California

I was having a down day, which happens, even in a really amazing place like Death Valley. Everything was getting on my nerves: generators firing up at 7:01AM, noisy campers the night before, people walking through my site on the way to the bathroom… it was just one of those days.

I decided to go for a drive and grabbed my Sony A7 on the way out the door. I thought maybe today was the day to hike Golden Canyon, but as I drove by it, I could see the parking lot was so full there was no way my car would fit in, and I wouldn’t want to hike a crowded trail anyways. I went about a mile more and saw this out my window…

It looked like the hike I needed: a long walk with no one near and not much to see, so I could think out loud and maybe pull myself out of this funk. I parked on the side of the road, checked the camera had battery and memory card, and started walking.

It took me about five minutes to actually notice what I was walking through instead of what I was walking towards. This dried out little bush caught my eye and I felt like I had to take its picture.

I ended up sitting in the dirt, lowering my camera and getting as close to level with the ground as I could to get the tree in the foreground in focus, framed by the Panamint range of mountains in the background. I don’t know how long I spent, maybe 10 minutes, but it sparked something in me and I started looking for more bushes.

This one is looking the other way, toward the mountains I had first picked out as my destination. Again, I had to get down in the dirt for the shot, but I didn’t mind at all. I was having fun and lost all track of time.

I kept walking, looking down at the ground more than I was looking out at my destination. I had thought I was looking for geology photos but the keepers from this photo walk turned out to be the bushes.

Isn’t that the way sometimes? You think you know what you want, but then you actually needed something else. My hike turned into a photo walk and it made me feel so good to be creative and attentive that my whole day turned around.

And just to give a sense of scale to the hike, that little dot at the end of the red arrow in the photo below is my car. It was about 30 minutes of serious walking from where I took this photo to where my car was parked. Death Valley is all about scale; feeling so small in such a vast space.

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What draws us into the desert is the search for something intimate in the remote.

Edward Abbey

The desert is one of those places you have to slow way down to experience. I pity the people just passing through, either on a day trip or a one-night camping stop on their way to somewhere else. You have to let the desert in to your soul slowly. Sit and listen to the silence and you’ll start to hear the faint birdsong, the buzz of insects in the bushes, the wind through the branches of the cottonwoods. 

One of the best ways to get to know the desert is to walk through it. So let’s go on a hike on part of the Ring Trail in Mojave National Preserve. The trail starts at the parking lot of the Hole in the Wall Visitor Center, deep into the eastern side of this wonderful land managed by the National Park Service. 

Look up as you walk along the sandy trail. These rocks are the remnants of a volcanic eruption about 18.5 million years ago. A groundswell of ash and rock fragments blew out along the ground for more than 200 square miles, cooking everything in its path. The ash and rock welded together as they cooled and entombed remains of birds, plants, and mammals. 

Over time, weathering from wind and rain have worn away the softer materials, causing rocks to fall and that’s what you see from the top all the way down to the trail.

As we wend our way west, we can see mesas formed by that volcanic tuff and ash. Looking up and out, you start to get a sense of how large that volcanic eruption was.

The trail takes another curve, a bit north, and this canyon comes into view. The trail continues…

…until you’re inside the canyon, looking at walls of rhyolite tuff, with tafoni created by weathering. Tafoni is the geological term for those “holes” you see in the rock, created over lifetimes of wind and rain. Yes, there is enough water in the Mojave Desert to weather rocks like this!

Sometimes the weathering looks very much like modern art. This one below reminds me of a Picasso face. 

We turn around to retrace our steps and get home before sunset, but not before enjoying one last few to the south. It’s hard to imagine that one of the most violent volcanic eruptions ever took place here. We stand in silence looking out at the landscape, letting the sun warm our faces before it slides behind those mountains for the night. 

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May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view.

Edward Abbey

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For more information on the volcanic eruption, click on this link.  

I spent last week hanging out in my old hometown of Aptos, a quick visit sans trailer to catch up with some friends and celebrate the birthday of one newly-minted teenager. And get some beach time along the shores of Monterey Bay. 

It’s beautiful in the morning, when few but the wanderers and runners are out on the sand at low tide.

And it’s lovely in the middle of the day, especially when the surf’s up a bit.

It really is best at sunset. Crowds gathered almost every time to enjoy the show. Can you blame them?

The beach is gorgeous even in cold and drizzling rain.

When the blue skies show up with streaky white clouds, it’s breathtaking. 

Yes, any time, any weather, beach is a very good thing. 

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The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonders forever

Jaques-Yves Cousteau

I’ve been spending the last few days in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. With the right light and some hiking, I’m amazed how beautiful this area is.

Wandering around the campground in Sequoia National Park and found this watery shot after scooting down the rocky hillside.

Literally on the side of the road for a different shot, and saw this as I got back in my car. It turned out to be the much better shot.

And, well, you can’t mention being in Sequoia National Park without showing an actual Sequoia. The branches start at about 120 feet from the ground, to give you a sense of scale.

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It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see. 

Henry David Thoreau

Warning: This page has two video clips, so it may take a while to load. It’s worth the wait, trust me!

The California Redwoods are truly amazing things so if you are EVER near the Jedidiah Redwoods State and National Park, go see them! The park is way up in the farthest northwest corner of California, but it’s worth the trip. And I’ll do my best in this post to convince you of that.

It’s hard to get a sense of how wide and how tall these trees are. In this photo, you can see a person to the far right. So that gives you a sense of bigness.

They are also massively tall, to the point where a camera really has a hard time getting the whole tree in the shot, as you can see from this photo.

To help resolve this technical issue, I took a short video starting at the base of a group of redwoods and going up to the top: redwoods-up

When you look straight up while standing in the center of a circle of redwoods, this is the video view: tops

Fun facts about Coastal Redwoods:

• Can grow to over 370 feet
• Some are nearly 2000 years old
• Bark can be 12 inches thick
• Diameter can be up to 22 feet

The redwoods need moisture year round, so that’s why you find them by the coast, and only along a narrow strip of california and southern Oregon. It’s also why you see lots of ferns around them, too. It’s like the best of a rain forest combined with really big trees. Pretty cool combination!

The National Park has rivers like this, making for wonderful campsites. I could walk all the way out to the edge of the river and watch rafters and fishermen enjoying the day.

Imagine seeing this view in the morning as you rub the sleep from your eyes. You might feel like you’re back in the 1700s or 1800s, no trace of civilization, just you and the big redwoods outside your door.

For more on Redwoods National and State Parks, you can check out their website.

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The redwoods, once seen, leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always. No one has ever successfully painted or photographed a redwood tree. The feeling they produce is not transferable. From them comes silence and awe. It’s not only their unbelievable stature, nor the color which seems to shift and vary under your eyes, no, they are not like any trees we know, they are ambassadors from another time.

John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America

Death Valley. When I was growing up, I had zero desire to see what this place was all about. I knew it was desert, hot and dry, and those were two words that never had encouraged me to go. I was a water girl, beaches and surf. More than two decades in California growing up and I never went to Death Valley. Never wanted to.

And then my friend sent me a message that she was going to be in Death Valley and why not come down in November? I thought about it overnight, checked the November weather averages, and then decided sure, I might as well see it once. I never have to go again was my thought at the time, I can check that sucker off my National Parks list and move on.

So imagine my surprise and delight when, at the end of 10 days in Death Valley, I didn’t want to leave. The light, the forms, the wide open spaces, the hidden beauties – I was in love with the desert.

If you too want to fall in love with desert, I highly recommend a trip to Death Valley. Yes, you have to time it carefully to not be melting in the shade of 100F weather, but it’s worth the planning involved.

My favorite places, in no particular order:

Ash Meadows Refuge

Devil’s Golf Course

This is one crazy spread: what looks like razor-sharp formations just waiting to slash your ankles should you try to walk very far off the tarmac.

Badwater Basin

It wasn’t too crowded the day I went because it had been so hot several days before, so people were politely letting each group take turns being the farthest out on the trail. When it was my turn, I felt like there was no one else in the whole wide valley. It was one of my favorite moments of the trip.

On the walk back to my car, I met Russians, Koreans, Brits, and New Yorkers, all of us enjoying the lowest spot in the continental USA at 282 feet below sea level.

Zabrinskie Point

The sunset is legendary here, and, sure enough, crowds gathered to watch the spectacle. Met two German couples who reminded me of my niece in the way they were so friendly and so fun to talk with. Here’s 3/4 of them (the other 1/4 was taking their own photo).

The sunset itself was hard to get, but the golden hour light on the point was amazing so that’s where I spent most of my shots.

Artists Drive

This is a road that loops through some beautiful colored rock formations, weathered over time into colors you won’t see anywhere else in Death Valley. I was disappointed the road was scheduled to be closed the day after I arrived, so I was surprised and quite happy it was still open a few days later. I took full advantage of it, and loved the whole loop. Amazing colors and amazing geology.

Natural Bridge

I took this short hike not really knowing what to expect. I was alone in a canyon most of the hike, and so I had time and space to play with the camera a bit. Most people would take the shot of the bridge, but I ended up using it as a frame for the mountain behind it. I really liked how this shot came out.

Ubehebe Crater

Completely windy day, and I had to hike up a steep trail to get this much of the crater in the shot. Half in shadow, half in bright sunlight, it was a challenge to figure out how to capture this complicated landscape.

I didn’t even get to half the places on the map, so I clearly need to go back and keep exploring, on foot and with camera in hand. This place is one reason I saved up and bought a 28mm prime lens (wide angle lens), the better to capture the wide open landscape.

For more about Death Valley, check out the DV National Parks website.