Tag: nature
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Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest
The Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest is located in the Inyo National Forest. It is the home of the oldest trees on earth, some of which are over 4000 years old. This was not our first trip to visit these ancients but it was the first time with a toddler. The one developed campground in the…
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Idyllwild Nature Center and Trails
The Idyllwild Nature Center and Trails is located about one mile northwest of downtown Idyllwild, on highway 243. The Nature center is not fully opened at this time due to Covid but there is a ranger there to answer questions Thursday-Sunday, 9am to 4pm. All trails are open 7 days a week from sunrise to…
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Oak Glen Preserve
Nothing says fall like the obligatory trip to an apple orchard. Apple picking in Southern California is a bit of a spectacle. Thousands of Californians descend on a handful of orchards, swaddled in their best fall-wear, cozy sweaters, boots, and chucky knits, with no one seeming to care that it is over 90 degrees out.…
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Santa Rosa Plateau
Have you ever wondered what Southern California looked like before the freeways, houses, and Starbucks showed up. How about what it looked like before Europeans came on the scene with cattle, plows, and agriculture? One of the best examples of native California landscape can be found at the Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve. The Reserve…
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Desolation
Glaciers carve the land, scraping the soil away, exposing stone, and all semblance of life is abolished from the earth. Glaciers recede, depositing boulders, large and small, like frozen trolls on the bleak landscape. The wind blows carrying with it particles of sand, seeds of plants, which snuggle into the crooks and crannies of the…
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The Opera, Pupfish, and Ghost Towns
Continued… As the diffuse morning light painted the landscape in pastel we packed up and left the desert rat enclave of Tecopa and headed toward Death Valley Junction. Death Valley Junction is a small desert town with a population of less than 20 people. The town was formed in the 1920s with the backing of…
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Hippies, Date Palms and Mud Mites
For thanksgiving we explored corners of the desert we had not been to before. Our five day road trip started in the depths of the Mojave, took us over arid mountains and into Death Valley. We finished our trip by popping out by the eastern Sierra. I realize I write an awful lot about the…
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Once Upon a Time in Mexico
For three days salt has encrusted my hair, I have drank more beer than water, and spent more time in the waves then on dry ground. Welcome to Baja California, the Sea of Cortez, a very sandy paradise. After 10 years of living so close to the border I have finally made it down to…
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Boondocking
Sometimes a little patch of dirt at the end of a long dusty road is as close to heaven as you can get.
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Mountain Senses
Breath deep; the mountain air is thin yet it fills the lungs and brain to capacity. Heavy boots fly weary bones to the pass between two ragged peaks overlooking 11,000 feet of rock, wildflowers, and air. Take the dusty steep trail down to a pool of sapphire crystal. The edges of the glassy water so…
Bit of Betsy 