David Howell Travel Photography and Map Blog

In a quiet glacial canyon in Les Pyrénées Parc National the tallest waterfall in Europe pounds onto the jumble of rocks at the base of Cirque de Gavarnie.

The Cirque de Gavarnie retains a few remnants of the glaciers that carved the sheer wall. The cirque wall is up to 1,500 meters (~4,900 feet) in height and 3,000 meters (almost two miles) wide. The small glaciers hang in the ledges high above the canyon floor and their melt water feeds the waterfall which is called la Grande Cascade….

The Pyrénées are a rugged and majestic mountain range joining France and Spain together with culture.

An old culture of mountain villages, sheep, pilgrimage, Basques, tourism, hiking, skiing, and healing.

It is the home of Les Pyrénées Parc National.

We visited Gavarnie in the fall after the busy season. The massive glacial basin of the Cirque de Gavarnie is an easy walk from the village….

Can you hear this photograph?

I admit that is an eccentric question. But I stood in this spot for hours and the roar of this rapid was amplified by the narrow river canyon. I think that I can still hear it.

I arrived before dawn and waited for a little light before I climbed over the rocks down to this ledge next to the Trinity River in northern California….

I climbed this little tree in the middle of the stream and tried to balance while taking this time exposure. It was hard to hold the camera still, especially when the branch broke….

OK, that is a lie. But sometimes it is fun to make up stories to anwser the question, “How did you take that photo?”

The combination of vantage point and composition can hide the real answer and create curiosity….