The Salton Sea and Joshua Tree National Park

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In southern California, we don’t have to stop doing outdoor stuff just because of winter. While it’s pretty cold in the high desert where I live, all it takes is a short drive to reach a climate more to suitable to adventure. I spent a weekend where desert regions meet and the climate seems like summer in winter.

The Salton Sea is an experiment in management gone wrong. Orginially created by the Colorado River, it has been filling and drying up for centuries. All the salt and minerals from the surronding hills are carried into the lake and remain there when the water evaporates. The changes in chemisty kill fish in huge numbers in giant “fish die-offs,” which leave countless fish carcasses washed up along the beach. The area supports over 400 species of birds with this life cycle and harbors 30% of the U.S. Pelican population.

In contrast to the abundant life, is a number of abandoned business ventures, homes and infrastructure. Dotting the shore are buildings, docks, cranes and homes that have been left to the advancing layers of salt.  Graceful three foot tall birds stand on top of  one leg, on top of  little fish faces, on the scaly beach. Every object on the shore for long enough takes on salty tumors that cling to the skin. Lift your head and again, you see a million birds in the distance, an amazing meeting between living and dying.

Anthony Bourdain came here for the patty melt. John Waters narrated a documentary about the Salton Sea’s forgotten America vibe. This place definitely has its own appeal. Hard to be on the shore of this giant salt lake and not think about the big stuff. like time and mortality.

Not to far away near Palm Springs is my new favorite sanctuary from the cold weather, Joshua Tree National Park. There are more miles of hiking trail than you can shake a stick at, the park has numerous campgrounds and the weather was fantastic in late January. The landscape is amazing, covered in enormous boulder piles that punctuate the desert for miles. The rock mountains make for perfect camp sites, great hiking and attracts climbers from everywhere.

From Keys View, you can see Twenynine Palms, Palm Springs, the Salton Sea and on to Mexico on a clear day. The size and scope of this place is fantastic to see laid out in front of you. Like many of the great National Parks, you could spend a lifetime here and never know this place. Though I left a little over a week ago as I write this, I want to go back. What a vast place.

At night, Kangaroo Rats were shooting through the camp like kamakzes with bad aim. It didn’t take long to realize that this is yet another animal that survives off of our trash and crumbs. Usually this leads to overweight, balding mammals with little or no health insurance.

The Salton Sea at sunset

Pets and Parents

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I’ve been trying to hone the portrait skills a lot lately. The more I learn about light, it seems the less I know. Every subject is different and its not always a simple task to record the essence of someone’s personality in 1/250th of a second. I’ve had an idea of pic of my father in my head for along time and I finally sat the parents down for a portrait session. It didn’t last long enough, but I was pretty happy with the results. My Dad and my step-mother, Jean made great models and could’nt have been more patient with me.

After investigating why my dog was flipping out, I waslked out the front door to find a very young Siberian Husky cruising and terrorising the neighborhood streets. Of course, the dogs of the ‘ hood weren’t standing for it, so I went to check for tags and this little monster came at me full speed ahead. The tag read,”Chiya,” and we called the number only to find out that the owner had just started a softball game. I told him we’d take care of her until he could pick her up. In the meantime, I had to snap a few shots, and she seemed not to mind.

Saddleback Butte 9.20.09

We have been very, very slack in our hiking lately. Its really shameful. Last Sunday, we tried to find our way back. We normally scoff at 10 and 12 mile hikes as with thousands of feet of elevation change; last weekend, we barely topped 2 miles.

This isn’t for lack of trying. The Station Fire, according to the media has laid waste to 160,000 acres of our playground, the Angeles National Forest which is essentially the San Gabriel Mountains. From where we are, the burn doesn’t look so dramatic, so we are anxious to get up there to survey the damage. We decided to grab our favorite hiking guides and our maps and head as far in as we could get before we were stopped. We didn’t get very far. We did see some burned out post-apoctalyptic landscapes in the distance, but nothing that anyone living in Southern California for a while hasn’t seen before. Fires are a part of life here just like earthquakes and avocados.

We didn’t expect the roads to be closed here. We continued around the northernmost range of the San Gabriels in hopes to find our way up a fire road for a peak. All roads into the forest were blocked and it looked serious. We continued to drive East to the Devil’s Punchbowl, a natural sincline that we have hiked more often than any other local site. The fire was one entire range away, so we figured we would at least head out to the Devil’s Chair, one of our favorite spots. The geology around these rock formations is dramatic and exiting. Everywhere you look there is evidence of fault activity. The San Andreas runs directly underfoot here and makes for some lovely desert terrain.

When we arrive at our home trail, so to speak, we throw on our packs and walk to the nature center as we always do, only to be greeted with a sign that informed us that, ” ALL TRAILS CLOSED.” Damn. We walk inside and inquire as to when our playground, the Mojave Desert’s backyard oasis, my church will re-open and the 5d Mark II wielding attendant stated that it was up to the U.S. Forest Service and there was no possible way to know when they’d open it again. “It could be a day,  it could be months.”  We started to speculate hopefully that it could’nt have burned everything. The trails here must be closed because they don’t have the personnel for a search and rescue operation, right? The map of the burn read like a laundry list of our favorite mountains and hiking trails. They always have a rattlesnake, an owl or a tarantula along with other flora and fauna for the public. There was a Boy Scout group there, taunting the rattler who sound like  he couldn’t possibly rattle any faster or louder to get his point across. Ruth, the barn owl, was there as she was last time so we said hello.

We retreated to the valley floor and away from the San Gabriels, leaving the USFS to its work.

Ex-caterpillar

The first thing I saw when I walked out of my door this morning was this beautiful butterfly. Turns out he is a Papilio multicaudata or a two-tailed Swallowtail. He/she was more then willing to let me get close enough for some great macros. The light wasnt’t perfect, but this just goes to show that sometimes you don’t have to go far and the art comes to you. Hummingbirds, bees and butterflies are constantly swarming our Mimosa tree. What a great way to start the day.

I’ll be heading to Vegas tomorrow to see my wife’s band the Pin-Ups play a concert for a roller derby convention called Rollercon. Its thousands of scantily clad subculture women with bruises skating the baking Nevada heat who aren’t afraid of a few broken bones.  Rock n roll, beer and gambling. Time to go to work….