Yosemite Archives ~ Rambling ranger

This week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge is all about sharing some of our favorite images from 2020. I have a lot of favorites, so for this post, I’ll stick to photos I have not yet published in this blog.

It’s been a rough year. I won’t deny it. 2020 was rife with difficulties, angst, despair, and uncertainty for me. It’s been surreal and dystopian for me, just as it has been for many others. But mixed in with all the challenges were many moments filled with beauty, gratitude, love, and appreciation. I even got some traveling in before things got crazy.

Gold Point, NV — Broke down and falling apart in 2020

I started the year housesitting in New Mexico. I spent a little time hanging out with the birds at Bosque del Apache before heading west to Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona.

Petrified Forest National Park — Petrified Forest is a photographer’s wonderland.

February was the calm before the storm. I landed a dream housesit, 6 weeks in Mendocino County, California, home of redwoods and fabulous wild beaches. I’ve been doing a lot of housesitting the last 3 winters, taking full advantage of my opportunities to explore all the wonders of the West. This one was the best housesit ever. I cherished every day.

Navarro Beach, California — Sunset on a wild Mendo beach

The homeowners came back a week early due to fears about Covid. I decided to stick with my original plan and camp out in the desert for the spring. I made an end run to the Sierras to avoid California’s urban areas, where the very first cases were being reported.

Yosemite National Park — Stormy day in Yosemite

I thought I had a good plan – to stay isolated and healthy and still enjoy the flowers. Then they started to close all the public lands. I ended up in lockdown in Las Vegas. This was especially surreal for me, a woman who had scrupulously avoided urban areas her entire adult life.

Death Valley National Park — Desert Sunrise

I was desperate for a touch of nature. The parks in town were too tame and too crowded. I found my wildland fix in some of the wastelands on the edge of town, the neglected and desperate dumping grounds in the desert where people abandon old tires, refrigerators, possibly bodies ( after all, this IS Vegas we’re talking about here). I tried to look past the graffiti-covered rocks and bags of garbage, cherishing the brilliant wildflowers growing there that thrived despite the abuse of the landscape. They were lifesavers for me, helping to ground me when I was overcome with despair.

The most important lifesaver, though, was friendship. This pandemic really helped me realize that I was loved and that people cared about me, at a time when I needed that support most.

Russian Gulch State Park, CA — I’m thankful for my friends.

I headed north again in mid-April. I wasn’t sure of my destination. Some of the public lands were opening up. At least I could get out of the city. I’d been warned that my summer job was canceled due to Covid and I was torn between going north to Alaska, where I had a home and a community but no prospects for employment, or staying south where there was at least some possibility of finding work.

Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, CA — Hanging out in the redwoods

I interviewed with Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park in northern California and spent a couple of weeks camping in northern California and southern Oregon, waiting to hear whether or not I’d landed the job. While waiting, I got a call from my boss in Alaska. There WAS a job for me! I could go home!

Favorite Images of 2020 — I love summer in Alaska!

Summer was subdued but a wonderful respite. One thing 2020 has certainly taught me has been to appreciate every day, every moment because tomorrow is not promised. I am incredibly grateful for all the good in my life. Words cannot express how grateful I am for my home, my friends, my family, my community, and the wonderful life I’ve been fortunate enough to live.

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park — I really appreciate my home – and my view!

With fall I faced the uncertainty and angst again. Should I go south where I would be more likely to find work, or stay in Alaska, where I have a safety net of friends? I hate the cold and dark, but I felt travel was irresponsible and the political chain of events I could foresee that is playing out now tipped the scales. I decided to stay.

Denali Highway — The future is still a little foggy…

It hasn’t been easy. I thought I’d landed a job, even filled out the hiring paperwork, then saw it canceled due to Covid. Lodging options I’d lined up fell through twice. SAD syndrome struck, and I’ve had my moments of doubt and despair.

Favorite Photos of 2020 — This image is my visual impression of 2020 – wacked -out, scattered, lost and direction-less – but with many beautiful moments, too.

But once again, the love of my friends is pulling me through. I know I’m not alone and that many of us are struggling. I’m doing much better than I was a month ago and I feel hopeful about whatever the future will bring.

Favorite Photos 2020 — We’re in this together.

I think about the lessons that 2020 has taught me. Lessons about kindness and compassion. Lessons about appreciation and gratitude. Lessons about being present in the moment. 2020 has made me realize how much I love and cherish all the wonderful people in my life. I try not to take so much for granted these days.

There have been many moments of great beauty for me this past year, despite the craziness and uncertainty. All the same, I’m happy to see the end of 2020. I hope we all find better days ahead.

Palmer, AK — The sun has finally set on 2020.

I usually spend April chasing the bloom, following the wildflowers north as I travel on my way home to Alaska. When John of Journeys With Johnbo proposed Going Back – The Second Time Around as the theme for this week’s Lens-Artists Challenge, I thought I would revisit my usual April travels, canceled this year by Coronavirus. I miss the flowers!

My wildflower journey starts in the California desert. There are three don’t-miss locations, each with its own unique flora, that I revisit every spring if I can.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

The first is Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. This is California’s largest state park, and it’s a beauty. Anza-Borrego often has one of the best spring wildflower displays in the country.

The first time I visited Anza-Borrego it was during a rare cold spell in January. I wasn’t even thinking about flowers. Temperatures got into the teens overnight, unheard of in this region. I wasn’t expecting that! Pipes froze. I froze. I went to Agua Caliente Hot Springs to warm up, and my bathing suit froze into a solid block of ice as soon as I took it off.

Chasing the Bloom in Joshua Tree National Park — Fishhook Cactus Flower

For my second time around, I made sure not to go in January! Now I go for the flowers, a little later in the year, anytime between mid-February to mid-April. I often visit twice, or even three times during a wildflower season, so that I can photograph different flowers as the bloom progresses.

The next time I go to Anza Borrego, chasing the bloom, I hope to hike Hellhole Canyon since I’ve never been there. Not only does it have great flowers, it’s a favorite hangout for Desert Bighorn Sheep. The Peninsular Bighorn is the subspecies that lives here. It’s usually found in Baja California, and Anza-Borrego is the only place in the US where you can find this animal.

Joshua Tree National Park

Going north, I’ll stop at Joshua Tree National Park. I don’t spend much time in the northern part of the park, with the iconic rocks and namesake Joshua Trees. I spend most of my time near the southern border, because that is where the wildflowers are.

The next time I go to Joshua Tree, I might spend more time up in the rocks. Maybe I’ll even get a campsite there. It looks like an incredible place to explore if I wasn’t quite so fixated on the flowers. I would like to catch a good sunrise, and sunset, from one of those northern campgrounds. I would also like to hike Porcupine Wash and find the petroglyphs I’ve heard are out there somewhere.

Death Valley National Park

Then there’s Death Valley. It is a place close to my heart, as I was a ranger there for 8 winters. During some years the wildflowers are sensational, but in other years there is just not enough rain in the driest place in North America for a good spring bloom.

Death Valley is always worth a visit in the springtime, even if there aren’t a lot of flowers. You’ll probably find a few, and you might even find a flower that lives nowhere else in the world! There are literally thousands of untracked, remote, nameless canyons to explore. There are sand dunes and salt flats. And oh, the colors! You don’t need to have a bloom going on to find every color in the rainbow in Death Valley. I look forward to using my new Nikon camera there the next time I visit.

Carrizo Plains National Monument

Chasing the bloom, last year I visited Carrizo Plains National Monument for the first time. It won’t be the last. In a good year, Carrizo Plains has THE best wildflower display in the country! I’ve never seen anything like it. It boggles my mind to think that the whole Central Valley looked like this once, in the days before agriculture and oil wells. The flower fields go on forever, mile after mile of solid color. It looks like a monoculture in places, entire hillsides or valleys dyed purple or gold. But when you get out of your car and walk around, the variety is astounding. And the perfume in the air! The delicate scent of the flowers is the best thing about Carrizo Plains in my opinion, pure nirvana.

The next time I visit Carrizo Plains, I would like to visit the area near the campground. I never made it to that part of the Monument because of mechanical issues with my little truck. It was tired of all the dirt road back roads I was taking it on and went on strike! When I got back to pavement and went to the coast to get it fixed, the check engine light magically disappeared!

Sometimes I travel up the coast on my way home. There are some flowers, but no big displays, at least not of native flowers. Plenty of beautiful invasives, though!

Sierra Foothills

Usually, I head for the western Sierra foothills. When I get there in the middle of April, it is the peak of the spring bloom. It’s a different ecosystem with different flowers. There are lots of butterflies, too. My favorite bloom, though, is the Redbud tree.

Wow! I had never seen this tree before my first spring journey to the Sierra foothills. Pink, pink, pink, pink, pink! They’re gorgeous. I’m sorry I’m missing them this year.

Of course, I usually do a drive-thru of Yosemite to check out the waterfalls along the way. I camp for a couple of nights on BLM land along the Merced River. The flowers are great there, it’s close enough to the park for a visit, and it’s not crowded. Maybe the next time I visit the Sierra foothills and Yosemite I’ll actually camp in the park and spend a little more time there. I tend to make my visit short because the park is so loved to death, but if there has been a good snow year and the waterfalls are raging, I can’t resist.

Continuing north through the redwood forest, the flowers grow scarce. Nothing but Redwood Sorrel and Trillium in April there. But the trees make up for any lack of flowers.

Southern Oregon

I’ll continue chasing the bloom into southern Oregon, catching the last spring wildflower season I’ll see on my April journey North. Once again, different ecosystem, different flowers. Lilies abound, with a plethora of different varieties. There are shooting stars, too, one of my favorite flowers.

The next time I make it to southern Oregon in April, maybe I’ll spend a few more days there. I’m usually running out of time by then, with a deadline imposed by my return to work in Alaska.

I really miss the flowers this year. But maybe when I can travel, I’ll see a host of new varieties since my timing will be different. It’s something to look forward to.

Tag: Yosemite

Favorite Images of 2020 – A Year in Review

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