California Back Roads. Where, when, and how to discover the best photography in America

Transcription

1 Updated - December Where, when, and how to discover the best photography in America Published since 1989 F California Back Roads rom the deserts of the Mojave to the ancient forests of the Redwood Empire, photographers can find greater diversity in California s landscape than anywhere in America. Arrive during any season of the year and you ll find outstanding landscape and nature photography. For this newsletter, I selected a few of my favorite locations around California. Photograph the Kelso Dunes in the Mojave Desert, the Trona Pinnacles on the west side of Death Valley, or the Alabama Hills on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Range. Set up your tripod on Bowling Ball Beach on the northern California Coast. Explore the Lost Coast in the Redwood Empire or hike into the woods to photograph Cataract Falls on Mt. Tamalpais. The colorful Merced Lichen Fields on the western foothills of Yosemite and the wildflowers covering northern California s Bear Valley are great locations for spring photography expeditions. There s great photography to be discovered along California s back roads. Here are the details.

2 issue 57 - page 2 Bowling Ball Beach Take the right fork in the trail fifty feet One of the most interesting spots for photographers driving the spectacular, winding coastal highway of northern California is also one of the least-known. This beach is not marked on most maps. There are no signs along the road pointing out the trailhead. Unless you arrive at low tide, you would never know what lies just beneath the surf rolling onto this beach. To best photograph Bowling Ball Beach, arrive during a minus tide. You will want the sun setting on the western horizon and will need a late afternoon low tide. There are some very low tides during summer months but only in the early morning. Find the lowest tides that occur during late afternoon. You can find tide table charts on the Internet to help you plan your trip to Bowling Ball Beach. This is a great spot for a panoramic camera or a very wide angle lens. My favorite images of this beach have all been made in black-and-white. My first destination was Point Arena on the Mendocino Coast about thirty miles south of the picturesque village of Mendocino. Three-and-a-half miles south of the town of Point Arena (or a mile-and-a-half north of Iversen Point if you re driving northward), there s a long, wide shoulder on the west side of Highway 1, directly across from the intersection of Schooner Gulch Road. Two trailheads start here. Park well off the highway with your car facing south and take the trail at the north end of the parking area. It s directly across the highway from the bottom of Schooner Gulch Road. from the pavement and walk out across the open, chaparral-covered meadows to the edge of the cliffs. It s about two-hundred yards. From the top of the cliffs, you can just make out the large, round stones in the distance to the right. A dozen wooden steps have been added to the steepest section of the trail. In the winter, you can walk across the jumble of redwood logs to cross the stream, or you can take off your shoes and wade the stream where it spreads out and flows into the sea. In the summer, this is not a problem. Walk north along the beach a quarter-mile to find the unique geological formation that stretches about two-hundred feet along the shore. Each wave-rounded stone is three to four feet in diameter. There must be at least a hundred. The wet boulders closer to the sea are dark-gray. The dry boulders in the back row are a gray-brown color. The tops of most are covered with green seaweed. Start at the south end and work your way north, trying different angles. Lower your tripod down to the level of the sand, then raise it and step up onto the largest boulder for a high-angle composition. Shoot both horizontal and vertical compositions. Use a graduated neutral-density filter aligned with the horizon to retain the detail in a cloud-filled sky. Try a polarizing filter and a warming filter. Keep one eye on the surf and step up onto a boulder before a large wave rolls up the beach and over your shoes. Large-format photographers will be able to capture the delicate subtlety of this scene dissolving into a dense coastal fog taking on the colors of the setting sun. Macro photographers will enjoy the iridescent mother-ofpearl colored patterns inside large abalone shells scattered along the beach. When very low tides occur several days in a row, arrive on the first day and stay a few days. This will give you more opportunities for good weather and a chance to catch an even lower tide. Stay overnight and return to Bowling Ball Beach the next day with different equipment or a different attitude.

3 issue 57 - page 3 a few of my favorite California Photo locations Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park visit the Stout Grove in spring. Tule Lake-migratory birds on Pacific Flyway-Oct. to Feb. Redwood Nat l Park Prairie Creek State Park Ferndale great Victorian architecture. Lava Beds National Monument fern-filled ice caves in lava flows The Warner Range large aspen groves cover these mountains late Sept. McArthur-Burney Falls 129 ft waterfall-great autumn color-oct. The Lost Coast Mendocino coastal village on cliffs above sea. Point Arena Bowling Ball Beach Point Reyes Mt Tamalpais Bear Valley spring wildflowers cover this valley-mid-april. Fort Ross old Russian fort on north coast-spring. San Juan Bautista old mission architecture and flower gardens-spring Monterey Bay Aquarium Point Lobos wind-twisted cypress groves above rocky cliffs and sandy beaches. Big Sur Coast redwood forests above a spectacular coastline. Carrizo Plain wildflowers and migratory birds in the spring. The Pinnacles caves, rock formations and spring wildflowers. Antelope Valley California poppies-mid-april. The Channel Islands visit Anacapa Island in the spring. Anza-Borrego desert landscapes, earliest spring wildflowers. Mt Lassen volcanic landscapes, reflecting lakes-great winter showshoeing. Lake Tahoe Eagle Falls drops into Emerald Bay-early morning light. Monitor Pass some of the best aspen groves in Sierra-late Sept. Tuolumne Meadows high Sierra landscapes-summer. Bodie the best preserved ghost town-deep winter snows. Mono Lake sunrise over the tufa towers. Yosemite Valley waterfalls and spectacular landscapes. Bristlecones ancient, twisted pines. Merced Lichen Fields-west of Yosemite. Sequoia Nat l Park giant redwoods. King s Canyon mostly wilderness backpacking in southern Sierra-summer. Alabama Hills rock garden at base of Sierra Nevada Mountains. Death Valley unique desert landscapes and great sand dunes. Trona Pinnacles hundreds of tufa towers. Desert Tortoise Preserve protecting endangered reptiles. Kelso Dunes large and remote sand dunes. Joshua Tree National Park spring wildflowers desert landscapes.

4 issue 57 - page 4 Bear Valley Wildflowers Spring wildflowers are the main reason for making the long drive to this remote valley. There hasn t been a bear spotted here in over a hundred years. Fields of California poppies and acres of solid yellow goldfields can be photographed here in the spring. The color usually peaks in mid-april, a week or so later than most of the southern California poppy fields. Traveling north or south on Interstate 5 through northern California s Central Valley, watch for the intersection of Highway 20, just north of the town of Williams, California. As you turn west on Hwy 20, reset your trip odometer to zero. Nine miles west of Interstate 5, the road starts to climb into the foothills. At 18.5 miles, you ll reach the intersection of Cache Creek Road on the left. There s a large field on the south side of Highway 20 here at the intersection of Cache Creek Road (Hwy 16). During most spring wildflower seasons, this field is solidly covered with yellow blossoms. If you spot a wildflower display here, there s a good chance that Bear Valley (about ten miles north of here) is going to be even better. Drive two-hundred feet farther west on Highway 20 and turn right at the sign marking the dirt road to Bear Valley and Wilber Springs. The road to Bear Valley is unpaved and sometimes full of potholes, but you ll have no trouble driving this road in any two-wheel drive car. After the winter rains, the road is usually graded, smoothed out, and made ready for summer travel. Disregard the large No Trespassing sign at the entrance to the road. It refers to the private property along both sides of the public road. A couple of miles north on Bear Valley Road, a side road crosses an old steel truss bridge and heads west to a gate at the entrance to Wilber Springs Resort. Skip the side road and stay on the main road for ten more miles following Bear Creek until it drops down into a wide, flat valley. This is cattle country and the pastures are all surrounded with barbed wire. Bear Valley Road makes about six right-angle turns as it winds its way north around large plots of pasture land. After a wet winter and a rainy spring, the grass is deep and the roadsides are lined with California poppies. Arrive in the morning, after a rain, and there will be no road dust on the wildflowers. A cool and overcast day will keep the poppies closed. A windy day will cause other photographic problems. Near the north end of Bear Valley, just past the only barns and farm house, a side road heads west to Bartlett Springs. This long winding road climbs over the mountains to eventually reach Clear Lake. The route is lined with oaks and pines. If you are looking for more large fields of wildflowers, continue driving north on the Bear Valley Road three miles to the intersection of Leesville Road and a road heading north to Lodoga and Stonyford. Take the Leesville Road to the right for the shortest route back to the town of Williams. If you want to photograph some more remote wildflower fields, head left and continue driving north. Oaks and pines line the road that climbs over low, rolling hills and drops into Indian Valley. It s another ten miles to the crossroads village of Stonyford. There s a gas station, market, and cafe in Stonyford. Turn right at the intersection and you ll end up at the edge of the East Park Reservoir. After some heavy winter rains, this road to the edge of the lake is usually a great spot for poppies. Head left at the intersection in Stonyford. Continue north another 35 miles, past the small village of Elk Grove, to an even smaller spot on the map called Chrome. With a population of 9, this outpost of civilization sits on the edge of a huge round valley ringed with sawtooth peaks (called Rocky Ridge on the map). This is the sight you must see at the peak of a great wildflower season. Hope for a rainy spring. When you finally reach the end of the road at a T intersection, turn left, cross the wide, round valley, and follow the road as it loops in a circle to the east, returning to Interstate 5 at the town of Corning, California. From there, it s a three-hour drive back to the San Francisco Bay Area.

5 issue 57 - page 5 Merced Lichen Fields Splotches of bright red, burnt orange, and many shades of yellow and green cover the rocky outcroppings in the Sierra Nevada foothills east of Merced, California. The Merced Lichen Fields are a popular subject of nature photographers in northern California. I ve seen many prize-winning camera club photographs made here in the hills west of Yosemite Valley. Most visitors to Yosemite enter the valley from the west, driving up Highway 140 along the Merced River. From Highway 140, about 22 miles east of the city of Merced and about 18 miles west of Mariposa, California, you ll see a sign pointing out Cathey s Valley. When you enter Cathey s Valley, watch for the sign to the road to the old gold town of Hornitos. The rustic remains of the 49er town are eleven miles north of Highway 140. Along the roadsides, you ll see rocky outcroppings on the rolling, oak-covered hills. After a wet winter, these foothills of the Sierra Nevada are covered with thick grass and lots of wildflowers. This is cattle country and barbed wire fences are all along the roads. When you reach Hornitos, before you enter the town, turn left and follow the sign to Merced Falls. It s another 10 miles to the Merced River. Cross the bridge over the Merced and turn right. This is the same Merced River that drops into Yosemite Valley and crashes down the canyons but down here it s a lot wider, slower, and tamer after being impounded by the Exchequer Dam, just upstream from the bridge. Before entering the gate where a fee is collected from fishermen, turn right and park down on the edge of the river in the large parking area on the right side of the road. There is usually a good display of colorful lichens growing on the rocks above this parking area. Walk up the hill and cross the road. On the hillside above the road are many more brightly colored lichens. The colors are always brighter and more visible in the spring, after a wet winter. Arrive just after a rain for the best effects. Direct sunlight really lights them up. Don t bother to make this trip if you ll arrive at high noon on a dull and cloudy day. This happened to me on my most recent trip back to the lichen fields, so I continued eastward into Yosemite Valley where I photographed waterfalls until the weather improved. To find more great landscapes and a lot more lichen fields, turn around and head back downstream past the bridge (don t cross it). Turn north on the first road to the right. The sign says Merced Falls Road. Drive five miles up into the rolling hills dotted with large oak trees and rocky outcroppings everywhere looking like tombstones in a cemetery. Most of these rocks look like they were painted with large spots of bright, primary colors. Some of the lichens cover rocks along the road and are easy to reach. Move in close with a wide-angle lens to exaggerate the size of the foreground in relation to the background. Fill the bottom half of your viewfinder with splashes of red and yellow-colored stones and include a whole hillside covered with oaks. With a tilt/shift Canon lens or a tilted front lens on your adjustable view camera, you can greatly increase the depth-of-field and sharpness of these kind of shots. More patches of lichen are just beyond the barbed wire fences that line the roads. You can easily photograph these with a short telephoto lens. Four miles up this road, there is a small stream that drops through a rocky spot in a green pasture that is circled with oak trees. This spot, pictured below, is a great place to wait for the sun to set. Use your longest lens and frame lone oak trees on the tops of distant knolls. Wait for the sun to drop to the horizon, directly behind the trees. When you reach Highway 132, turn around and retrace your path back to Hornitos to Highway 140 and continue your trip to Yosemite. If you are heading west, follow Highway 132 through the city of Modesto to Interstate 5. From there, you can head north to the San Francisco Bay Area or south to Los Angeles.

6 issue 57 - page 6 the Alabama Hills The eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Range is a great destination for landscape photographers. Lying at the base of Mt. Whitney, the tallest peak in the lower 48 states is Lone Pine. Between the steep, eastern escarpment of the Sierra and the town of Lone Pine are the Alabama Hills. Golden-brown boulders of all sizes lie scattered across sage-covered hills, creating a highly textured foreground for a dramatic view of sharply rising Sierra summits that line the western edge of the Owens Valley warm colors contrasting with cool gray granite and a deep blue sky. Smooth and rounded shapes below and jagged peaks above. Landscape photographers will quickly see the possibilities. Turn west onto Whitney Portal Road at the only stoplight on the main street of Lone Pine. As you drive west, you ll see mountainous piles of round rocks. Huge boulders of weathered granite line both sides of Whitney Portal Road. These hills were named in honor of the battleship Alabama by prospectors from the South who were sympathetic to the Confederate cause in the 1860s. The Bureau of Land Management now is the care taker of 30,000 acres west of Lone Pine, designated as the Alabama Hills Recreation Lands. Turn west at the stoplight in Lone Pine and drive 2.8 miles west to Movie Road. There is a sign at the intersection and a bronze plaque that was dedicated by Roy Rogers, commemorating all the western movies made in these hills. As you drive north along the unpaved Movie Road, you ll see a network of dirt roads leading out into the desert and winding around all the formations. Follow any of these roads and you ll find some fascinating subjects for your camera. If you enjoy photographing rock patterns and are interested in geology, this is the place for you. Many of these roads were laid out and graded to accommodate stagecoaches being pulled by teams of horses. Many western movies and television shows were made here in the Alabama Hills. Although there is little evidence of any movie sets remaining, the back roads are still smooth and easily driven by most vehicles. When the sun first rises over the Panamint Range on the eastern side of the Owens Valley, it strikes the peaks of the Sierra. A few minutes later, it lights up the tops of the Alabama Hills, then works its way down to illuminate the sage-covered hills. You will want your tripod to be located in a good spot with a dynamic arrangement of the foreground the jumble of the Alabama Hills and the snowcapped peaks rising 10,000 feet above. Stop for a weather update at the Visitor Information Office as you drive into Lone Pine. Watch the weather channel before setting your alarm clock. But plan to make that drive up Whitney Portal Road even if the weather reports look bad. If you are staying in one of the motels in the town of Lone Pine, it will take you less than ten minutes to drive up into the hills and find a good spot to set up your tripod for the sunrise. Often the sun will break through an opening beneath a heavy cloud cover as it rises over the horizon. You may have only a few minutes of fantastic light across the Alabama Hills before the clouds close in and the rains start. Cold winter mornings can bring a dusting of snow to the tops of the boulders and the sage. One lucky break in the weather may give you the prize-winning shot. Don t miss the sunrise over the Alabama Hills. When you stay a few days for an extended exploration of the Alabama Hills, you will get to know the layout of the many back roads through the hills. You will soon discover where the best places are to wait for a sunrise or a sunset. One of my favorite sunrise spots lies at the end of a steep side road off the eastern side of the Movie Road. From a distance, you can spot the steep, zig-zag road with a circular turn-around near the top. From up there, you ll frame a high-angle aerial view of most of the hills and the Sierra in the background. It s a great place for a panoramic camera.

7 issue 57 - page 7 It is easy to get lost in these rock pile mazes. I always have a small compass attached to the zipper pull on my backpack to get me oriented. It s easy to spot Mt. Whitney, the landmark to the west. By walking downhill, you can usually find a dirt road. By climbing uphill, you can get a better view of the terrain and maybe you can spot your car in the distance. Drive west, 13 miles from Lone Pine, on the Whitney Portals Road to the end of the road at the trailhead to Mt. Whitney. This road is usually cleared of snow and open from May to October. Just before the road starts to climb steeply up the switchbacks, you will see a wonderful view up the length of the Owens Valley. During summer months when the upper part of the Whitney Portal Road is open, you can leave the Portal Road and head northeast on the unpaved Hogback Road all the way back to Highway 395. The Hogback Road defines the northern limits of the Alabama Hills. The southern boundary of the Alabama Hills follows Lubkin Canyon Road. This paved road leaves Highway 395 about three miles south of the Visitor Information Center. Follow it several miles west to the sign at the southern end of Tuttle Creek Road. Turn north here and drive through the largest concentration of boulders in the Alabama Hills. There are some nice angles looking west through the cottonwoods along Tuttle Creek not to be missed in late October. The Alabama Hills Arch can be found by driving 5.3 miles up the Whitney Portal Road. Turn right onto a short dirt road and go 500 feet. Park near the fence, walk through an opening in the fence, and cross the wooden bridge over Lone Pine Creek. Walk north up the bank of the creek and then follow the sandy wash that parallels the ridge on your right (east). Walk north for ten minutes then scan the ridge on the right for the arch. Look carefully, it blends into the rocks. When you spot the arch, it s another ten minute walk up the ridge to the base of the arch. Move in close to the arch and exaggerate its size with a wide-angle lens. This greatly reduces the size of the distant Sierra range which you may not want to do. Try a normal focal length lens to give you a normal relationship of foreground to background. Use your telephoto lenses to isolate the strongest elements in the jumble of rocks. Include something like cactus or wildflowers to give a sense of scale and proportion to these tightly-cropped telephoto compositions. Photographs of tightly cropped rock patterns may be interesting exercises for the photographer but may not have any meaning to other viewers. If you are shooting for a slide show, don t forget to include some establishing shots or panoramic views of the whole Owens Valley to set the scene. Wind blowing down the Owens Valley can be very strong and gusty in the spring. To stabilize your tripod, spread your tripod legs, hang your camera bag from a hook screwed into the bottom end of your tripod s center column, or find a spot behind large rocks that s protected from the force of the wind. There are cholla, beavertail, cottontop, and prickly pear cactus growing in the sandy hills between the outcroppings. Spring brings wildflowers including bright red patches of Indian paintbrush. Cottonwoods growing along Tuttle Creek turn bright yellow in late October. For guidebooks, maps, and more information about finding your way around the maze of dirt roads through the Alabama Hills, stop at the Eastern Sierra InterAgency Visitor Center. It s located two miles south of Lone Pine on Highway 395 at the intersection of Highway 136, the road to Death Valley. There are restaurants, motels, and several campgrounds in the Lone Pine area. The Portugee Joe Campground is at the intersection of Whitney Portal Road and Tuttle Creek Road. Drive ten miles farther up the Whitney Portal Road to find Lone Pine Campground, lying at the base of the Sierra. When you plan your next California photo trip, start with Death Valley and the Trona Pinnacles, then spend a few nights in Lone Pine while you photograph the Alabama Hills. Work your way up the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada along Highway 395 as you photograph the Devil s Postpile, Rock Creek Canyon, the bristlecone forests in the White Mountains, Convict Lake, the June Lake Loop, Lundy Lake, Mono Lake, Bodie, the railroad museum at Laws, Bodie, the Monitor Pass and then northward to Lake Tahoe.

8 issue 57 - page 8 the Trona Pinnacles Many photographers have traveled out to the edge of Mono Lake to capture a sunrise over the tufa towers. Those towers of calcium carbonate were formed underwater many years ago. There s a much larger formation of tufa towers farther south, on the edge of the Mojave Desert, called the Trona Pinnacles. More than 500 tufa pinnacles rise from the dry bed of Searles Lake, 20 miles east of Ridgecrest, California. Some are as tall as 140 feet. They are arranged along a line from east to west. Back in the Pleistocene era, a long chain of interconnected lakes once stretched from Mono Lake to Death Valley. If you have driven to Death Valley through the town of Ridgecrest, you may have seen the long row of pinnacles far off in the distance, a few To photograph a sunset casting long shadows across the desert, drive through the towers to the far eastern end. A wide sandy wash divides the formation. You ll need a 4x4 if you want to avoid getting stuck in the deep sand. Don t try driving through the washes in the dark. If you are going to be camping in the Pinnacles, plan to arrive during a full moon. Some of the taller towers stand atop wide bases of calcium carbonate that has worn away through the ages. Trails wind around many of these bases and lead up to high viewpoints. A wide-angle lens will frame all the pinnacles in one composition, but the far end of the formation will be very tiny. A telephoto lens will compress the long formation into one composition if you can find a high spot that s far enough miles south of the chemical works at Trona. A Bureau of Land Management sign points out the turn to the south off Highway 178. After heavy rains, a gate is closed to keep vehicles off the unpaved road. The rough road crosses a usually dry lake bed and dips through several washes that can fill with runoff. Any vehicle with adequate ground clearance will take you out to the formations. There are some deep and sandy washes to avoid in the middle of the pinnacles. It s five miles from the pavement of Highway 178 to the western end of the pinnacles. Avoid the flat light of mid-day and arrive for a sunrise or sunset. Be out there just before sunrise if you can find the place in the dark. Campers can park their RVs anywhere along the maze of dirt roads that weave through the spires. It s a very large area. It s easier and more convenient to arrive in the late afternoon. The Trona Pinnacles are a half-hour drive from Ridgecrest, California, where you can find a good selection of motels, restaurants, and car rental agencies with four-wheel-drive vehicles. This is a great place to stop for a sunset photograph on your way home from Death Valley. To photograph a sunrise, find a high spot at the western end of the formations. Set up your tripod pointing your camera toward the east. The dirt road from the highway goes straight to the far western end of the formation. away. Most locations for your tripod will involve climbing up onto a high spot or making some compromises and shooting from ground level. A panoramic camera with a longer lens is the ideal choice here. If you have a Fuji GX617 with a 180mm or 300mm lens, bring it along when you visit the Trona Pinnacles. The panoramic image reproduced above was made with a 300mm telephoto lens on a 35mm camera. It is a montage of six exposures that I put together in my Macintosh using Adobe Photoshop. The calcium carbonate making up the tufa towers is a light dirty-pink color. The towers are not formed of the same red desert sandstone like much of the southwest. With a 4x4 vehicle, you can drive around looking for the perfect spot to set up your tripod. Before striking out on any of the trails through the formation, remember that rattlesnakes like the shade beneath the creosote bushes. It can get awfully hot out there in the summer 115 F is an average daytime temperature. No water is available and there are no services in the Trona Pinnacles. Gas, food, and other services are available in the nearby small town of Trona, located a few miles north of the pinnacles. The Trona Pinnacles are an easy side trip for photographers traveling to Death Valley from Los Angeles or the San Francisco Bay Area.

9 issue 57 - page 9 the Kelso Dunes Remote deserts are great destinations for mid-winter photo explorations. I m always looking for untouched sand dunes without footprints or the tracks of off-road vehicles. Early morning hikes far out into the dunes are the best way to photograph those beautifully sensuous curves illuminated by the colors of a sunrise and untouched by man. Some of the more remote sand dunes that I ve found in southern California are located in the center of the East Mojave National Scenic Area. The Kelso Dunes cover a much larger area than the dunes in Death Valley. Because of their size, access into the dunes can be a problem. There is only one unpaved road around the south side of the Kelso Dunes. These dunes differ from others in that there is more dune grass growing here than on most other dunes I have photographed. Arrive here in the spring after a wet winter and the dune grass will be bright green and highly visible. During drier seasons, the bunches of grass are about the same color as the sand. Kelso Dunes are located a hundred miles east of Barstow, California. The nearest services are located 45 miles north of the Kelso Dunes in the town of Baker, California, on Interstate 15. Baker has several motels, gas stations, and restaurants. It s way out in the Mojave Desert, partway between Barstow, California, and Las Vegas, Nevada. Kelbaker Road connects the town of Baker, California, with the railroad station at Kelso. Interstate 40, the road from Barstow to Flagstaff, Arizona, is only 25 miles south of the Kelso Dunes but there are no services located along that stretch of the Interstate. Driving south from Baker along the Kelbaker Road, you ll eventually reach the old railroad station in Kelso. Cross the tracks and continue heading south. The dunes will be visible to the west, spread out for miles into the distance. A few miles farther south, about the time that you ll think that there is no side road into the dunes and you are just driving past the tallest section of dunes, there is a sign along the road. The sign says Kelso Dunes 3 miles. The unpaved road is graded gravel. You won t need a 4x4 for this trip. Heading west, the road follows power line towers on the south and a long line along the crest of the tallest dunes on the north. For several miles, the road follows the edge of the dunes before ending at a water tower near a cattle watering trough. It s difficult to judge distances out there. It s a mile from the end of the road to the bottom of the tallest dune with sweeping curves reaching up to the summit. There is no trail but you won t get lost if you can see the water tower near your parked car. Wear high-top boots or just dump the sand out of your sneakers when you return. Carry a telephoto lens to isolate the curved ridge lines leading up the dunes. Carry a wide-angle lens for those from here to infinity compositions with dune grasses in the foreground and miles of sand dunes stretching to the horizon. Store the two lenses and the filters you ll need in your photo vest pockets. Travel light and leave the camera bag in your car. You will be walking about a mile to the base of the dunes and a mile back. Those two miles will feel like four miles when you are walking through deep sand. Since the long ridge that follows the tops of the tallest dunes runs east to west, you can shoot sunrises from the western end of the road and sunsets from the eastern end of the unpaved access road. There are no roads into the heart of the dunes. Several trails are marked on maps that circle the northern regions of the dunes. Too far to walk, it s twenty miles from the railroad station at Kelso to the area marked Devil s Playground on the DeLormé maps. Bring your mountain bike to ride the trails around the dunes. You can climb to the top of the ridge along the southern access road and photograph the Kelso Dunes spreading for miles toward the northwest a great sunset shot.

10 issue 57 - page 10 the Lost Coast Highway 1, the Coast Highway, runs along the coast all the way up from southern California but heads inland to skirt the impassible cliffs of the King Range, a few miles north of Fort Bragg. Steep talus slopes rise to over four-thousand feet in less than three miles from the shore and make road building impossible. Highway 1 joins the inland Highway 101 at the small logging town of Leggett and doesn t reach the coast again for another hundred miles north. Adventurous photographers, with at least a full day to spare for a side trip, should leave the main road, Highway 101, at Garberville for an exploration along the few back roads through the King Range. There s a good selection of lodgings, restaurants, and supplies available in Garberville. Fill your gas tank here. Head north on the main street and follow the signs to the town of Redway. In the middle of Redway, turn left on the road to Shelter Cove. After passing through the ramshackle hamlet called Briceland, it s fifteen more miles of very steep, narrow, and twisting mountain road to the remote community of Shelter Cove on the edge of the Pacific. There are several motels and restaurants on the beach and at least a hundred wilderness cabins surrounding a paved landing strip for private planes. Follow the road to the boat launching ramp at the south end of the village and drive to the bottom. Park there at the base of huge vertical cliffs. Walk the beach and photograph sea lions basking on the many offshore rocks. Except for a few campgrounds, this is the only place with lodgings between Garberville and Ferndale. To continue heading north, return to the Ettersburg-Honeydew Road near Briceland. Maps show a shortcut called the Kings Peak Road that can save you 10 miles of backtracking. But Kings Peak Road is 13 miles of unpaved, narrow mountain road that fords several streams on its way north through the King Range National Conservation Area. The road takes you to within two miles of the top of Kings Peak. I finally reached the pavement of Wilder Ridge Road and continued north through the woods to the crossroads called Honeydew. The road follows the wide, slow Mattole River, one of California s best canoe streams, as it meanders toward the sea. I photographed the old wooden church on the hill above Petrolia and then walked through the village setting up my tripod for laundry on a clothesline, weathered picket fences, and the red bell in the fire tower. From Petrolia, a 4-mile side road heads down to the coast and the mouth of the Mattole River. Starting at the parking area, there s a 3-mile hike along the beach to an old abandoned lighthouse just south of Punta Gorda. Tall dune grasses grow in patches across rolling sand dunes. There are hundreds of yards of dunes between the road and the surf. Much of the land along the sea is private ranch land and is closed with barbed wire fences. Cattle graze on the lush grass on the inland hills and on the few small patches of green pasture along the sea. I stopped to photograph over the fences from several high spots along the road. Seven miles north, tall cliffs drop straight to the sea and the road squeezes through the rocks at a spot called Devil s Gate on the map. For the next few miles, there are no fences. Several miles of black sand beaches are open to the public. Bleached driftwood logs have been used to build shelters from the rain. This is one of the wettest spots along this coast. After photographing late afternoon light reflecting on the tide pools along these black sand beaches, I followed the two-lane blacktop north about a mile to Cape Mendocino, the westernmost point in the lower 48 states. The steep road climbed back over the coastal ranges to Capetown, an old stage stop on the Bear River. Then I crossed the wind-blown grassy hills called Wildcat Ridge. It was dark when I finally reached Ferndale. The small dairy town on the wide, flat delta of the Eel River is full of bed and breakfast inns and restored Victorian hotels. It s a great place to end a long day s drive.

11 issue 57 - page 11 Cataract Falls on Mt. Tamalpais Mt. Tamalpais lies only ten miles north of the city of San Francisco. Cross the Golden Gate Bridge, follow your map and the road signs to Highway 1, the Coast Highway. There are six routes to the top of Mt. Tamalpais but my favorite climbs up the steep ravine from the small town of Stinson Beach. Stop about halfway up at the Pan Toll Ranger Station and Information Office. Pick up a trail map and then continue driving north toward the summit. This 2,571- foot peak sits in the middle of Marin County. From the easily-accessible top, visitors will find incredible views of the San Francisco Bay area spread out below. Open ridges dropping away from the summit are covered with wildflowers in the spring. Surrounding the mountain are forests of redwood and fir dotted with meadows circled with oaks, madrone, and bay laurel. Deep ravines filled with ancient redwood groves are lined with steep fern-covered canyon walls. Streams cascade down steep, wooded gorges to the San Franciso Bay on the east and into the Pacific Ocean on the west side of the mountain. Arrive on one of those foggy summer days that are so common along the California Coast and the views from the summit will be obscured. Those are great hiking days. There are many miles of trails to hike on Mount Tamalpais. Over 170 marked trails cover more than 210 miles crisscrossing this mountain. Trails follow almost every stream that drops down almost every gully. One of my favorite trails follows Cataract Creek. Park at the Rock Springs Trailhead, about a mile north of the Pan Toll Ranger Station. There are many trails that start here or cross the meadow in front of this parking area. Cataract Trail heads north. It s a mile-and-a-half from the Rock Springs trailhead to the top of Cataract Falls. The trail crosses the stream several times, over wide redwood planks or larger footbridges with handrails. It s all downhill along this trail, meaning an uphill hike back to your car. About thirty minutes down the trail, you ll reach a large opening in the woods. Laurel Dell has several picnic tables and restrooms. The cataracts start just downstream from here. You can hear the noise from the falling water. In the summer, streams falling from Mt. Tamalpais are beginning to slow. By autumn, most are just trickles and some are completely dry. Hike Cataract Trail in mid-winter, right after a heavy rain has filled this stream to the tops of its banks. That s when this cascade will be at its best. Foggy mornings will give you soft, enveloping light that makes your exposures much easier. You ll find a range of light that illuminates details in the dark bark of the redwoods and Douglas firs and still permits you to capture the highlights in the spray flying from the wet boulders in the stream at the bottom of the cascade. Direct sunlight strikes the upper falls until about midafternoon when the sun drops over the ridge. Continue down the trail to another waterfall and pool that reminds me of some I ve photographed in Hawaii. The trail turns left, crosses the stream on a wooden bridge and gets even steeper. There are wide spots along the trail for a tripod below the tallest waterfalls. The trail and the stream eventually reach the edge of Alpine Lake, three miles and more than 1,300 feet below the start of this trail at Rock Spring Trailhead. Because of the steepness of parts of this trail, some hikers arrive with two cars and leave one at the bottom on the edge of Alpine Lake and drive the other to the top. If you can t arrange a two-car shuttle, park at the bottom, walk up to the falls, and finish your day with an easy downhill return trip to your car. Have a great trip!

12 Internet Resources U. S. NATIONAL PARKS / STATE PARKS Anza-Borrego Desert State Park: Death Valley National Park: Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park: Joshua Tree National Park: Prairie Creek Redwood State Park: Redwood National and State Parks: LODGING Best Western Comfort Inn / EconoLodge Courtyard Inn / Marriott Motel 6 Super 8 / Wyndham Hotels CAR RENTALS WEATHER CONDITIONS The Weather Channel: The National Weather Service: CAMERA EQUIPMENT My life-long career in photography began at San Jose State University in After college, I enlisted in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, serving as a photographer and darkroom technician. In Germany, my skills and experience with equipment and lab work were developed and polished. I took the opportunity to photograph the beauty of nature in the Black Forest. Returning to California in 1965, I produced industrial and military training films for Raytheon Electronics and began showing my color nature prints. From 1969 through 1981, my photography was exhibited and sold in West Coast galleries. During the early 1980 s, I taught color darkroom workshops, then expanded to include field trips. Former customers, who had purchased my framed photographs, wanted to learn photography. My Pacific Image Photography Workshops offered adventures to the Pacific Coast, the Southwest deserts, national parks, Hawaii, New England, Canada, England, and the South Pacific. The workshops evolved into writing and sharing my adventures with others. Photograph America Newsletter provides information on where, when, and how to discover the best nature photography in North America. Photograph America Newsletter is published quarterly (four issues/year) by Robert Hitchman assisted by technical associate/wife, Katherine Post Office Box 86, Novato, CA All contents of this newsletter copyright Robert Hitchman Please don t make copies for your friends. This is a violation of Federal copyright laws. This newsletter survives on subscriptions.