The month of July in the Pacific Northwest is typically characterized by balmy weather and sunny skies, with just the occasional shower to keep the temperatures at a reasonable level. The Cascades still retain a bit of their winter snowpack while down below, meadows take their summer green coat and burst with wildflowers. This year though, was a tad different. By late July, the Pacific Northwest had already endured two months of dry heat, thanks to the heat dome. Without any precipitation, wildfires spread far and wide, and their smoke spread through most of the Cascades. The heat also caused most of the snow capping the volcanic peaks to melt away and reveal the dirty understory. It didn't take long for us to realize it wasn't a normal summer.
The mercury has certainly dropped in August, but the smoke is still hanging on, and during one of the clearer weekends, I caught sight of the characteristic volcanic cone of Mt Baker rising high above the green meadows and wildflowers of the North Cascades ranges
Baker Snoqualmie National Forest
WA USA
Colors in the Garden
While grand vistas draw me out to the mountains, there are times when I try to focus on the intricate details of the scene, especially in places whose aesthetic shines. Japanese gardens exude such aesthetics with a unique sense of design that highlight the natural landscape. And in fall, these intricate gardens are saturated with warm colors, which, when combined with architectural elements such as pagodas, teahouses and stone lanterns, form colorful subjects to photograph.
During a fall visit to the famous Portland Japanese garden early in the morning, I found many such scenes waiting to be photographed. I found one such scene where these architectural elements were juxtaposed against the green needles of Red Pines and the vibrant Japanese Maples in the soft morning light. Hopefully the smoke this year hasn't had too much of an impact on the garden this year.
Portland
OR USA
A National Parks Journey - Joshua Tree National Park
I was surprised that I had put off visiting the 8th National Park in the State of California for this long. Especially since I had lived in California for over 8 years. The Park itself was easy to access from the town of Palm Springs, which makes for a suitable base to visit the Park. And even though I hadn't expected to see much in this park except for its namesake - the Joshua Tree, I was pleasantly surprised to explore a thriving desert landscape with very unique rock formations.
Cacti of different species, including this forest of spiny chollas, called this rocky landscape home, as do the iconic boulder formations that have attracted boulderers from all over the continent. But framing all this are the namesake cacti - the Joshua tree, that is so emblematic of the Colorado Desert Region of Southern California. While heading out of the park on a colorful evening, I found this forest just as the sun dipped below the mountains and lit up the sky.
Joshua Tree National Park
CA USA
A National Parks Journey - Virgin Islands National Park
Covid had impacted all our lives, and living in close confines with my partner for an entire year without the relief of social life and travel was proving to be tough. The cold and gloomy winter of Seattle didn't help either: it had multiplied the stresses of being together. This park, and the islands where the Park was nestled in, was meant to be an escape from reality from the bleak weather. Thankfully, it lived up to its expectations.
Virgin islands are not a hard place to get to as there are plenty of flights that ply to these Caribbean US territories. A short cab and ferry ride from the island of St Thomas lands you in St John, where the Park is actually located. But getting around the Park, especially to the remote reaches on the eastern side of the island, necessitated renting one of the colorful Jeeps available by the ferry terminal. And that gave me the freedom to explore various trails and relax by the white sand beaches normally not visited by day trippers from St Thomas, the commercial hub of Virgin Islands.
And while sailing remains the best way to explore these territories, staying in and exploring the island of St John by road works was a welcome substitute for the solo traveler.
Virgin Islands National Park
USVI
A National Parks Journey - Saguaro National Park
The winter was proving to be depressing, and in a bid to escape to a sunnier climate, we chose to explore deserts of Arizona and White Sands. Saguaro National Park, in South-Central Arizona, made for a quick day trip from the neighboring town of Tuscon. The Park, so named for its spectacular forests of the nation's cacti, offers plenty of hikes where trails explore the diverse Sonoran desert ecosystem.
The park is divided into two parts - the Tuscon Mountain District and the Rincon Mountian District. We chose to spend the day exploring the former due to its proximity to the city of Tuscon. The latter, on the other hand, offers plenty of wilderness opportunities, including backcountry camping. If we were to come back, the Rincon would be the place to explore.
Here is one of the spiky Saguaros under a moody grey sky of the Sonoran desert.
Saguaro national Park
AZ USA
A National Parks Journey - Acadia National Park
Having been established in 1916, this 100+ year old park was one of the older parks that I had visited in my National Parks Journey. Due to its age, I had envisioned a Park that captured rustic New England culture in a region that faced long harsh winters and lush summers. I also knew that, similar to other parks in the North East of the country, the area the Park preserved was not a place to escape away from civilization to nature, but to protect a region where the the two coexisted and even when humanity encroached on nature. And just like those other Parks, Acadia was replete with beautiful parkways that wound their way through the island offering plenty of turnouts to stop and enjoy the scenery. But in addition, Acadia also featured carriage trails preserved from the age of romanticism, along with hiking trails that wound through the forests and around lakes.
I had timed my visit for the autumn, hoping to capture some of the fall color magic that permeates this Park during this season. However, neither the colors nor the weather was cooperative. Nevertheless I still managed to find moments of zen in the crowded season in this small park.
Acadia National Park
ME USA
A National Parks Journey - Mammoth Caves National Park
This park was initially just a short diversion on my roadtrip to the south from the midwest. I had heard of this park, and knew it was famous for featuring one of the longest caverns in the world. But from the outside, it was an unassuming park. Verdant forests and miles of wilderness belie the grandiose caverns hidden underneath. And being a short trip from two major population centers, this park garners plenty of crowds. Visiting the caverns thus requires a bit of advance preparation identifying the right tours to get tickets for.
But due to my impulsive travel planning, I only had a short time there, and in that time I got to explore a mere trifling of the park. Despite taking my camera, it couldn't do justice to the sheer diversity of caves with distinctive speleothemic formations, let along the enormity of the caverns inside that can hold a Boeing 737 jet inside. Instead, I just focused on immersing myself in the cavern life. This was one of the parks that really made me warm up to the idea of visiting and exploring more caverns.
This photo showcases the historic entrance to Mammoth Caves, which, until the elevators were installed in 1957, served as the main way to explore the caverns.
Mammoth Caves National Park
KY USA
A National Parks Journey - Cuyahoga Valley National Park
Typically, the parks established east of Rockies during the early days of the National Park System tended to be small urban parks, carved out from the desire to have scenic open spaces near to home, especially for recreation, rather than with the goal of preserving a unique slice of the landscape such as the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone. Cuyahoga was one such park of the former type, nestled between major urban areas, and its story is rooted in the environmental and social movements of the 20th century. Its creation is about not only providing a refuge from the urban wilderness but restoring a landscape to be culturally vibrant, less polluted, a better home for wildlife, and a model for sustainable living.
And that was why, even though it was an arms throw from urban areas, I found places of solitude. I had visited the park during the fall season, hoping to escape the maddening crowds of a major college campus I was studying at that time. During this season, this midwest park takes on a new color scheme, covered in golds and yellows. It also becomes remarkably quieter without the urban crowds. In wandering along numerous trails that meandered through the forests and old moss-covered rocks and stonework, I realized that it truly was a hidden gem that aspired to the goals for which the park was created
Cuyahoga Valley National Park
OH USA
A National Parks Journey - Everglades National Park
My whistlestop tour of the my 24th National Park, the Everglades, consisted of nothing more than taking an airboat tour of the vast swamplands that form the primary terrain of the Everglades. I remember the boat gliding over marshes and open water, catching glimpses of tree snakes and walking with jacanas, checking out the ospreys fishing, and soaking in the humid atmosphere of these pristine wetlands. Nevertheless, these were just the teaser to the largest subtropical wilderness of the country.
Being so close to the population centers of Florida, the Everglades ecosystem experiences multiple stresses: from human intervention to control to the flow of water, air and water pollution, the lowering of the fresh water table, and last but not the least, the rising sea levels from the global climate change. It remains to be seen how much impact these factors have had already, and how much more the region's ecosystem can take
Everglades National Park
FL USA
A National Parks Journey - Carlsbad Caverns National Park
I always thought of caves as a dark and dank place that I hope I would never get caught in without a source of light. Spelunking, or cave exploration clearly wasn't my thing. But walking through the open gaping hole in the earth down to its inner depths along an artistically lighted walkway that highlighted the classic limestone formations of a cave - the tall stalagmites and the dangling stalactites and straws, towering columns and thin curtains. The walkway wove through a profusion of such formations in the karst-laden cave, formed when acidic rainwater slowly dissolved naturally occurring limestone over thousands of years.
And even though I enjoyed my first, and subsequent visit, my irrational fear of caves still remain. This fear was reinforced when, on one of the guided trips, the ranger cut power to all the lights, leaving us tourists to bathe in darkness.
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
NM USA