Meadow Lake Petroglyphs, California

One of our adventures during our fall camping trip was a visit to the Meadow Lake petroglyphs in the northern Sierra Nevada mountains of California.

Getting there was half the fun.  After about 10 miles of dirt roads, we passed Meadow Lake and continued toward a large area of exposed granite.  Soon we found that the road was blocked by a fallen tree.  Bruce hooked on with a tow strap, broke it, and moved it aside.

Eventually we reached a large open area of granite boulders, with hundreds of petroglyphs on the horizontal surfaces.

The rock art at this site is described as Style 7, High Sierra Abstract-Representational petroglyphs identified with the Martis culture dating from 2000 B.C. to 1000 A.D.  We can guess at their meaning, but no one knows for sure.

The petroglyphs here show up best on areas of dark desert varnish, but careful inspection reveals many on the lighter colored rock as well.  The light scratches around the edge are glacial striations caused by rocks embedded in the base of moving glaciers.

The area is rocky and rugged.  Not many trees grow in this granite, and there are quite a few dead snags and fallen trees.  Their wood often has beautifully weathered patterns.

Why are there so many petroglyphs here?  Perhaps this nearby pond is a clue.  Maybe there was a larger wetland here many years ago, providing a water source for game animals.

 Or maybe it was a good place to camp with drinking water nearby.

  We don’t know the meaning of this rock art, but it sure is fun to find it and take pictures.

These photos are copyrighted, so please do not copy them or use them without my permission.

Cerro Gordo Revisited

I posted an article on Cerro Gordo on June 4, 2012, so please check it out to learn more about this remarkable ghost town    http://rosswalkerphotos.blogspot.com/2012/06/cerro-gordo-california.html

 

We returned to Cerro Gordo  on April 29 this year, so this is a supplement of sorts.  Caretaker Jim has been replaced by Cat and Matt, but there haven’t been many other changes.  Here they are with my camping buddies, Bruce and Steve, in front of the beautiful American Hotel, which is the oldest hotel still standing in California east of the Sierras.

Cerro Gordo’s old mining town buildings look great in black and white.  The assayer’s building is on the left, and the cribs from Lola’s Palace of Pleasure are on the right.  Cerro Gordo had numerous businesses, including a red light district.

There are artifacts from the mining days scattered everywhere, like these ore bins that used to ride the tram from the mines to the smelter here in town.

The streetlight outside the general store seems to be out of order, and the store is a museum now.

Other odd objects include a worn saddle pommel and a rusty lock.

This view shows some of the water storage tanks that were once needed for a population of 4500. 

When I first started exploring ghost towns, Cerro Gordo was famous, but off-limits.  People could take pictures from the road but had to stay away from the private property.  Fortunately, the Friends of Cerro Gordo now help preserve the town and provide caretakers, so we were able to visit this great old town.

Please note that my photos are copyrighted and cannot be used without my permission.

Bristlecone Pines, California

A visit to the White Mountains in California to see the bristlecone pines is sure to be an unforgettable experience.  Everything about them is amazing; their spectacular location, their strange shapes, and the statistics about their age.

There is a good, paved road to the visitor’s center, but I was on my annual spring camping trip and we like to find more adventurous routes.  We took the 4WD Silver Canyon Road from Bishop to Patriarch Grove.  The road has four stream crossings and switchbacks up the mountain from 4000’ to 11,000’.

At the top this sign announces the entrance to the Ancient Bristlecone Forest, but there aren’t many trees around, and several more miles of driving on a dirt road will finally get you to Patriarch Grove.

This is a typical scene at Patriarch Grove.  The Bristlecone pines survive in incredibly harsh surroundings.  They grow in alkaline soil that discourages competition from other plants.  They thrive at the tree line in extremely cold, windy conditions, and the area is closed in winter.  Their surreal shapes often include a mix of dead wood and living tree.  Sometimes a narrow strip connecting a root to the crown is all that remains alive in a tree that looks like it died centuries ago.

Great Basin bristlecone pines are the oldest living single organisms on earth!  One recently dated tree here in the White Mountains is 5064 years old.  Its location is secret.  Think of that… many of these trees have been alive for thousands of years before the birth of Christ!

The trees grow extremely slowly because of a lack of water, dry soil, cold temperatures, and short growing seasons.  Their wood is extremely hard, and after death the exposed wood does not rot.  As a result, snags can stand for centuries and their fantastic shapes are created by wind erosion.  The wood is sandblasted and eroded like rock.

This tree took my breath away when I saw it.  I found myself talking to it as I walked around it with my camera.  “You’re beautiful – gorgeous!  You have incredible curves!”  I think I had been out in the desert too long.

Photography is so much fun with these amazing trees.  Their fantastic shapes are irresistibly surreal.  The best days for photographing landscapes of the area will have good sunlight and fluffy clouds, but exposure can be tricky.  HDR is a good tool to pick up detail in the bright clouds while balancing exposure on the trees.  A wide angle lens can be used to exaggerate the bizarre shapes and angles of the eroded snags.

When the fluffy clouds obscure the sun, it is a great time to look for closer photos of wood grain and twisted branches.  A macro lens and tripod is a good choice if you want to get really close.

Black and white is also a great choice to show the wood grain or to show the trees against dramatic high elevation sky.

If you decide to visit the Bristlecones, it is best to be acclimated to the high elevation, especially if you are coming from very low elevation.  So, spend a couple of days in the Bishop area before trying the White Mountains, and don’t overdo it until you are sure you are acclimated.  Be sure to stop at the new visitor’s center at Schulman Grove.  There are more bristlecones to see there and on the strenuous Methuselah Trail.

Please note that all photos are copyrighted and must not be used without my permission.

Alabama Hills, California

The Alabama Hills are a landscape photographer’s paradise; especially if you like rocks.  Millions of rocks.  The hills are located west of Lone Pine, California at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  Their brown color stands out strongly from the eastern Sierras.

The hills are a relatively barren place with large treeless flats between the huge piles of rocks, so a single tree really stands out.

In this photo, a cottonwood tree survives in the rocks with Lone Pine Peak in the left background.  The more distant, jagged peak directly behind the tree is Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states at 14,505 feet elevation.

The Alabama Hills were named by Confederate sympathizers after the warship CSS Alabama during the Civil War.

The rocks are the same age as the nearby Sierra Nevada Mountains, but were shaped by different chemical weathering caused by percolating water while the rocks were buried.

The Alabama Hills have been popular for filming movies, TV shows and commercials for decades, including Gene Autry, the Lone Ranger, Gunga Din, Tremors, Iron Man and dozens more.

I love to search for arches and “windows” at Alabama Hills.  There must be thousands of them since I have seen dozens in the relatively small area I have explored.  On this trip my favorite was Hitching Post Arch, but the most famous is Mobius Arch, which you can see here from a previous visit:

http://www.hisandhersphoto.com/California/hhcaeast_004.htm

It is easy to imagine all sorts of creatures in the odd shapes of the rocks and windows.

Lone Pine is a good place to get information about the Alabama Hills, including maps to movie locations and arches, but it is fun to find an interesting pile of rocks and just explore on your own.

These photos are copyrighted and cannot be used for any purpose without my permission.

Lundy Canyon, California

Lundy Canyon is in the Eastern Sierra region in Mono County, California.  I was there October 6th with Stephen Johnson and Bruce Gregory on our annual fall camping trip, looking for fall color.

The canyon is in a magnificent mountain setting where beaver ponds have been built on Mill Creek in the west end.  The area was named for W. J. Lundy who operated a sawmill that supplied much of the timber for Bodie, which is now a famous ghost town.  The mining town of Lundy was here once, but there is no trace of it now, and a resort is located in its place.

The reflections of the aspens and mountains are magnificent.  The problem is, that fall color in the Eastern Sierra is well publicized on web sites, TV, and blogs, so there are crowds to deal with.  I'm not used to that here in Idaho.  When we drove to a trail head at the end of the dirt road, there were trucks and jeeps parked in every available little space between the trees.

With patience, we could avoid the tourists, and I liked these rippled aspen reflections in another beaver pond.  This image was flipped to provide a base for the scene.

Lundy Lake is in the eastern end of Lundy Canyon.  There was once a small natural lake here, but a dam raised it 37 feet in 1911 for a hydroelectric project.  Today it provides a colorful backdrop for fall photography.

This was an excellent year for fall color in the Eastern Sierra, and especially in Lundy Canyon.  Once again, our camping trip was an unforgettable experience.

Cerro Gordo, California

Cerro Gordo (Fat Hill) is a ghost town now, but once it was so important that it helped transform Los Angeles from a sleepy small town to an important city. Around 1870, nine tons of silver-lead bullion per day was being smelted and transported to Los Angeles for shipment. Cerro Gordo had a population of 4500, so goods to support all these people were sent on the returning 14 mule ore wagons. Los Angeles prospered with all this commercial trade.

Cerro Gordo sits at 8500' elevation, about 5000' above Owens Dry Lake. This photo shows the Yellow Grade Road that climbs the mountain over a very steep gravel road with plenty of switchbacks and dramatic drop-offs. The large building is the American Hotel, and the building to the left is the Crapo house.

When the owners of Cerro Gordo passed away, the ghost town was closed to the public. Recently, a caretaker was placed on site and the town was opened for tours. We were extremely lucky to be given a tour by Jim Phillips and his three-legged dog "Patch". They are on the porch of the American Hotel in this photo.  When we were through exploring, Jim invited us into the old Belshaw House, where he lives, to relax and tell stories.

The American Hotel still has a beautiful old bar inside.  The portrait over the bar is Jody Stewart Patterson.  She and her husband, Mike, owned the town until she died in 2001 and Mike in 2009.

There are mines, old equipment, and artifacts everywhere you look.  This old ore bin and trestle dangle up the hill from the town.  After the silver and lead played out, the population decreased, then zinc mining brought back a few people about the turn of the century.  That lasted about 20 years before Cerro Gordo became a ghost town.

The corrugated steel building may have been a store once, but now it is a museum of sorts.  It is stuffed full of dusty relics found all over the mountain and in the mines.  The building on the right is the Belshaw House, where the smelter operator once lived.

I found her inside the museum.  Could the exotic spirit of Lola be trapped here in the dust and rust?

We revisited Cerro Gordo in 2015.  You can see my post about that visit here:
http://rosswalkerphotos.blogspot.com/2015/06/cerro-gordo-revisited.html

Coso Petroglyphs

I am on my 31st annual camping trip with Bruce Gregory and Stephen Johnson.  The highlight of the trip was a visit to the Coso Petroglyphs, which might be the highest concentration of rock art in the western hemisphere.

This is an extremely unusual petroglyph, apparently showing a confrontation between archers.  The extra toes might be because this was a depiction of an hallucination.

The petroglyphs are located on China Lake Naval Weapons Station near Ridgecrest, California.  The area is NOT open to the general public.

This beautiful panel includes a lot of bighorn sheep, which is the most common object here.  Most images were probably made in the last 2000 years, but some may be as old as 6000 years.

Tours are arranged through the wonderful Maturango Museum in Ridgecrest, California.  If you want to go, check their web site and sign up the first day the tours are announced, or you probably won't get in.

These petroglyphs are on a rock that shows the terrain inside the canyon. The hike is fairly strenuous and includes climbing down two dry waterfalls, very uneven footing, and some deep sand.  Good hiking boots are required.

Human figures (anthropomorphs) are common and spectacular.


Anyone who signs up to see these petroglyphs must have proof of US citizenship, such as a birth certificate or passport.  Everyone will be given a background check before being allowed to enter China Lake Naval Weapons Station.  All cars will be searched thoroughly.  Security will give everyone a half-hour lecture while you are waiting for the security check to be completed.  Cameras and binoculars will not be allowed to be accessible until the petroglyph site is reached.  Museum docents will accompany the group at all times, and they are an excellent source of information.


I recommend a polarizing filter to bring out the images.  The petroglyphs on the right side of the canyon will be visible on the way in, and some on the left side will emerge from the shadows as you walk out.

The petroglyphs here are really special, and the experience is an adventure if you can get in at all.

Rent a locomotive!

One of the highlights of this year's annual camping trip was renting a locomotive for an hour at the Western Pacific Railroad Museum in Portola, California.

The 917-D was built around 1951 or 1952 and has a 16 cylinder engine.  Visitors can rent this engine or a smaller switch engine and run it around a relatively short section of track.

                                                 

Ross Walker ran the locomotive under the watchful eye of Charlie, a museum docent. Photo by Bruce Gregory.

Stephen Johnson was the second engineer.

 Bruce Gregory got the next turn.

This was the view from the cab as the train traveled around the border of the museum property.

The victorious engineers as photographed by Charlie the museum docent.



Forest City, California - Almost a ghost town

Day 3 of our 30th annual camping trip brought us to one of our favorite photography subjects, a ghost town.  This trip typically takes us to places that most people don't go.  We don't look for in-your-face gorgeous well-known places, but rather we go to historic out-of-the-way places that we find personally interesting.  Today it was a semi-ghost town in the northern Sierra foothills called Forest City.  Some of the buildings here are used as summer homes, but the place is largely deserted.

The first thing you see as you enter Forest City from the dirt road is a cemetery.  Many graves here date from the 1880's.

The old dance hall is now an informal museum, open by donation if you can find someone to unlock the door.  The sagging building looks extremely unstable but is still used for community events.

The interior has an eclectic mix of historic items and dusty modern stuff.  It looks like an attempt has been made to shore up the shaky building with a cable stretched across this window.

An uphill climb reveals a wonderful old school building hidden in the trees.  The few people we saw here were friendly and helpful when we showed an interest in their historic town.

30th Annual Camping Trip

I have been camping for 30 years in a row with the same guys; sometimes twice a year.  This has been called the "desert trip" even though we have camped in California, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and Oregon.  Check out the story of the "Desert Rats" here:
http://www.hisandhersphoto.com/friends/hhdrats.htm

This year we are camping in the northern Sierra in California.  This was the first day of exploration and we included Donner Summit, Yuba Gap, Emigrant Gap, and more.

We heard rumors of indian grinding rocks in a remote location near Yuba Gap.  It was difficult to get to, but we did find the grinding rocks.  However, the main attraction for me was the surrounding area.  There were a number of natural patterns like this huge snag behind a lichen spotted rock.





















Another snag had been there awhile and formed a death pattern on the granite.



An un-named marshy pond added color and patterns to the scene.



Reflections of a dead tree made a great subject in the marsh.



I will try to add more photos as the trip continues.