CALIFORNIA DISCOVERY #2

Fall River Valley

From one valley (the Pit) you see a little more of Mt. Lassen. 

In the more verdant Fall River Valley, Shasta is seldom out of sight as seen in the above image.

This pano gives you a small sense of the scope and flavor of the Fall River Valley. With Shasta anchoring on the right and Lassen on the left, you have a whole lot of beautiful in between. Fall River has more farm land than timber and seems to have plenty of water for irrigation.

In places there is enough water to grow rice. This dredge sat adjacent to some wild rice growing fields. I never did find out what purpose it served. Besides rice, there are broad fields of alfalfa and hay and beef cattle everywhere. And of course all this water draws a multitude of waterfowl. Those are Canadian Geese in the shot above.

The Fall and Pit Rivers come together near the boundary of the two valleys. Perhaps not at showy as Burney Falls, Pit River Falls still has its own beauty. The bridge in view used to be the main road into the area until realignment of California Hwy 299 bypassed it.

Still remote by today's standards, the former Fort Crook was extremely isolated in the 1850s & 60s. It was at least a 10 day ride to the Presidio in San Francisco, assuming the weather cooperated. After the Civil War the Fort was abandoned. One marker commemorates the fort site, the other an early guide who accompanied the first soldiers into the area. The man who founded the fort later became better known as General George Crook who became a decorated hero of the Civil War.

CALIFORNIA DISCOVERY #1

The Pit River Valley

Though we'd been through a portion of this far northeast corner of California before, it turns out we really hadn't seen more than what driving on a through highway allowed. Until now. Two big valleys, several spectacular waterfalls and a host of natural and man made wonders were waiting be discovered. Above is the first of two large valleys - the Pit River Valley. The basin is a blend of farming and timber, with logging being the bigger industry. The valley sits within sight of both Lassen (to the south) and Shasta (to the northwest).

 Above is Burney Falls. Beginning as a spring that percolates up through the lava, Burney Creek delivers 10,000,000 gallons every day, all year long. The water eventually reaches the Pit River. The Pit accounts for 80% of the flow of the Sacramento River.

Like so many public places that were developed during the Depression era, the Civilian Conservation Corp was charged with dressing up many State and Federal park lands. This was originally built to house the earliest McArthur-Burney Falls State Park custodian.

Goldfish? No, Albino Rainbow Trout. However genetics happen, fish like these, when found, are kept from breeding. There were a half dozen of these unique trout at the Crystal Lake Fish Hatchery.

Though Crystal Lake has been around since 1927, it isn't considered an old timer. Not far away was the Hat Creek Fish Hatchery built in 1887 to originally raise salmon. In 1915 the eruption of Mt. Lassen threw enough mud and debris that it knocked out the remaining run of salmon and for years greatly diminished the trout population. 

The unusually colored horse (near black and pure white) caught my eye first. Then mama moved and the little colt came into view. The big hand of time seems to move a bit slower in this charmingly rural part of California.

GOODBYE DEATH VALLEY

Its Beauty Bids A Quick Return

FLOWING SANDS

Shifting Light

This was not the only photographer out at dawn to shoot the Mesquite Sand Dunes. 

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised by the several dozen shooters out early. I was one of them.

As the light changes, so does the color.
The little dots are other photographers that got up earlier than I did to climb out onto the dunes.

The geometry of a sand dune features ever changing patterns within patterns.

A FOREST IN THE DESERT

Joshua Trees

So named as early Mormon emigrants saw, in the shape of some of these large yuccas, Joshua with his arms thrown to the heavens. Ranchers and miners used the sharp pointed leaves as fencing and the trunks for burnable fuel for early ore smelters. Even earlier inhabitants, Indians, used the leaves to make woven baskets and sandals. The seeds are edible.

Though not what you and I might typically call a forest, they do grow in groves. Healthy trees can often last 100 years and some have been found that are 1,000 years old. Root systems can spread 30 to 40 feet outward. Though there were no big yuccas visible here, they can grow to almost 50' tall. 

FLATTER THAN FLAT

Racetrack Playa

Tiny as ants, these visitors are out on Racetrack Playa. Though "playa" is Spanish for beach, in geology it means the flattest possible natural surface. This is also a near-permanently dry lake.

What the surface of Racetrack looks like up close.

In the middle of this 2.5 mile long oval is this excretion of rock called, what else but, "The Grandstand." The day I visited I was surprised to find rock climbers tethered to a boulder or two. 

There is only a 1.5 inch differential over the playa's entire 3 square mile surface. You may have read about "mystery rocks" that move and leave tracks across the playa without human intervention. Best educated guess comes from NASA. Winds are very strong in this narrow valley. When an infrequent rain hits the playa, it turns the hard pan into shallow silt. Stiff winds follow and can move the stones across the surface and cause the weight of the rock to carve its path on the playa.

UBEHEBE CRATER

Death Valley's Volcanic Past

No matter where you stand it is difficult to convey the size of the bowl that is Ubehebe Crater. 

This volcanic eruption is relatively new - just 2,000 years old!

The crater does show its age in a different way. 

Pronounced as it looks, U be he be, each layer of rock represents several millions of years in the building of the earth's crust.

This Google Earth screen capture conveys a little bit better the size. 

It is one-half mile wide and over 700 feet deep. Other volcanic eruptions are visible as well.

DEATH VALLEY DRY

And This Is In Winter

Four days before we arrived there was quite the rainstorm. Over a 1/2" fell, which represented about a quarter of what they get all year. Within days, the once flooded washes looked like the above image.

Almost 4:15 in the afternoon and the outside temp was over 96. Note the 9% humidity. Four more degrees and the little guy goes nude. The low humidity made the heat a bit more bearable but it was a surprise to us that it got so warm in mid march. Incredibly enough the record for March is 103º.

It doesn't take long for life to pop back up.

Due to clouds we never got to see the comet but a few of the sunsets were memorable. This image of a portion of the Funeral Mountains was was "painted" to resemble the way many landscape painters see the desert. 

ALL ABOARD 2

High Prairie

From Minneapolis west the skies begin to open as do the landscapes. We lose a sense of geography though when the sun goes down.

The next day is full of sweeping skies and unbroken landscapes. It seems like most of Montana rolls by like this.

There is also lots of rail traffic. We've seen many "pig haulers" which is the nickname for trains that pull freight that is piggybacked or stacked as these containers are.

Where there are towns and tracks, there is a terminal or two for farmers. Wolf Point, MT., is one of many small towns that pop up through the day then slowly shrink back into the horizon. Wolf Point is also the largest town (2,621 population) on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation.

Before rail and the passage of time there were many loose clusters of settlers. Most had their own one room schoolhouse. If you want to get a sense of what things were like back then, go find Ivan Doig's "Whistling Season", which is centered around such a schoolhouse as the one above. There few Western writers better than Doig.

We travel through the last of Montana, all of Idaho and much of Eastern Washington in the dark. Overnight in Spokane our train is broken up. All but three or four cars go on to Seattle. By mid morning our much smaller train is crossing the Columbia and headed for its last stop: Portland, Oregon. Against all expectation, we arrive a half hour earlier. Home again.

Palm Springs - #1

It's About The Outdoors

Looks like desert through and through, doesn't it. Look closer.

Up close there is an amazing green carpet that looks nothing like desert. Gated by Mount San Jacinto at left and San Gorgornio Mountain to the right, those mountains screen the rain. In just those few miles that separate those peaks, a transition occurs. From the Mediterranean climate of the greater LA basin to the beginning of a series of deserts that stretches all across the Southwest. 

What the Coachella Valley (the area that encompasses Palm Springs and a dozen other desert communities) does have is access to Colorado River and a large aquifer 1,200' beneath the valley. Domestic water comes from the aquifer and the Colorado provides the irrigation for both garden and agriculture.

Incredibly, water in the desert is plentiful enough for ornamentation use.

Ample water allows for the existence of over 200 golf courses in the Valley. Climb out of the valley into the Chocolate Mountains in the background and you can see that water doesn't reach there.

"S" is for sunshine - on average there are over 354 days of it.

This is a bit of a side note but when I was a younger visitor, this was then one of the top of the line restaurants in the area - The Chart House. The owners moved on and took the name. A number of other operators attempted to run the restaurant but not with the same success. In 2012 the restaurant caught fire. Now it is in limbo and investigators are looking into an insurance fraud angle. One of my son-in-laws gave it an apt name - The Char House.

THE MAGNETISM OF ISLANDS #2

All Ashore At Whidbey Island

Oak Harbor is not the county seat but it is the largest town on the island with 22,000 people, nearly a third of the total island residents. Whidbey is also the largest island in Washington State. Though Norwegians, Irish & other nationalities settled here first, it was the Dutch that put a cultural stamp on this area. There are other structures in town that emphasize this culture. The town takes its name from the Garry Oak (called the White Oak elsewhere).

Through out the entire coastal Northwest, oysters are a big business. Penn Cove is famous for its shellfish. They farm or store 27 different varieties of oysters as well as clams and mussels. This crew is harvesting "bags" or racks of oysters.

Mount Baker again but my eye was as much on the P-3 Orion overhead. This aircraft, along with "Prowlers" & "Growlers" and others are based at the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station. Until our son-in-law became posted to a small craft detail near the base, we knew little of this place.

The EA-6B "Prowler" & EA-18G "Growler" aircraft are medium range, carrier based, electronic warfare jets. Whidbey NAS is home to 17 active duty squadrons, search and rescue (both military and civilian) and a whole host of subcommands. Also included is a former pontoon seaplane base (PBY aircraft) several miles away where much of the ground has reconfigured to house the Navy's PX and supply buildings.

The military does not forget its own. 

What IS this? Seen along the road from Coupeville to Oak Harbor.

It is one man's idea of a privacy fence.

THE MAGNETISM OF ISLANDS #1

Surrounded

An island almost always implies a view, be it water or land. Whidbey Island has that in spades.  It is a bit of a lesser known archipelago in the San Juan Island region of Washington. It can be a destination all its own if you only have time for a short exploration of the area. Closer to Seattle by ferry or car than the rest of its neighboring islands it is big enough for a long weekend's exploration. The view east above of some of the Northern Cascade Range is from near the little town of San deFuca. The tallest is probably Glacier Peak.

Looking southwest out over Oak Harbor, the Olympics seem close but between them and the rest of Whidbey Island (in the midground) is one of the Nation's busiest shipping routes - The Strait of San Juan de Fuca. Not including pleasure craft, almost 5,000 cargo ships a year use the channel.

Mount Baker is the behemoth above, just shy of 11,000 feet. Third highest summit in Washington, this peak saw its first successful climber in 1868. The view from Oak Harbor is to the northwest. Whidbey Island is in the rain shadow of the Olympic and Vancouver Island's mountains. Whidbey gets only 20 inches of rain and very little snow annually.