Beyond the Pacific Northwest: Joshua Tree Rocks

In early March, I traded Pacific Northwest snow for a few days of sun in Southern California's Joshua Tree National Park.

On this, my first trip to Joshua Tree National Park, the striking combination of blue sky, dry desert, golden granite boulders, and otherworldy plants was a feast for the senses.  

This was definitely nothing like western Washington and Oregon.

After walking off the rear of the plane in Palm Springs onto the tarmac, I was immediately struck by the dry warmth, which is Southern California doing what it does best.

From Palm Springs, it was about an hour drive up to Joshua Tree through the rugged, mountainous, arid SoCal landscape. 

Some of our group of 11 guys 'n gals stayed in Yucca Valley in a motel, 
but a few of us camped up in the park at Hidden Valley campground, surrounded by huge boulders and striking rock formations. Cold nights with brilliant starry skies brought frosty mornings and glowing sunrises. 

It was glorious.

Before sunrise quiet.

While my motivation was to see somewhere I've never been before, the goal of the group overall was rock climbing. These formerly hard-core climbers and mountaineers (think Half Dome and El Capitan ascents and Himalayan summits) have mellowed with age, but still, the climbing was for real.

Don made scary (to me) look easy. The Tombstone.

 

My much easier route.

Dave, an experienced and accomplished climber, was patient and took me to much smaller boulders and rocks for climbing and belay practice. After a scary climbing experience in high school, I discovered it was actually fun and pretty safe. 

I'm hooked. Now I want more.

However, there was also hiking and exploring to do. One morning we hiked up nearby Ryan Mountain, the second highest point in the park and a very popular trail. 

This 3-mile round-trip hike is listed in the park guide as strenuous, but really, if you're a hiker in decent shape, it's not tough. Just don't go when it's too hot and bring plenty of water and sunscreen. We gained a little over 1,000 feet to a summit elevation just under 5,500 feet.

Pirickly cactus near summit of Ryan Mountain

Another morning we got up before sunrise to hike the Real Hidden Valley, a lovely little rock-enclosed "valley" near our campground. This easy 1-mile loop also gets tons of traffic, but we had the place to ourselves, which I considered a gift. 

I stopped briefly to sit and meditate just after the sun crested the surrounding rocks, grateful to be in and experience such a beautiful place during the early morning quiet.

Before Joshua Tree was a national park, cattle rustlers used to hide their stolen livestock here in what was then a secret hideaway. 

Another short (1.3-mile) afternoon hike we did was the Barker Dam loop, a pre-park impoundment that remains an oasis in the desert.

With all the extra rain and snow along the West Coast recently, the Joshua trees were starting to bloom and the cholla cactus glowed white with new growth. We were just ahead of a major desert bloom. Nevertheless, it was all lovely and enchanting.

 

NOT an artichoke :)

Cholla cactus

After Hike/Climb Eats
We did a little cooking (hot drinks in the morning, granola and fruit for breakfast) but drove down to the nearby towns of Joshua Tree and Yucca Valley several times to grab group dinners and snacks. 

We had pretty standard but decent and tasty Mexican at La Casita Neuva in Yucca Valley one night, and what I thought was quite good Thai food in Joshua Tree at the Royal Siam Cuisine Thai Restaurant. Just pass on the deep-fried eggrolls; everything else was fresh and well-prepared. 

But our favorite was the healthy fresh fruit smoothies at the Natural Sisters Cafe, a corner cafe/coffee shop in Joshua Tree near the park entrance turnoff. Oh, and I loved the excellent arugula salad at the Crossroads Cafe, where we had lunch before heading to the airport (sigh).

So I'm back in the land of cold rain (although they're predicting temps up to 70 degrees next week!), but images of Joshua Tree are lingering. I know I'll have to return someday for more.

How about you? Have you spent time there, climbing, hiking, or just sightseeing? Would love to hear in a comment below.

Happy trails and thanks for visiting Pacific Northwest Seasons! 

In between blog posts, visit Pacific NW Seasons on FaceBook, Twitter, and Instagram for more Northwest photos and outdoors news.
 

When You Go

Joshua Tree National Park is in Southern California just north and east of Palm Springs, which is about 100 miles east of Los Angeles. We flew Alaska Air from Seattle, which has plenty of daily flights, but a few in our group drove south in camper vans. They say the summer is beastly hot and the best times to be there are the spring and fall. We had temps in the low 60s in early March, but it rained and even snowed at higher elevations the day after I left.

Cross Country Skiing Leavenworth: The Season is Still On

Real winter came late this season here in the Northwest, and it does not want to quit. For us skiers, that's a blessing.

Last weekend I switched things up from my usual downhill/alpine skis and opted for cross-country skis instead. The pay-off: some heart-pumping exercise in beautiful Leavenworth, Washington.  

With several feet of fresh snow the week prior, trails that were barely covered over the holidays were now just about perfect. 

We arrived at the golf course just south of town before they opened (about 8:30), although tracks were freshly laid for us already by the Leavenworth Winter Sports Club. 

Just a few other skiers were out, so we mostly had the trails to ourselves as it wound past acres of pristine snowfields and along Icicle Creek.

After an hour on the golf course loop we needed more, so next we headed south to the Icicle River (fish hatchery) trails beside Sleeping Lady resort. 

But first we stopped for hot cocoa at O'Grady's Pantry directly across the street from the ski trail parking area. (The hot cocoa was a tad sweet for my taste, but it still hit the spot on a cold winter morning.)

The Icicle River loops are longer and at one point even cross a bridge. More skiers (and some snowshoers) use these trails, but there's still plenty of space for everyone to spread out.

White above and below; the view from the fish hatchery bridge.

Skate skiers cruised us past in graceful, smooth up and down glides; we opted for slower, classic kick and glide skis on this day. Nevertheless, it's all good exercise.

My favorite parts of the trail are the hill about a half mile after the bridge crossing,and the forested stretch close to the creek. If you're not comfortable gliding down a somewhat steep hill, there are bypass trails to go around them.

What an exhilarating morning! We finished up around noon with over 3 hours of solid exercise in all that mountain fresh air. 

I can only imagine what kind of shape I'd be in if that was a daily routine. My friends who live in Leavenworth and the Wenatchee area are excellent skate skiers and generally all seem about 10 years younger and fitter than their actual ages.

So get on out there and give XC skiing a try, if you haven't already. 

Happy trails and thanks for visiting Pacific Northwest Seasons! 

In between blog posts, visit Pacific NW Seasons on FaceBook, Twitter, and Instagram for more Northwest photos and outdoors news.
 


When You Go

A day skiing pass, which allows you to ski at all of the Leavenworth tracked ski areas, is $19 + tax for an adult ticket. Info here on the trails/locations and such. Tickets are available at a booth at each area.

  





 

Skiing in the Pacific Northwest: It's Prime Time

With a record-breaking stretch of warm weather in January during an El Nino winter, Pacific Northwest skiers were getting a tad worried. It's not supposed to be almost 60 degrees in the middle of winter here.

When I skied just over a week ago at Crystal Mountain, we passed over patches of exposed rock on the ride up Rainier Express chairlift. It didn't bode well for the remainder of the season.

But then....winter showed up here in the Northwest. Like, record-breaking snowfall winter. 

So we grabbed our (new!) skis and some friends and headed to Crystal Mountain yesterday.

What a contrast to my trip there a week earlier. We glided over powdery fresh snow, cut through some fluffy "pow," and overall had a hella fun day.

And beyond that, the thick layer of fresh snow on the surrounding forest and trees was just plain picturesque. Which, to me, is part of the big picture appeal of being in the mountains.

So, skiers and riders, if you've been dragging your feet, now is the time to go. According to a King 5 TV in Seattle, Crystal got 7 feet of snow in the last week, with more to come!

When you're out there, look for the smiles. Because there will be many. IMO, life doesn't get much better than an exhilarating day on the slopes with lots of cold, powdery, fresh snow.

I'm pretty sure there was a smile behind the snow.

 
And maybe if you're really lucky, the clouds will clear and the surrounding mountains will be revealed under bluebird skies.

So how about you? Have you gotten up and out in the last week? I'd love to hear your experiences in a comment below. (BTW, if you do comment, please leave your name, or even a fake name, so I know you're not spam.)

Happy trails and thanks for visiting Pacific Northwest Seasons! 

In between blog posts, visit Pacific NW Seasons on FaceBook, Twitter, and Instagram for more Northwest photos and outdoors news.

When You Go
Be sure and check the forecasts and avoid backcountry skiing if the avalanche danger is high, like it was this past weekend. Here are a few links for Northwest ski conditions: Open Snow blog and Sno Country.
  

Seattle Snowmageddon 2019

We're having, as some might say, a Seattle moment. Or, perhaps, a Pacific Northwest moment.

It's really cold. We've had snow on the ground for almost a week, with more to come in a few days. This is not normal here in the lowlands west of the Cascade Mountains!

Maybe you've seen the jokes going around social media about how we Seattleites (and Portlanders) massively overreact when it snows. Over the last few days, shelves in many grocery stores/Costco have been stripped of food. In Portland, for god's sake, they ran out of kale!

But nevertheless, we persist and survive. In fact, some of us thrive.

This morning I was up and out before sunrise, walking through 8 inches of fluffy white powder snow to my local bakeshop Preserve & Gather for tea. Despite the dark skies, it was soft and bright and lovely.

 Alas, the sign on the shop said they would be opening an hour later today. So I turned around and went home, strapped on my cross-country skis, and headed back over. 

Inside, barista Jessica was working in a tank top in the steamy warmth of the bakeshop, with fresh hot scones and muffins coming out of the ovens. There were just a few of us there, but gradually more wandered in.

Going home, I took some side streets and alleys that were untracked. What a blast! 

Not long after I got home, my neighbors Dave and Mary called to see if I wanted to go skiing. Sure! So in another 10 minutes I was out the door, heading back to P&G for hot cocoa.

By the time we got there mid-morning, it was packed.

Ski rack instead of a bike rack in use today.

And the hot cocoa tasted extra good, as we sat inside the happy, crowded bakeshop watching sweet little snowflakes falling from the sky outside.

Preserve & Gather's deelish hot cocoa with in-house made marshmallows.

 Afterwards we took a different loop through the 'hood to the Crown Hill Cemetery, cruising past the sign telling us it's a no go to enter unless we own a plot there.

We figured they might be more lenient on a snow day.

Most of the rest of the day I've been inside, trying to get caught up on that paperwork that never seems to get done. 

Outside Preserve & Gather

But overall, everyone I passed skiing, sledding, or just walking was extra friendly and even giddy. When it freezes in Seattle, the so-called Seattle Freeze thaws.

How are you holding up in the snow and cold if you're here in Upper Left USA?

Happy trails and thanks for visiting Pacific Northwest Seasons! 

In between blog posts, visit Pacific NW Seasons on FaceBook, Twitter, and Instagram for more Northwest photos and outdoors news.


 

Northwest Originals: Photography with Soul

This is the second Northwest Originals profile, wherein I interview locals who spice things up around here through their interesting and productive lives. You can read the first one here.

When you first meet Lynette Johnson, you’ll probably notice an elegant woman dressed with an artist’s flair for style. But soon it’s her enthusiasm and passion that shine. This is a woman with a fierce sense of purpose.

On this particular morning, she shows up at the neighborhood bakeshop wearing bright red rubber boots and vivid blue leggings with big stars—her Wonder Woman outfit—at the request of her young grandson, whom she’s seeing later. 

You can tell pretty quickly that life around Lynette is never boring.

As founder of Soulumination (a nonprofit that honors children/parents facing life-threatening illness through photography), professional photographer, cancer patient/survivor, and fundraiser extraordinaire, she has a mission. 

“I want my life to stand as one that was giving.”

Becoming a Photographer
Lynette was raised in Sequim, Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula with room to roam and many animals to call her own (from ducks and chickens to sheep, pigs, cattle, and horses). There was not a lot of exposure to the arts, but she craved seeing family photos anytime she visited friends. “I remember specifically loving hallways that were lined with family photos in black and white,” recalls Lynette.

Lynette's daughters

 As a young mother, Lynette simply loved to photograph her two daughters. When I asked her how she became a photographer, she said it actually started the day her oldest daughter was born. “I asked my husband to bring the old camera to the hospital. I started taking pictures and never stopped,” she reminisces.

It didn’t take long for people to notice Lynette’s striking photographs of her girls. Friends started asking her to photograph their children, too, then weddings got in the mix. Soon this self-taught photographer’s reputation for artistic, natural, black and white photographs spread.

“I wanted the images to be real, with a goal of photos that people would want to hang for their artistic value, not just as a wedding photos.”

Her client mix has included a Who’s Who of Seattle (from professional athletes to Bill and Melinda Gates).

Lynette's youngest daughter as a young girl.

Becoming a Soul Photographer
A heartbreaking experience in 2004 changed everything for Lynette, when she was asked by her sister-in-law to take photos of her stillborn baby. The on-duty nurse’s lack of compassion at the time made Lynette want to photograph infants like her niece to honor them, however brief their lives. 

Coincidentally, a bride who was a client of Lynette worked at the pediatric advance care unit at Seattle Children’s Hospital. When she learned of this bride’s job, Lynette immediately offered to photograph seriously ill babies at Children’s. Then Lynette’s daughter asked her to photograph a preteen who was dying of a brain tumor. The same day she also met a teenaged Guatemalan boy in the cancer unit at Children’s and became friends until he passed away.

Lynette with a photo she took of her Guatemalan friend Francisco.

“Photographing these children is the best thing I’ve ever done in my life. It was so obvious there was a need to honor and photograph these kids,” explains Lynette. “It was just the right thing to do.”

So she founded Soulumination in 2005 as a nonprofit to further her mission, tapping into other photographers willing to follow her lead. In 2005, Lynette was featured in a People magazine article, then was interviewed by Anne Curry for a segment that appeared on the Today Show (see clip below). Heck, she's even given a TEDxUofW talk.

Over the years Lynette has gotten a lot of publicity and is on a first-name basis with many influential people in Seattle (including some Seahawks and Mariners). And Soulumination has grown to over 60 professional photographers who donate their services for families with children as well as parents facing life-threatening illnesses.

Hugs with a favorite (former) Seahawk.

The Battle Hits Home
In one of life’s unpleasant ironies, Lynette herself was diagnosed with cancer in 2012 (non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma). While she’s currently enjoying good health and training for the Big Climb Seattle (a stairclimb up Seattle’s tallest building to raise funds for blood cancer treatment), she’s suffered through difficult treatments. (BTW Lynette is pictured on the front page of the Big Climb link along with her daughters.)

Interestingly, it has helped kids open up to her. After Lynette finished treatment a few years ago, she was asked to photograph a family with twin boys, one of whom was diagnosed with leukemia. 

Lynette enjoying time with a "Soul" kid.

During the photo session, the boy with cancer was initially quiet and seemed down. He told Lynette he had the cancer, and she told him she had the cancer too. Then they talked about what it was like to have the treatment and other “cancer talk.” Later his parents called her to say they didn’t really know what was going on with their son Evan until he talked to Lynette and heard him open up to her. 

More fun with another Soul kid.

“Cancer has made a difference in my work with Soulumination,“ says Lynette. “I think I was a compassionate person before, but you can’t help but be changed by treatments and frequent visits to SCCA [Seattle Cancer Care Alliance], where you see so much heartache and suffering.”

 Lynette sees a lot of people undergoing treatment for cancer pull inward, but it makes her open outward, like dressing up in silly costumes to make kids and health care providers laugh (…there was that Cat woman costume, among others.) And it has driven her to raise funds for treatment of blood cancer.

The Wizard of Seattle (aka Lynette) at Gasworks Park

 “Seeing some of these children we’ve photographed pass away is an unbelievably powerful inspiration to make a difference if the treatments could stop cancer in young patients,” says Lynette. She has been one of the biggest fundraisers for the Big Climb four years in a row, having raised over $100,000.

How You Can Help
Lynette is currently training and fundraising for the Big Climb again in March 2019. You can donate to her team here. If you’re moved by the mission of Soulumination, you can donate here. Thanks to Lynette and Soulumination for all the photos used in this post! And below is short documentary that Soulumination produced about who they are and their mission.

January Reset: Inspiration Outside

Do you enter each new year with resolutions, lofty goals, a desire to take stock?

I usually look forward to the promise of a new year and new possibilities. Do I always succeed in effecting positive change? Nope.  But that doesn't stop me from trying to start fresh each year, each day. 

With a forecast for clear skies and unseasonably mild weather, this morning I felt drawn northward to the splendid convergence of sea, forest, and rocky cliffs at Deception Pass State Park. I filled my pack with a sketch pad and pencils, fresh journal, and book of Zen koans. And of course my cameras.

When I parked beachside at Bowman Bay, there were only two other cars in the lot and the sun hadn't crested the cliffs to the east. So I bundled up with hat, scarf, and gloves and took off walking down the beach trail.

Soon I passed an enchanting, quiet little wetland with a rich forest backdrop, where I had to pause and shoot. Perhaps the book I'm reading has infused my mind with forest spirits (The Bear and the Nightingale), but I could envision faeries lurking in the woods nearby. :)

As I tramped onward, the trail switchbacked up and over a cliff and back down to a narrow isthmus separating Bowman Bay from another tidal wetland. I briefly stepped down to the beach, just beginning to reveal itself after high tide, before continuing up into the woods.

 

My goal was a quiet, somewhat isolated spot to sit and meditate, contemplate, and hit the reset button for the still new year, with good intentions. Along the way, the views were as usual exhilarating.

After passing above a few lovely coves (where I've kayaked), I settled under a fir tree with a sweeping view west looking up the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

I sat and tried to meditate, but I was distracted by some voices nearby, and then a ftp ftp ftp noise from a flock of ducks half flying/skipping across the water surface below. 

I pulled out my sketch pad and drew a rough approximation of the island offshore. Then I pulled out the book and read a koan and commentary (more on that later). And I tried to contemplate and clear my mind.

But, well, as is usually the case, there was no great, clear inspiration. There was...okay, I've sat here about half an hour; I should be getting going now. 

So I packed up and continued along the trail through thickets of healthy green salal.

I didn't get the clarity I was hoping for or any grand epiphanies. But I'm not going to let it bother me much.

What I did get today was a renewed sense of connection with the land I love. And an ongoing commitment to honor that by getting out as much as possible, sharing it with you, and striving to touch others with the goal of doing what we can to protect and treasure our untamed places.

And I got to pet this handsome guy, who enthusiastically asked for attention.

May 2019 be a good year for us all. May we be vigilant and fight things (new policies, unsustainable development, overuse, etc.) that could harm our precious environment and natural resources. And may we not take it all too seriously all the time.

So how do you like to approach the new year? Just another day? New goals?

Happy trails and thanks for visiting Pacific Northwest Seasons! 

In between blog posts, visit Pacific NW Seasons on FaceBook, Twitter, and Instagram for more Northwest photos and outdoors news.

 When You Go
Deception Pass State Park is at the northern end of Whidbey Island and southern tip of Fidalgo Island, north of Seattle, Washington. With no traffic on an early Saturday morning, my drive from north Seattle was not much more than an hour. You need a Washington State Discover Pass to park.