Popped in for a couple nights of camping in Lassen National Park on the way up to Oregon to celebrate my birthday. It was truly shocking to see the differences in scenery after the Dixie Fire burned through parts of the park that I had seen driving through last year. Below the slideshow are some comparison images to show the difference between this year and last. Fire season is growing longer year after year, not only here in the west, but also abroad. It’s a scary sign of what is to come.
Well, we scored a last minute spot and trekked back out to the desert for two nights of camping. Lucked out with incredible weather; temperatures in the 70s and few clouds in sight. It was the perfect weather to knock out some hikes in the park. Some spring break crowds, but nothing too crazy. The stars made their appearance, I slept through the Milky Way, missing it on this trip. Oh well, next time!
Sometimes you try to go on a camping trip, sometimes you do not end up going on a camping trip. This was a lesson learned. Not only did timing of Spring Break completely slip my mind, but so did the fact that Joshua Tree requires camping reservations in most sites from October - May. Yeah, we tried for the first come-first served spots. Somehow we just kept barely missing out on spots. Oh well. After a quick reset, we decided to just stay for the day and drive back to LA after the sun went down. I guess the lesson learned was to just make the most out of the day, you’ll be rewarded with great scenery if you turn it around. We sure were rewarded, it was a perfect 70 degree day throughout the park with not a single cloud in sight. Take a peek at the photos below; there were flowers, wildlife, and crowds a plenty. But if you know where to go, and when, you’ll see some good things.
Hello to everyone who is reading this. I wanted to start cataloging my photo expeditions as a way to keep my family and friends up to date on the goings on in my life. Not sure where this blog journey will take me in 2021, but what the hell, I’ll give it the old college try for a while and see how I like it. Cheers to a new year y’all.
Same view, hours apart. If the weather is nice, might as well stick around for a few hours. Hand warmers and layers help out a lot too.
On some of these trees, the branches look like they could make up a separate tree of their own.
New Years Eve gave us one last incredible sunset in such a dark year. The park had a decent amount of snow in the shaded areas, left over from a snow storm the week prior to our arrival. It was beautiful to see the massive trees blanketed with a little bit of snow. Clear-ish skies rewarded us with a nice view of Orion and the valley below us.
In the winter months, the Orion constellation is at its prime viewing. To be honest, I prefer the Milky Way, it’s warmer outside.
On New Years day, after sleeping in for a few hours, we decided to make our way into the park. We ended up at Lodgepole Visitor Center as the crowds near all the other attractions were so large. There was a group BBQing in one of the parking lots, it felt like we were at a Ski Resort, not a National Park. Walking through the Lodgepole Campground, we stumbled across a hike to Tokopah Falls. The scenery on the way to the falls was that of George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones. Feeling like we were North of “The Wall” we trekked through the snow to this Valley that had some of the wildest looking frozen waterfalls (pictured below). Made it back to the car, right as the sun was setting behind the ancient Sequoias.
The texture of the snow was wild, it was some of the lightest and fluffiest snow I had ever seen. I would have loved to have gone snowboarding through the trees of this hike. A perfect scene to start off the year.
I spent about 40 minutes on the side of the road freezing my butt off for this shot. I thought this one was a keeper, but wanted to make sure that I got it right. I decided to wait for a car to come again to light up the trees like this, the car never came as the temperatures continued to drop. I think this one is still really good.
The textures of these sleeping giants is stunning. I wonder how long this tree has been around for. Sad to see it down, but now it will begin a second life. Giving back the nutrients it once took.
It really blows my mind at how late “Fall” colors are down here in the warm state of California. This Oregonian isn’t used to seeing foliage in January.
