writer / artist / shameless goof
Caving used to be my life. Every weekend I would haul ass to either upper state New York (when I was in Boston the first time many years ago) or to Sierra Nevada (when I lived in California more recently). I was a weekend warrior. I was OK with being cold, wet, dirty, and uncomfortable, in pursuit of an outdoor experience.
That is no longer true. Nowadays I am most comfortable in a staycation, in my pajamas, noodling on the internet or revising my novels. If I am to leave on a vacation, it will be an all-inclusive resort.
In 2013 I went on a long, circuitous road trip of 6000 miles from San Francisco to Boston in my trusty Honda CRV. I meandered quite a bit, stopping by the side of the road to take photos whenever I felt like it, and generally taking the long way around. I stopped at many national parks along the way and took a gazillion photos. I had no real schedule or agenda. It was glorious.
Posted in response to daily prompt Meander.
On the northeastern edge of Death Valley is an abandoned ore mining town called Rhyolite. The weathered old ruins, some still standing, are breathtakingly beautiful. Rhyolite was a thriving town at the beginning of the last century. It declined as soon as the ore was depleted. At its peak, the town hosted several thousand residents. Now it’s a ghost town with rusting cars and crumbling, abandoned buildings.
I like the structure of this crumbling building. Rhyolite is a study in the sad beauty of decay. Decrepit buildings crumble and wilt against the stark desert background. Man-made structures weather like the nearby ashy bushes that struggle in the arid climate. The environment is harsh for urban and plant growth alike. It’s a perfect setting for photography. I went a little nuts taking photos.
I am glad the crumbling buildings haven’t been dismantled. Dusty and weathered, they are perfect accompaniments to the dry desert environment and are reminders of our fragile existence. Without a constant influx of resources and water, a town becomes a dry husk. These buildings are an elegant reminder of mortality. The ruins complement the harshness of the Death Valley environment perfectly.
Posted in response to the photo challenges Structure and Weathered. Read more travel stories here.
A cluster of ferns in Quinault Rainforest
Quinault Rainforest, part of Olympic National Park, is on my shortlist of places to visit again. In July 2013 on my way from San Francisco to Boston, I visited this mossy, verdant wonderland in the northwest corner of Washington State. I could have spent a month taking photos there. The park features overflowing ferns, moss growing off giant trees, and numerous other epiphytes that only grow where it rains all the time. Epiphytes are plants that grow on other plants in a non-parasitic way. Examples include ferns, mosses, spike mosses, and lichens. It rains almost fourteen feet a year in the park, so the place is very green.
The paths were particularly beautiful because the sunlight shone through the hanging moss and ferns and created a green backlit effect. Much of the lush greenery was brightly dappled. The mixture of shadow and light was spectacular. Many fallen trunks in stages of decay were thick with moss growth. Shades of green were very intense. This place is loaded with ferns and moss.
Plants grew from every square inch of the earth. Moss draped from every tree. Light filtered through everything. The park was scenic and postcard-perfect. There are hikes of shorter and longer durations, all radiating out from Lake Quinault in the center. It’s a very family-friendly park. There’s even a seafood restaurant on one edge of the park with a view of the sunset.
More ferns and moss in Quinault Rainforest
Even more ferns and greenery
Posted in response to It IS Easy Being Green!
I saw this scene while traveling a few years ago. I’m not really sure what’s going on at this motel. Why is there a dinosaur? Why is the dinosaur falling apart? The rates are good but I think this motel would give me the creeps.
A few years ago I visited Kauai, Hawaii, and discovered this large, bulbous, green, and knobby fruit, about the size of a pear.
Is it edible? Is it poisonous? Is it full grown? What the heck is it? My website received a lot of Google hits from people searching for “bulbous fruit”, which is what I called it before I realized its true name.
I have since learned that this is the fruit of the noni tree. It is edible (though not too tasty) and not poisonous (if you don’t eat too many). Proponents claim that the noni fruit and its juice can treat a wide variety of health problems, ranging from cancer to senility to psoriasis. Science hasn’t backed up these claims, so if you get a case of psoriasis, see a doctor. The noni fruit has also been used in many commercial skin and hair care products. Go ahead and slather it on if you need to moisturize, just don’t expect a cure for cancer.
I would go back to Kauai in a heartbeat. The plants there seemed bigger, greener, weirder. See the original high-resolution photo.
Posted in response to the weekly photo challenge It IS easy being green!
I have spent a lot of time thinking about happiness. A few years ago I visited Kauai, Hawaii on a vacation with a boyfriend. I was pleased with life: happy to be in a relationship, happy to travel with someone, and happy to be away from the office. The photo below shows my vacation strategy.
Can happiness ever be a constant, or is it just one of those things that comes and goes? Can I be happy in the office, working, under a deadline? Can I be happy when I’m old and gray? Do I need a vacation, with rainbows and balmy weather, to be happy? Do I need the wind in my hair and the sun in my eyes?
I have more questions than answers, but I found this book on the subject by Alex Korb to be fascinating and insightful:
https://www.amazon.com/Upward-Spiral-Neuroscience-Reverse-Depression/dp/1626251207
This shorter (and free) article does a mostly good job of summarizing:
http://time.com/4042834/neuroscience-happy-rituals/
According to the Time article, there are four habits that will improve happiness: be thankful; label emotions; make decisions; and optimize touch.
Being thankful and expressing gratitude seems both the easiest, and the most surprising. I’m enthusiastic to do this; you may seem posts expressing what I’m grateful for in my blog.
Labelling emotions also seems easy. Hangry. Done! If I had a dollar for every time hunger ruined my mood, I’d be a millionaire. I recently started carrying around Clif bars. Oatmeal raisin walnut is my jam.
Decisions are a little harder. I have decided I want to publish a novel. I even have 46,000 words written. But getting it published is something else entirely. That task is not 100% within my control. I’m working on breaking it down into achievable steps that are within my control.
Touch also seems a bit out of one’s control, but okay sure, I’ll make sure to get it where I can. Firm handshakes, enthusiastic hugs, massages, the works.
The article seems to overlook two key ideas that were prominent in Alex Korb’s book: get good sleep, and exercise. Why didn’t the article highlight these two items? Is it because sleeping well and exercising are notoriously pesky habits to achieve? Speaking as an insomniac who avoids the gym, I think it’s harder to sell sleep and exercise. Regardless, I am going to try all the ideas from the book, including the hard ones.
Happiness takes work. Though we can’t be happy all the time, and circumstances are what they are, I think choices have a large influence. Happiness is not an island vacation. It’s a journey of an entirely different sort.
This is a storm gathering down the road on the way to Devil’s Racetrack in Death Valley, California. It was probably a three-hour ride down unpaved road but it took us six because we kept stopping to take photos, such as this one. The sun was setting in the background and we never got rained on.
This is for the daily prompt Storm
I had a grand ol’ time in Kona, Hawaii a few years ago. I loved the plethora of flowers and insects.
This post is for the weekly photo challenge: Details
Posted in response to Variations on a Theme
I like to spend my time taking photos of random bugs. The photo below shows a yellow moth in Yellowstone National Park that I spent a cozy two hours with. Who’s got the patience to wait two hours while I fiddle with my camera over a bug? The moth was patient but I doubt a human would have that stamina.
I may be underestimating the patience of the average Joe, but when I go by myself, nobody has to wait. I don’t like to keep people waiting while I futz with how to take the best bumblebee photo. Im a world-famous futzer. My technique is to take hundreds of shots of the same bug, waiting for the right light to hit. I learned this photo technique from a professor in college. Take a bajillion photos and toss out all the crap. In the end you’ll have something halfway decent. In the age of digital cameras, this works exceptionally well.
The only problem with this model is bear encounters. I am not afraid of black or brown bears. Grizzly bears are another story. I don’t trust whistles or other noisemakers to keep away the grizzlies. Grizzly territory includes Glacier National Park, Yellowstone National Park, and Grand Teton National Park. Going on a guided tour solved my grizzly problem. I was more than happy to drop the pretense that I had a good defense if a giant grizzly came bearing down on me, pun intended. We didn’t mess around with a puny whistle. A guided tour is super handy for staying safe from bears. Also can you imagine how sad I would be trying to take photos while a group of people stood around tapping their feet? No, it would never work.
Secondly, a guided tour is handy because the guide had a story for everything. There were bear tracks, coyote tracks, scat of all kinds, and flowers of all kinds. He had stories for all of it. I love stories about nature. Bring on the bear poop stories! For instance, typical bear scats weigh a half-pound or more. Black bear droppings reveal their fondness for raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries. Coyote scat looks totally different. If you want to know if you’ll need to prepare for attacking bands of coyotes or bears, its good to know what they’re pooping.
If I hadn’t seen anything scenic at all, I would have done the tour just for the ride itself. The guide could probably make that drive backwards up a cliff in his sleep, but I found the trip exhilarating and action-packed. I endorse this trip for its high level of ridiculousness.
Finally, tour guides are great for taking you places you wouldn’t normally go. I left the crowded tourism of the Glacier Park for the serene seclusion of Blackfeet Reservation land. The landscape was magnificent and peaceful. I didn’t see anyone else while I was out on the tour. I love that kind of solitude.
When you get a chance, you need to see a moose.
I was seriously impressed the first time I saw a live moose. They are huge creatures averaging 900 pounds, with spindly legs and big old pendulous dewlaps. The bulls antlers are spectacular, though unwieldy-looking. I don’t know how they balance such a structure on their heads, but moose seem to do all right.
Moose were on my list of animals I really wanted to see during my cross-country trip from San Francisco to Boston. I had seen many other large animals in and around the national parks: bison; big-horned sheep; elk; coyote; bear. By the end of my road trip moose were still elusive.
Moose are more skittish than some of the other large animals. Bison will have no problem scuttling right up to your car. Big-horned sheep will chew on grass right next to you as if you are a visiting cousin. Park regulations suggest that you back off, but in my experience the animal will make that your problem.
Moose on the other hand might not be so easy to spot. The easiest way to see moose is to head north to our friendly neighbor nation Canada, where the moose are bold and plentiful. However this book is about things to do in the U.S., so Ill share my advice for seeing good ol red-blooded American moose.
There are moose in the vicinity of Grand Teton National Park. However, the pressures of tourism on the park mean they more likely to spend time outside the park. I looked, so I can tell you, they are hard to find in the park.
I spent at least two hours looking for wild animals in this collection of bushes:
After just about giving up, I asked a naturalist at the park where to find the moose. She told me that the moose tended to gather at a spot southeast of the park, across from the river. They eventually come out to drink. I took this advice very seriously, and went to this spot to stake out the moose. I spent three long days waiting for the beasts to come out in the open.
When I got there a crowd had already gathered. L’enfer c’est les autres. I particularly recall one guy who was showing off his giant long lens. It was an impressive lens, definitely the right lens for taking wildlife photos. He wouldnt stop talking about his camera equipment. I dont know the guys real name, but for the purposes of this story his name is Golem. Everybody was impressed with Golems lens. Im sure it was very precious.
Fortunately I had patience on my side. Bugs also worked in my favor. The bugs came out at dusk, driving away the crowd. I went back to my motel at night and came back the next day. Fewer people milled about. Golem didnt last a day.
There was still no sight of the moose, but I persisted. By the third day everyone else was gone. However, there was still no sign of moose. It was getting dark. I was losing hope of getting a picture, but I just wanted to see some moose. Any moose at all would have made me happy.
And then they came! A bunch of moose! Including bulls! The grainy dark photo below is the best photo I could get, but you can see the outline of his antlers. I was ecstatic.
If you want to get a good photo, bring a long or fast lens. Ignore the chatty people, because they will dissipate after a day or two. Be patient and keep a lookout. The moose will eventually come to the water. Bring bug spray. If you still don’t see a moose, leave the park. Also be sure to follow their seasons. The mating season happens in autumn and leads to more bulls out in the open.
When I was a kid my family visited the cold winters of Moncton, Canada, where I experienced what might have been frostbite for the first and only time in my life. My cheeks didnt actually fall off, but for the purposes of this story Im going to say it was frostbite.
Moncton is a beautiful city in southeastern New Brunswick with an active French-speaking Acadian population. We often went to visit my moms French-Canadian relatives there. I never understood why we went in the winter. If you visit Moncton, go in the summer. Its lovely in the summer. Nobody gets frostbite in the summer.
My dad and I wanted to go to the local mall to get some coffee. We thought we’d just pop over for breakfast. It was the middle of December. It was snowy, windy, and hovering close to zero Fahrenheit. Wind chill pushed it well into the negative. I wore a black scarf wrapped around my face and a hat, so that the only exposed skin on my face was the small space behind my eyeglasses.
That little bit of exposed skin took all the force of the wind. The cold only hardened our resolve. We refused to give up. We forced our way against the wind like mountain climbers on Mount Everest, desperate to reach the mall. Hot coffee was just across the street. The wind howled crazily about. We would not be deterred! Coffee was so close! So close!
By the time we got to the other side of the street I had two pink blistered triangles of skin where the wind whipped at the unprotected triangles of my face. Was that frostbite? Were my cheeks going to blacken and come off in pieces? Do people in Canada wear ski masks? How does one protect that part of your face? These were terrible thoughts to ponder. Moncton in winter was a terrible, terrible place, to which I vowed never to return.
Why did we go to Moncton in the winter? Why? WHY?
We made it to the comfort of the mall and took the only reasonable course of action: staying at the toasty mall all day, playing slot machines and eating breakfast multiple times over. I ate scrambled eggs and bacon at least twice. He had French toast, fried eggs, and sausages. We both had several cups of coffee. I may have lost twenty bucks on slot machines, but I drank coffee and ate breakfast all day with my dad. Despite the burn of my poor cheeks, a good time was had by all.
Check out those pearls! You can see them for yourself. One of the things you need to add to your travel bucket list is Crystal Cave in Sequoia National Park, California. It’s an easy cave with a tour that runs in the spring, summer and fall. The park itself is gorgeous too. I spent many camping trips up there! Here is me posing in my spiffy red cave suit in front of a waterfall:
I was driving around in Yellowstone when I saw an unpaved road so of course I HAD to take it. An earlier wildfire had burnt down most of the trees and taller vegetation. Lots of wild flowers had grown up over the burnt land. Because it was unpaved, fewer drivers came down this way. I had the place to myself.
Perfect!
I got to go as slow as I wanted and eventually I snuck up on a bear. He was just digging away happily in the dirt, totally ignoring me, presumably looking for bugs to eat. I was kinda hoping he was looking for berries. Someone told me that bears often got drunk on the amount of fermented berries in their bellies.
Kristen Ankiewicz 