These were some natural hot springs, again colored with orange microbes that can survive in near boiling water: It’s an elk: Baby buffalo: It’s a moose: Yellowstone’s biggest canyon. It’s appropriately referred

The Sierra Nevadas

Posted on July 4, 2011July 7, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Beer, Travel

I drove through yesterday on my way to Mammoth Lakes as part of my holiday weekend road trip. They’re extremely impressive. And as far as I know, they’re also the first mountain range to be named after a brewery. Happy Fourth!

Joshua Tree National Park

Posted on July 2, 2011July 2, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Travel

It was 116 degrees today at Joshua Tree. And it felt great. Happy fourth weekend.

Yellowstone National Park, Part 2

Posted on June 29, 2011June 29, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Photography, Travel

To add to my previous post on my Yellowstone visit, here are some additional shots: There really were just a lot of buffalo. Everywhere: Microbes that thrive on the hot rocks add a fiery orange to the landscape: There were also quite a few natural hot springs, some of which had vents in the rocks releasing boiling water:

Yellowstone National Park

Posted on June 27, 2011June 30, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Photography, Travel

I was completely blown away by Yellowstone. I expected lots a trees, some lakes, some animals, and a big geyser. But it turned out to quite possibly be the most impressive natural landscape I’ve seen. Apparently much of the park was created by a supervolcano eruption that occurred 640,000 years ago. The explosion essentially ripped a hole in the Earth, exposing active geological phenomena that would normally be hundreds, if not thousands of meters underground. But that’s about the extent of my understanding of the whole thing. So take a look: Gas containing lots of sulfur spews out of rocks next to a frozen lake: A grizzly bear spotting: This is where the bear came from: Buffalo milk: A gigantic pool of gray clay:

Strawberry Canyon

Posted on June 20, 2011June 20, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Travel

Over the weekend I took a trip out to Berkeley to hike along Strawberry Canyon. Two quick thoughts: 1. I’m still blown away by the number of amazing hiking trails that are right in the Bay area. Quite a few of which are accessible by public transit. 2. It made me happy to learn that the Lawrence National Laboratory at Berkeley has a herd of 350 goats living on the property for the sole purpose of eating brush to help prevent wildfires. I’m not kidding. I shot a video: They were all very busy. Here are a few other shots from my phone:

South Dakota Photography

Posted on June 17, 2011June 17, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Photography, Travel

I went through some of my shots from the road trip, and here’s the first batch. These were taken on June 4th in the Badlands, the Black Hills, Custer State Park, and there may be a couple from Eastern Wyoming.

Whoa Buffalo!

Posted on June 12, 2011June 12, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Travel

Last week I spent a couple days exploring Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming with my friend Rya from school. On our way to see Old Faithful, we got stuck in a ‘Buffalo Jam’ for nearly two hours. The Buffalo had apparently decided that it was easier to travel up the road than through the woods. I can’t say I blame them. It’s hard to get annoyed when this is the reason you’re stuck in bumper to bumper traffic:

South Dakota

Posted on June 5, 2011June 5, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Photography, Travel

I had a great time exploring South Dakota today. It’s a very impressive state, with a lot more going on than I expected. I checked out the Badlands, Mount Washington, Custer State Park, the Black Hills National Forest, and Deadwood. I haven’t yet gone through my SLR shots, but in the meantime, here are a few photos from my phone:

The World’s Only Corn Palace

Posted on June 4, 2011June 4, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Travel

Not that that says much. I thought I could resist, but after seeing the 2,354,765th sign on the highway, I caved. I also remember that a former colleague of mine at Fidelity Investments had an ad for the palace hanging above his desk. It was kind of there as a joke. But it also kind of wasn’t. I went for you, Eric! There really wasn’t much of anything inside. There was a guy dressed in a full body ear of corn costume who amused himself by sneaking up behind visitors and saying, “Well, hello!” Not surprisingly, every person was startled, and he would laugh and then awkwardly apologize.