STEPPING INTO THE PAINTING

20 Thursday Oct 2011

Posted by backyardnotes in National Parks, Sunset, Travel

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Gros Ventre River, hiking, moose, sunsets, Taggart Lake, tetons

WE HAD A GRAND TIME IN GRAND TETON N.P. We could see the Tetons from our campsite and watched them light up mornings and evenings. The yellow leaves of the aspens and cottonwoods were absolutely luminous. The evening light just after sunset was ethereal; soft and gauzy with hints of lavender. I felt like I was sitting in a Thomas Moran painting. Just have to share a few photos.

The campground is alongside the Gros Ventre River (grow-vant) where we walked in the mornings looking for moose–along with dozens of photographers as it turned out. Our first morning out we got lucky–twice.

The first encounter was a young bull moose who looked to be bedding down for the morning.

Farther on, out at the river we spotted a full grown bull standing in the water.

As we slowly and quietly moved in a little closer we found a glut of photographers, some of whom had just witnessed a fight between this bull and another. This challenger was apparently soothing his wounds. We saw the dominant bull a couple of days later; he had broken part of his antlers in the scuffle.

One afternoon we took a hike up to Taggart Lake at the base of the Tetons. I don’t think that a hike gets much better than this.

Taggart Lake, payoff number two!

Back at the Gros Ventre campground with late afternoon shadows adding a little more drama to the scenery.

And the setting sun. It was so beautiful, made for painting.

When we were in Yellowstone we met some friends quite by accident and they joined up with us in Teton NP. On our last full day in the park we all did a hike around Two Ocean Lake. It seems that there is nowhere in the park where the Tetons are not visible. We even saw a group of three otters fishing in the lake! A wonderful way to end our trip.

TWO JEWELS OF THE NATIONAL PARKS

25 Sunday Sep 2011

Posted by backyardnotes in National Parks, Travel

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bison, camping, geysers, national parks, tetons, Travel, yellowstone

IT’S HARD TO DECIDE WHICH PART OF YELLOWSTONE IS THE MOST SPECTACULAR. Yellowstone Falls, the gem of the Yellowstone Grand Canyon has plenty of competition within the park.

To get the best view of the falls you need to walk down 300 steps (and back up!). But worth every step.

Where else can you see the vivid colors of thermal activity up close and be truly awed. This is the Prismatic pool.

Unworldly colors of bacterial mats that form in waters of 130° + in the Biscuit Geyser Basin. Most of the geysers are found in the central/west area of the park.

To the east in the Lamar Valley, we saw several large herds of bison, including this calf and his mother. A few days later on our way to Lewis Lake in the south end of the park, we had to stop while some bison crossed the road and a young calf stopped to nurse, holding up traffic. Sweet.

Yesterday morning we had our first glimpses of the Tetons. Majestic. Soaring. Awesome.

I could not resist this window display in a park store. Automatic giggles.

WINTER TRIP TO THE DESERT, PART ONE

10 Thursday Feb 2011

Posted by backyardnotes in Desert, National Parks, Travel

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WE HEADED SOUTH TO FIND SUN AND FUN IN THE DESERT on January 20th. We found plenty of sun and had fun exploring Joshua Tree National Park on the first leg of our trip. Lots of short and medium length hikes and walks. Lots of wind, too. We had been through the park twice before but had never camped there until this trip.

AT JUMBO ROCKS Campground we had our own private grotto of boulders for a campsite–awesome.

After securing a campsite we drove up to Keys View with a sweeping look out over the Coachella Valley, south out to the Salton Sea, the snowy peaks of the San Bernadino mountains, and the San Andreas fault line directly below. The wind was howling here. Back down the road and a short hike through Hidden Valley, once a hiding place for cattle rustlers and now a haven for rock climbers.

Big piles of boulders are everywhere, jumbled up in piles large and small with Joshua trees dotting the landscape. The sky is so blue here it is almost unreal. Surprisingly, the elevation here is at 5,000 feet and more. This is what is known as high mountain desert and two deserts overlap here, the Mojave (higher) and the Colorado (lower).

This opuntia species cactus in Hidden Valley reminded me of Mickey Mouse!

Leaving Hidden Valley we drove over to Ryan campground and picked up the trail out to the remains of Ryan Ranch at the base of Ryan Mountain. The ranch belonged to a mine owner and was built in the early 1900’s. Very picturesque.

And our first night we were treated to a beautiful and colorful sunset. The biggest drawback of the stay here was the wind once the sun went down; it was cold.

DAY TWO was a hike to Barker Dam. A naturally wet seep was dammed up to provide water for livestock. It was a pleasant walk, about a one-mile loop, but as always we managed to spend two hours at it.

This photo was already in the washed out color zone, so I helped it along a bit. Seems to fit the era when it was created, I think.

Here’s a second look, straight from the camera.

A lot of mining and cattle grazing activity took place here through the 1800’s and into the early portion of the 1900’s before mines played out and folks moved on. But there are a lot of remnants left behind, old ranches, mining equipment, mills, and buildings.

ON DAY THREE we drove west to Morongo Canyon Preserve, a great place for bird watching, walking and hiking. This was our fourth trip here. Not too much bird activity this trip, but we did manage to see thirteen species and a hummingbird in the process of constructing its nest! The willows and cottonwoods were starting to ‘bloom’ so there was a great deal of honeybee activity and the hum of bees was quite loud at times.

The bee is not quite in focus, but the willows were beautiful in the sunlight.

Next post: Red Rock Canyon State Park.

RETURN FROM THE LAND OF GIANTS

02 Saturday Oct 2010

Posted by backyardnotes in Canning & Preserving, National Parks, Travel, Vegetable garden

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WE SPENT LAST WEEK AMONG GIANTS IN KINGS CANYON AND SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARKS (that’s the General Grant sequoia above in Kings Canyon NP) and returned home to a few giants in the vegetable garden like a four pound head of broccoli (below).

The variety is Marathon (seed from Johnny’s); I have grown it for many years. A few years back, I grew a head that weighed nearly five pounds!

WE MARKED THE PASSING OF SUMMER and the beginning of fall in Kings Canyon NP with a hike up to Cedar Grove Overlook. Unfortunately the view at 6,000 feet was very smokey to the south, west and east. To the north we were able to see the Monarch Divide. Warm days and cool nights.

This time of the year has a certain cool thread running through even a warm day and the lower inclination of the sun intensifies the color of pink flowers. The afternoon we came home the sky was lightly clouded and the pink of the Nerine lilies and Autum Joy sedum seemed to sing.

The anticipation of returning home is like a package waiting to be unwrapped. I always wonder what awaits in the garden after an absence of a week or longer. Our return on Tuesday did not disappoint— there was plenty to harvest in the vegetable garden. All of the cool weather here has been ideal for the brassicas but also just enough warmth for the tomatoes to continue ripening. The peppers are dismal this year and the pears too.

Here is what I picked on Wednesday.

The squash vines had pretty much withered, so the Buttercup and Delicata squashes came out of the garden and some of the zucchini that I did not pick before our trip managed to stay on the small side. I have grown the Costata Romanesco variety the last few years. The plants are large and the dark green ribbed fruits are firm, sweet, and crisp. I have two plants this year and try to keep them picked at under ten inches long.

Still needed to pick are a couple of heads of Graffiti cauliflower, below. I may pickle them for the novelty of color (they will be kind of purple after cooking). Regardless, the color is joyful.

The day before we left I turned twelve pounds of Akane apples into sauce (six pints), had another go at pickled green tomatoes (they were quite soft last year, but tasted great) enough to fill five pint jars and pickled three pints of dilled green beans.

Yesterday I put up eleven half-pints of Tomatillo Salsa from tomatillos purchased in California and three pints of bread and butter style zucchini pickles. This weekend I will deal with the Spartan apples. Hmmmmm, preserves or chutney?
Part of the fun of canning for me is designing the labels. I take a photo of the fruit or vegetable that will be going into the jar so I can incorporate it into the design. I print 2 inch and 2.5 inch labels on an Epson Photo2400. Here are some of the labels designed so far this year. (A bit of showing off.) My brand is Backyard Farm and I make a notation of where the contents are grown (by me or someone/somewhere else). (None of these items are for sale of course, just personal use and to give as gifts. I will, however entertain label design commissions.)

GLACIER NP–PART TWO

16 Thursday Sep 2010

Posted by backyardnotes in Montana, National Parks, Travel, Uncategorized

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GOING TO THE SUN ROAD is a must do and see part of Glacier NP. It may be traveled from west to east or from east to west. From the west entrance the road moves east along Lake McDonald and its source McDonald Creek, above (and below) before climbing up nearly 3,000 vertical feet to the summit at Logan Pass.

The arresting color of this pooling spot on McDonald Creek was a peaceful place to stop and enjoy a little lunch before moving on along the GTSR. We have noticed that many visitors tend to race through the national park(s), stopping only for the ‘Kodak’ moments before jumping back into their cars and then onto the next one, rarely taking time to really see and hear what makes these parks so special and it’s a shame. There are so many places to pull out and take a short walk or a long hike and see what cannot be seen from the side of the road.

The views here are spectacular wherever you turn and none more so than the first glimpse of that road as it hugs the face of those peaks soaring above. Note the tiny vehicles for comparison at the bottom of the photo!

By the time we started up the GTSR the rain and clouds that we left behind at Bowman Lake had caught up to us. As the clouds moved up and east they draped over the mountain tops and peaks to dramatic effect. A bit gloomy for photographing with my limited camera, but not too bad. The photo above looks back down into the valley that we had just come from. This road, completed in 1932 seems to require continued maintenance and reconstruction and it is a narrow (maximum vehicle width is 8 feet), winding. Luckily for us we got an early start and the weather for a Sunday was not optimal so there was little traffic in the eastbound direction.

A little to the left of center in the distance is a waterfall dropping from a hanging valley. One of many along this road.

Still climbing to Logan Pass.

The east crest of the summit at Logan Pass, elevation 6,646 feet. You can see the road along the face of the mountains in the distance–just a slim little ribbon that we traveled.

At the east end of the road is St. Mary Lake, where we pulled out to look back into the mountains we had just crossed. It was a dark and stormy day…

But, just turning around to my right was East Flattop Mountain and the promise of breaking clouds, blue sky and sunshine to the east and south. And, to paraphrase Cormac McCarthy, we went on.