Tag: hikes

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Finding Peace

finding peace on Orcas Island

Finding peace in today’s world isn’t easy. So much chaos! So many things going wrong!  Cold war with both China and Russia, the war in the  Ukraine, climate change and crazy weather, women’s rights going backwards, mass shootings practically every week, inflation, earthquakes….AAAAAAGH! Things seem pretty desperate!

Well, yes,  the world situation is desperate. It’s desperate more often than not. Always has been. We’re just better informed about it now. That’s the problem. Bad news gets more engagement than good news so the algorithms are heavily slanted toward whatever will get people’s blood pressure up and make them worry.

Goldstream Beach. Redwood National Park
A walk on the beach may help you find peace.

How can we overcome this? For one thing, put the device down! Whether it’s your computer or your phone, when you start doomscrolling, cut yourself off. Go outside instead. It’s good to be informed about the world, but we are all suffering from information overload. It’s enough to rob anyone of their peace. And since most of these things are problems we have no control over, the frustration makes it worse.

So let it go. Do not let your empathy paralyze you. Decide if there is anything you can do about the problem and then do what you can. Donate to a relief fund for those in the midst of a disaster.  Write your congressperson. Do what you can and then let it go. Don’t doomscroll.

Death Valley National Park
Make sure your walk is somewhere interesting or difficult enough to keep you fully engaged. This canyon in Death Valley was both.

I’d like to offer a few meditative exercises to do that help me find peace. Maybe they can help you, too.

Take a hike or a walk. This is a walking meditation on how to live in the present, how to be here now. Make sure that where you go is interesting or difficult enough to keep you engaged, so that you can shut down the endless tape loop of anxiety you are working and reworking in your head. Shut it down and appreciate the present moment instead. That’s guaranteed to bring you some peace, if only for a little while.

A walk in the forest can help you find peace.
A walk in the forest can help you find peace.

If you’re mobility challenged and can’t take that walk, watch birds. Really watch them, don’t just tick species off your list. Observe their behavior. There’s a lot more to the world than just our species. It’s good to get out of ourselves and get to know some of the other creatures we share our planet with. Finding a way to get in touch with our Mother the Earth is the best way to find peace.

Scrub Jay
Watch birds.

Perhaps what’s disturbing your peace is a little closer to home. Maybe it IS home. Personal conflicts, work pressures, worries about loved ones are hard to overcome. They can take away every vestige of peace in our lives.

Finding peace
Let the wind and the water wash your worries away.

In some cases we can make it better by being better listeners, keeping quiet and listening to understand another’s point of view. Sometimes we just may need to take some alone time.

Olympic National Park
Find moving water and listen to its song.

Find moving water. It could be waves roaring in the ocean. It might be a waterfall. It could even be a tiny babbling brook. Find that water and listen to its song. Let it fill your head completely, driving out all thought and agitation, until the only thing in your head is the sound of water. Let it fill you. This is a great way to find peace.

Orcas Island
Let the song of the water fill your head.

Maybe it’s your own mind that destroys your peace. Self pity and self  judgment are soul wreckers, guaranteed to disturb the peace. Self judgement is a big one for me.  Let it go. Give yourself a break.

My favorite way to find peace is to go to a forest or a glade of trees and contemplate the trees, really see them. Think of time the way a tree experiences it.  Let yourself be awestruck at their size and the miracle of their existence. Realize how small and unimportant you and any of your petty problems are in the grand scheme of life on Earth. This might help to put problems into perspective and help you find peace.

Redwood National Park
Contemplating trees helps to put your problems in proper perspective.

Perhaps, you say, that you have no problem feeling small. That feeling small is part of the problem, feeling insignificant, weak, and helpless in the face of insurmountable challenges. In that case, choose a flower. It could be a wildflower or something growing in your own garden.  Ponder the perfection and beauty of this tiny being. Think of how ephemeral and insignificant their lives are, yet each flower plays an important part in the world, adding to the richness of life’s tapestry.

As do you, Realize that you, too are precious and beautiful just as you are. Realize that you, too, are an important part of life’s tapestry. Let this realization help you find peace.

Sometimes flowers can help us find peace.
You are as beautiful and precious as a flower.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my meditations. I hope they help some of you find peace, even if only for a little while. Thank you to Tina of Travels & Trifles for this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, Finding Peace.

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Madrone and Manzanita

I’m in love with the madrone and manzanita trees. I’ve never spent time with these trees before, but now that I have, I just can’t get enough of them! Both so beautiful, and similar in so many ways. Sister trees.

Literally, sister trees. Similar in so many ways that many people cannot tell the difference. But the differences are there for those who look a little closer. One golden, one auburn.

Sister trees – one blonde, one a redhead. Can you tell the difference?

You know those greek myths about trees transforming into nymphs and other, generally feminine, supernatural creatures? Well, growing up in Colorado I never could really envision the nymph thing. Our trees grew straight and tall. An aspen does not look like a dryad. But here…

I can see people in these trees. Not faces so much, though there are a few. But bodies. Feminine bodies.

Not many faces in this forest, but I did see this one. Kind of Halloweeney.

My friend Michelle says that these trees are sexy. And they are. Graceful and curvaceous, they twist and weave, each tree unique, each dancing its own dance. Their sculpted branches, like fingers, beckon you closer, closer, inviting you to touch their smooth, perfect skin.

Sexy trees.

In tones of gold and burgundy, their bark is beautiful. Smooth, burnished, just begging to be stroked. Petite, wine-colored manzanitas are completely smooth from top to bottom. Patches and streaks of gray give character, indicating a life long lived.

Manzanita bark just begs to be touched.

The taller madrones have bits of rougher bark tapering into the smooth, peeling and shredding like rags clinging to their golden skin.

Madrone bark is a little rougher.

Foliose and fruticose lichens decorate the scars of discarded branches along their trunks. Epiphytic lichens drape the limbs of all the residents of these groves, even the oaks, accenting their elegant forms.

Lots of lichens decorate these trees, especially the manzanitas

The leaves are simple, almost an afterthought. Thick, waxy, evergreen leaves cluster at the tips of the branches, revealing long, flowing lines. But leaves are not all you’ll find at the tips of these branches.

Both madrone and manzanita trees fruit. Manzanita means “little apple” in Spanish. Another name for the madrone is the strawberry tree, though their berries do not resemble or taste like strawberries at all! They do not fruit every year. But I got lucky. This year was a big one for the madrones. They are covered with massive amounts of small, reddish-orange berries.

It’s a big year for madrone berries in the Applegate Valley.

The birds made a big impression on me when I first arrived here on the farm. A brilliant cacophony greeted me every morning. And I saw unbelievably huge flocks of robins. On some mornings, hundreds of robins filled the fields surrounding the house. It seemed to me that every robin in Alaska came down to Williams to spend the winter! I hear it’s not like that every year. They’re here for the madrone berries. Other birds, too, for instance, mourning doves, are attracted by the bumper crop of berries this year.

Madrone means “indulgent mother” in Spanish, and the madrone provides. Not only birds feast on the madrone crop. Raccoons, deer, bears, and even people eat madrone berries. Although they are kind of mealy and not sweet, indigenous peoples would eat them and make cider from the berries.

Madrone forest

Madrone trees provide in other ways, too. They’re susceptible to funguses and plant diseases that cause heart rot, so cavities form easily. These cavities provide homes for many creatures.

Madrone and manzanita trees were both valued by indigenous peoples for a number of medicinal uses. For instance, one of the things I dislike about this habitat is the prevalence of poison oak. A tisane of manzanita bark can be used to soothe the rash caused by poison oak!

Manzanita bark can be used to combat poison oak.

The foggy climate of the Pacific Northwest helps to create an air of enchantment in the madrone-manzanita woodlands. It truly is a magical place to take a walk.

If you would like to take a walk in these woodlands yourself and you are in Oregon’s Applegate Valley, here are a few suggestions. In the Williams area, my favorite walk is at Pacifica. This is where my friend Michelle McAfee first introduced me to these beauties. In the Grants Pass area, Cathedral Hills is a favorite. There are lots of trails here with incredible trees. You might start with the Skyline Trail. In Jacksonville, head on up to the Jacksonville Forest Park and check out the Halls of Manzanita Trail.

All sorts of interesting details on these trees. Each one is unique.

These are just a few of the places where you’ll find these incredible trees. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Thank you so much to Tina of Travels and Trifles for this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge.

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Best Spots in Joshua Tree for Early Season Wildflowers

Joshua Tree National Park

“What? Wildflowers now? I just went rock climbing in Joshua Tree this weekend. I didn’t see any wildflowers!”

If you’re looking in the iconic, big boulder, Dr. Seuss Joshua Tree part of the park, you’re right. It’s higher in elevation and won’t really get going until April.

Joshua Tree National Park
Desert Lupine

To find flowers when it’s winter in the rest of the country, you’ll have to go south, south of the Mojave, to the Colorado Desert.

Enter the park by the southern Cottonwood entrance, just north of I-10.  You’ll start seeing flowers right away. One of the best wildflower walks in the park is the Bajada Trail, at just over a quarter of a mile, this very short legstretcher is easy for anyone and is smack dab in the middle of the best wildflower fields in the park.

Joshua Tree National Park
Chuparosa

Actually, any place you can park from the park entrance to the Cottonwood VC is a good place to start checking out what’s blooming. There’s a great little wash across the road from the Bajada trail that offers awesome displays of belly flowers if you’re into macro.

This area is the best place to see Bladderpod and Chuparosa, two of the showiest bushes in the park. Desert Dandelions, Desert Gold Poppies, Desert Lupine and Chia put on some prolific displays here, too.

Desert Tortoise, Joshua Tree National Park
Watch out for the Desert Tortoise!

Please drive slowly. Desert Tortoise are also out and about looking for wildflowers, and it takes them a long time to cross the road. Don’t touch the tortoise or try to pick them up to help them. They can contract deadly diseases from human hands, and lose all their water if you scare the piss out of them.

Joshua Tree National Park
Canterbury Bells

North of Cottonwood VC, check out the washes for the next 15 miles or so, up to and including Porcupine Wash.  My favorite is hiking downstream in Smoke Tree Wash. The Smoke Trees won’t be blooming yet, but they have great form and are beautiful bonsai-looking kind of trees. These washes are a great place to find what I think is the prettiest flower in the park, Canterbury Bells. Look for bountiful bouquets of Cryptantha and Brown-Eyed Evening Primrose. I’ve also found Spanish Needles blooming here in the early season.

Joshua Tree National Park
Spanish Needles

If you’re into four-wheeling or mountain biking, try the Pinkham Canyon Road or Old Dale Road, both excellent wildflower trails.

Just outside the entrance to the park, a dirt road runs west parallel to the highway. This road leads to the Berdoo Canyon Road, where there is a BLM shooting range. There are probably good wildflowers along here if you don’t care about the highway noise at first and then lots of guns later. It’s also a free place to camp, although I prefer to get a little farther away from the highway by going south from I-10 down the Mecca Road.

Mecca Hills
Mecca Road

Outside the park, the Mecca Road has great camping and sublime wildflowers.  Backcountry four-wheel drive roads accessing the Mecca Hills Wilderness, lead off of it. It’s an amazing land to hike and explore.

While you’re near the south entrance, be sure to check out the Desert Lily Sanctuary near Desert Center for more wonderful wildflower sightings.

Anza Borrego State Park
Ajo Lily

Happy flower hunting!