Clik here to view.
Black Cottonwood Wildcraft
A dribble of resin oozing from the leaf bud of a black cottonwood tree (Populus trichocarpa) growing along the Santa Ynez River. Black cottonwood buds may hold the finest natural fragrance found in the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sitiptip Flat, Los Padres National Forest
The place. Note the white mineral deposit on its far side. “Our history is carried by word of mouth, but it’s anchored to the land. The old boys used to play a game: one of them would leave his cap on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sage Hill Wildflowers
California poppies on Grass Mountain, Zaca Ridge, Figueroa Mountain 3-26-2016 Around these here parts, in a mild climate with little to no snow, the wildflower blooms mark one of the few striking...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Arlington, Cathedral, La Cumbre Peaks Scramble & More
The stairway to Arlington climbing out of Mission Canyon. “Genji climbed the hill behind the temple and looked off toward the city. The forests receded into a spring haze. ‘Like a painting,’ he said....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Mastodon & Mammoth Sign: Reading Trees in the Santa Ynez Mountains
Santa Ynez Mountains “Elephants’ habit of snapping or uprooting trees could explain why species such as oak, ash, beech, lime, sycamore, field maple, sweet chestnut, hazel, alder and willow can regrow...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Matías Reyes, Santa Barbara Mission (1887)
“Old Matías Reyes lived in Mission Cañon. He used to bring wood to town and sell it.” —Santa Barbara: Tierra Adorada, A Community History (1930) In her book, “Canyon Voices: The Nature of Rattlesnake...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bear Trail Don’t Burn
Two bear footprints worn through dried leaves to the soil beneath in an area burned by the Sherpa Fire along the Gaviota Coast. This print pattern, more distinct in some places than others, continues...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘Akaka Falls, Hawaii & Cliff Climbing Goby
‘Akaka Falls on Kolekole Stream on the Big Island of Hawaii plunges 442 feet. ‘Akaka Falls may be one of the most remarkable waterfalls in the world. Not because of its impressive height nor natural...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Wander In Hawaii Turns Up Ancient Rock Shelters
The dry wash described below lets out into this small cove on the lee side of the point. “Where you off to?” she asked. “I saw a big crack in the Earth just down the road that looks like it needs to be...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Great Interval of Silence, Chumash Wilderness
Boilin’ the billy. “Great intervals of silence are evidently conducive to our well-being. A meditative stillness, suggests Gary Snyder, was invented by waiting hunters. Perhaps this reflected the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Scotland, Shifting Baseline Syndrome & Your Local Wilderness
Glen Sannox as seen from Cir Mor Saddle, Isle of Arran, Scotland. Such scenic sweeping grassland is not natural, but in fact the result of human agency. “The British Isles, a Roman outpost located at...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Mighty Chia Seed, Cuyama Badlands
The Cuyama Badlands can be a wicked and terrible place for a human on foot with minimal supplies. Heaved aloft, scorched and desiccated, it’s a land clawed open and washed away by spotty cloudbursts...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Chumash Rock Art, Santa Barbara County
These Chumash paintings show little wear from the elements over the last several decades. They are presented here without alteration, but for a slight intensification of the existing natural color....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tarantula Mating Season, Santa Barbara County
No photos on this blog have ever been staged, but in the interest of honesty I’d like to note that this tarantula, found walking a few yards away, was placed atop this branch in order to allow a better...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Gaviota Coast Galavants: The Wildest Wilderness
“The ocean is an unbelievably vast wilderness.” –Steven Callahan, “Adrift: Seventy-six Days Lost at Sea” The 76-mile long Gaviota Coast is the wildest wilderness in Santa Barbara County. According to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Gaviota Coast Galavants: Chumash Arrowhead
August 2016 “The reverence attached to the artifacts of history is a thing men feel. One could even say that what endows any thing with significance is solely the history in which it has participated.”...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Gaviota Coast Gallavants: Then Came the Fox
June 2016 I take the kids to the zoo. It’s not a place I can appreciate any longer, but granny bought us a family membership. So we go. The kids scamper through the prison camp, er, zoological garden...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Condor Petroglyphs, Death Valley National Park
Two men, a valley, and ten thousand foot peaks. “Who heard the Desert whispering? The gray prospector, hope-wandering that land of vacant sadness, saw through his burning thirst, where from far...
View ArticleClik here to view.
San Ysidro Tank
Total rainfall county-wide for Santa Barbara measures in at 125% of normal so far this season. The San Marcos Pass gauge has recorded more rain during the first half of this season alone than during...
View ArticleClik here to view.