More Spring-ish Observations
Yesterday I again visited Muir Woods to do some photography. (I’m working on a sort of informal project to shoot a series of photographs there – you can find more at my photography site and elsewhere.) I noticed a few things that shouted “spring!” during my little trip.
- Bay Area wildflowers are everywhere. The combination of recent rains and spring sun may make this weekend (or possibly next) the peak of the season.
- People are out and about! Muir Woods was packed even earlier than usual, and the pedestrian lane on the Golden Gate Bridge was packed from end to end when I drove across on my way home at midday.
- If you get cold – for example, from spending a lot of time in the bottom of a damp, redwood-filled canyon – a moment in a sunny spot will warm you right up.
Signs of High Country Spring
At about this time every year thoughts begin to turn to another upcoming summer (and a bit of spring and a good chunk of fall) of High Sierra experiences. The signs are starting to appear – recently the following was reported at Yosemite Blog and elsewhere:
- In Yosemite Valley the Upper and Lower Pines campgrounds have opened for the season.
- The Mist Trail to Vernal fall is apparently open.
- Crews have started clearing the road to Glacier Point. (No word in this report on Tioga Road clearing, but I’ll bet that some work has commenced.
- The Dweeb Report has begun to speculate about the weather on opening day of the fishing season.
At this point I have a few somewhat firm plans, the main one revolving around the annual talusdancers pack trip with my back-country friends. Looks like we’ll head in over Kearsarge Pass sometime in early August, go south over Forester Pass (grunt… groan…) to enter the upper Kern, explore the upper west side of the upper Kern River drainage, and then exit over Shepard Pass. We may also do a slightly shorter trip out of Kings Canyon a bit earlier in the season. And, of course, I’ll do several shorter trips, most of which will be focused on photography, between the start of the season and perhaps as late as early October when the aspens will turn once again.
Spring in Death Valley
I spent about four days in the Death Valley National Park area last week, doing photography in familiar and new places. This has become something of a spring break tradition over the past few years. (Photography from the trip has started appearing at my photography web site and will continue to do so for the next week or so.)
On the final day of this trip I was more or less run out of the park by a huge dust storm. I’ve experienced several of these in the past, but this one pretty much takes the cake. Due to a lucky turn of events in the morning I was able to exit the park faster than I might have otherwise.
I woke up at 5:00 a.m. so that I could head to my planned photography location well before dawn. My plan was to shoot until mid-morning and then swing back through the campground at Stovepipe Wells to strike camp before heading out of the park later in the day. But because I got up quickly I found myself with a few extra minutes, and I changed plans and struck my camp in the dark before heading off for photography. I was very glad about this a few hours later!
Before dawn I arrived at the iconic Zabriskie Point. I hadn’t necessarily planned to shoot there, but I thought there might be some interesting clouds on this morning, and that can make for something very special at Zabriskie. Turned out that the clouds did not materialize, but despite this development and the tremendously windy conditions I managed to spend a productive couple of hours shooting. As I finished up I noticed that a few scattered clouds were developing over the ridges to the west, east, and north – but this was more or less in the forecast.
As I drove back up the Valley toward Stovepipe Wells the clouds began to get a bit thicker… and I noticed a very ominous haze around the summit of Tucki Mountain above Stovepipe Wells, a haze that I recognize as the warning sign of a dust storm. (I’ve experienced two in the past, so I have at least a bit of experience with them.) As I continued on up the Valley it became apparent that there was a huge, thick, dark cloud of nasty looking dust all the way across the Valley before Stovepipe, and just before the road turned left to head west across the Valley I drove into it.
It immediately became twilight dark, strong winds buffeted the car forcing me to slow to 45 mph or so, and the sand was streaming across the roadway. Visibility became quite bad as I passed the Mesquite Dunes area and at Stovepipe Wells it was dark and no one appeared to be outside. I was very glad that I had packed up earlier – it would have been a real mess trying to strike my tent and pack the car in this meteorological awfulness!
The photo below shows the beginnings of the dust storm across the Valley near Tucki Mountain, with one final glimpse of blue sky showing through.
Mt. Umunhum Umpdate
Sorry. Couldn’t help myself.
There is a post today at Two-Heel Drive about the possibility of cleaning up the summit of Santa Clara Valley’s (or Santa Cruz County’s, if you live on the other side of the hill) Mt. Umunhum so that the stunning views from this ridgetop location can become available to hikers and others. (And, no, Tom, I’ve never heard anyone call this place “Mt. Um.”)
When I was a kid growing up in Santa Clara Valley, Mt. Umunhum housed a military base of some sort – we all understood it to be some sort of radar station guarding the west coast. On “Armed Forces Day” the base opened to the public, and on at least one occasion my father took me and one or more of my siblings up there for the open house. I recall going inside the concrete block building on the summit and watching – with the awe that children can have about such things – the technicians sitting in front of screens watching radar. I also remember being very impressed by a low-level fly-over by some military jets as part of the festivities.
I did get back up there once some years later. For a few years early in college I played in a band – who didn’t right? – and we were once hired to play in some sort of club on the base. As a result we were authorized to drive up there, play for the very small number of folks looking for something to do on the base on a weekend night, and then drive down after dark.
There are other stories about that area. Apparently the road to the top of the peak was not actually owned by the military. If I understand correctly, they got an easement of some sort from a landowner up there who supposedly owned a very large tract. After the base closed, there were many who felt that the road should be public – quite a few of them treated it that way, especially certain bicyclists. Some of them told stories of being met by this landowner and/or his hired hands with guns and being arrested for trespassing.
In more recent years areas around the peak became accessible. You can now drive the road to a very high point though not all the way to the summit, and there are trails in the area. Finally opening the whole ridge and peak for public use would be a wonderful thing, and the sort of development that future residents of the valley will regard as evidence that we made at least a few good decisions “back in the day.”
Revving up the blog
Now that spring has arrived – and my spring break approaches – it seems like time to start posting here once again. It is not that I haven’t been out and about. (I have – see my photography blog.) But for some reason I just haven’t been making the time to post here as often as I used to this past winter.
Hey, More Wilderness!
SF Gate reports that congress has voted to expand wilderness areas in nine states, perhaps the largest such moves in about a quarter century. Is that a breath of fresh air I feel!?
(Predictably, Republican opponents described the protection of a few more remaining bits of American wonder as a “land grab.” Funny, I thought they supported “land grabs…” But I guess that is only as the ones doing the grabbing are their corporate donors. ;-)
California Spring Flowers
Despite the concerns about low rainfall this year in parts of California, there are some hopeful signs of a decent and perhaps even quite good spring wildflower bloom. A few notes:
- I have visited Muir Woods twice during the past few weeks (some photos at my other site) and last weekend spectacular trillium flowers were just beginning to bloom
- There have been reports of some very spectacular – though perhaps a bit early – blooms of the California Golden Poppy. One that is getting a lot of attention is in an area of a recent fire along the highway following the Merced River up into Yosemite Valley.
- Today I saw some fairly good photographs of flowers in the southern California desert, where there actually has been some real rain this season.
For my part, I’m afraid I didn’t get at all so far this weekend to look for flowers – I seem to have a pretty nasty cold!
A Good Sound on the Trail
Today, for the first time in almost a year, I heard the sound of running water during my hike in the Calero Hills. Here in dry California that is a special thing!
A Passion for Nature
In the New York Times, John Wilson reviews a new Muir biography, A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir, by Donald Worster.
The nature lover and conservationist John Muir is at once famous and indistinct in the minds of most people. Doubtless there are ardent souls who could give a credible account of his life, but not many — not even among those who share the passion that led Muir in 1867, at age 29, to embark on a thousand-mile walk from Indiana to the Gulf of Mexico and drove him to continue rambling hither and yon throughout his long life. Muir is revered but remote. He needs a substantial biography to bring him into focus.
It is incorrect to suggest that this is the first Muir biography, but this does sound like an interesting book for those who want to know more about Muir that that which the Muir myth tells us – and I count myself in that group.
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Dan's Outside 
Can Anyone Identify This Plant?
I photographed this very lush new growth at Muir Woods National Monument yesterday morning – but now I’m unable to determine what kind of plant it is. (I should have asked the naturalist while I was there, but I was in a hurry to get back home.)
The leaves are very thick and shiny and you can see that flower stalks are emerging from each plant, topped with what look like clumps of ball-like buds. The plant was on a slope in the redwood forest not too far above the canyon bottom and, obviously, in a very shady area.
Thanks in advance!
UPDATE: Someone just posted a comment (sorry, didn’t leave actual name) that suggests the plant is Andrew’s Clintonia (Clintonia andrewsiana). I did a bit of checking around that this sure seems like it could be the right plant – so I’m going for that ID. Thanks!
Dan
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April 12, 2009 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | flower, identification, muir woods, national monument, plant, question, Spring | 2 Comments