©Bert Gildart:  Last year Janie and I learned from Adam and Susan Maffei, our good friends from Vermont, that on August 21, 2017, the moon will move across the sun to completely eclipse the sun during the course of its 3-1/2 hour journey.

“Make reservations now,” they had encouraged, “and if you do we’ll meet you in Glenrock, Wyoming.  But we’ve got to make plans now. Hotel and campgrounds are already beginning to fill!”

Progression of solar eclipse which lasted for about three hours.

They weren’t exaggerating, and the word was spreading fast.  Six months later, hotels were charging $1000 a night.  But we got by cheap.  For a mere $55 we purchased the right to park our Airstream on a tiny spot of grass at the Platte River Campground in Glenrock, Wyoming.  And all this simply because it was predicted that the moon was going to blot out the sun for several minutes, and that we would be in the perfect path to experience this happening.

Though our small grass site was reserved, nevertheless, we arrived several days before the big event, and of course, we were not alone.  An hour after we arrived, a couple pulled into a site immediately adjacent to us.  He introduced himself as “Chip,” but as the day progressed we learned that “Chip” had a doctor’s degree and that he had been part of the team that placed the Rover on planet Mars!

Like us “Chip” (also known as Philip Good) had also made reservations months ago and he, too, was rendezvousing with a friend, Frank Nadell.  Though Frank worked as a fireman he was so knowledgeable about astronomy that we concluded Nadell qualified for an honorary doctor’s degree.  From them we learned about sun spots, Bailey’s beads, the ring, and the fiery red circle that should inscribe the sun to become the corona.  And so, with newly acquired knowledge we gathered together with the masses of “eclipse chasers” anxious for the event to begin.

Images of eclipse immediately before totality and shortly after.

Finally the morning arrived and the crowd grew silent and remained so until 10:22 at which time the moon began its journey over the sun, taking a bite in the upper right arc of the sun.  Then, the bite grew bigger and then yet bigger.

The improbability of this happening stirred a primordial reaction from the crowd and in sync, everyone began howling like packs of wolves.  But then the crowd grew silent again, content to watch and whisper.  How could two spheres separated by 100 million miles find an alignment that affects Earth’s inhabitants?

Over 1,500 “eclipse chasers” set up camp in Glenrock, Wyoming, for one of the most dramatic solar events of the century. 
Attendees included our friend Adam (broad brim hat) visiting with astronomy enthusiast Frank Nadell;
Janie, back dropped by my 800mm lens; and Philip “Chip” Good
who had been a member of the team responsible for placing the Rover on Mars.

At 11:42 the moon moved to cover the entire face of the sun, turning day into night and did so for almost four minutes. As anticipated birds settled into trees, planets and stars appeared, and temperatures dropped to the point where people dug out their coats and sweaters. To restate the obvious, we were experiencing a total eclipse of the sun.  But the world didn’t end as some doomsayers had predicted.

Frank Nadell and Philip Good demonstrate proper technique for viewing the eclipse;
Frank waving in front of our Airstream; Frank and telescopes.

At 1:09 the moon completed it journey across the face of the sun, which then brighten our world just as it always does, but the event had an impact that I’m still attending to.  Randomness, it seems, punctuates both our world and our universe – and that can be either good or bad, of which I’m not yet sure.  But I do know this was a providential event and that Janie and I were fortunate to see it on a day when the skies were clear, winds had diminished, and that our fellow attendees were gregarious.  And all these happenings occurred at a time when so many unanswered questions remain concerning mankind’s future in the universe.

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Eleven Years Ago At This Time:

Kayaking to the Wreck of the Francisco Morazon

©Bert Gildart: Fifty years ago from yesterday (August 15, 1967), Leonard Landa and I shot the grizzly bear that killed Michele Koons, the fatally mauled young lady at Trout Lake, whom we had found three days earlier.  This then marks the end of the events that have conspired to create so much publicity for those of us involved in the episode now known as “Night of the Grizzlies.”  Approximately 10 different publications have related the story and used images for illustrations. I was particularly flattered two Sunday’s ago when the Great Falls Tribune featured an image of mine that ran horizontally across the entire  front page of the Sunday edition.  The Tribune is one of the state’s largest papers, and the accompanying story filled almost two full pages so extending my 15 minutes of fame to 17.

Most likely the Tribute selected this grizzly bear image as it tells the story not only of the animal’s magnificence but also
of its lethal capabilities. 
I photographed it about three years ago, and it quickly scurried on, as did I.

But now, speaking for myself, I hope this publicity soon winds down, but not before remarking that some good came from the two tragic maulings.  Most specifically David Shea, one of the rangers assigned to shoot the garbage-conditioned bears at Granite Park Chalet, says that prior to 1967 the park had been lax about separating people and bears.  “But not afterward,” emphasizes Shea.  Shea says those events precipitated a new Bear Management policy, and believes that for the most part “the plan has been working.”

Leonard Landa examines the bear that he and
I shot and that proved to be the bear responsible for the fatal mauling of Michele Koons

But Shea is now concerned because hordes of people are descending on Glacier subsequent to last year’s National Park Centennial, and the unprecedented advertisement associated with that event.  “The park,” says Shea, “was not set up to contend with a million visitors each of the park’s four summer months.”  Shea notes that back in 1967 the park averaged about 100,000 visitors throughout the entire year.

Proximity of bears and humans then is the immense problem with which the park must now contend, and if they don’t, the “conditioning” that results from the close proximity of bears and people could very well create two more “killer” bears.

Neither Leonard nor I want to hear that two young rangers have found a young mangled girl whom they must then roll into a body bag.  That’s an indelible memory Leonard and I share; but along with it we wonder that the parents have survived as well as reported.  We both think their grief has been pushed into the background.

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Night of the Grizzly, from a post I created about 10 years ago

Biking the Going-to-the-Sun Road before it opens to vehicular traffic is an excellent way to see Glacier National Park.  But better make the ride just as soon as you can after the plows reach the pass (check the Internet), and that will be soon. A week or so after clearing the snow, the road will then be open for vehicular traffic transforming the area from a place of serenity to one that is so congested that impatient people will be blaring their horns — and parking at Logan Pass will quickly become a virtual impossibility.

Grand Canyon and Zion national parks have each made closures on a few roads, stipulating that during peak season only bikers and shuttle buses can enter.  Something like that may one day be necessary in Glacier to protect the resource.

LtoR: Riding through a tunnel just before approaching the West Side Loop;
Access to Hermit’s Rest in the Grand Canyon is by shuttle and bike only; 
Logan Pass shortly after pass opened last year.

WRITE YOUR REPRESENTATIVE:

Make the ride and then write your representative asking that the middle portions of the Going-to-the-Sun Road be closed permanently to cars. Propose that Glacier follow the example of Zion and the Grand Canyon, which allow access to certain areas only by shuttle — and by bike. Last summer by 10 in the morning all parking had been taken at Logan Pass. Closure to vehicles might also eliminate visitors with shitty attitudes. The aged can still drive in these restricted areas, and so can the handicapped if they have a driver.

Here’s a repeat of a posting I made on Facebook serveral years ago that highlights the pleasure of BIKING TO LOGAN PASS. There could not have been a more perfect day for my daughter and son-in-law to make the 32-mile round-trip bike ride from the parking lot at Avalanche Campground to Logan Pass, an elevation gain of over 3,000 feet. At this time of year, the road is open for bicycle riders and emergency vehicles only.

In June waters cascade down the most
appropriately named “Weeping Wall.”

Though it was cool when we departed we quickly shed our windbreakers, then progressed along McDonald Creek. Almost immediately the Going-to-the-Sun Road began to climb, passing first through a tunnel, then to the West Side Loop where we took a few photos back dropped by majestic Heaven’s Peak, which I once climbed.

From the Loop our ride passed dozens of water falls and the climb was demanding. We stopped at Bird Woman Overlook where we had lunch, then rested, we continued up to Weeping Falls, which at this time of year was absolutely gushing with snowmelt.

An hour later I rode into the snow-cleared parking lot at Logan Pass. Leaning my bike against a towering snow bank I spent an hour or more photographing the incredible fields of snow still remaining. The Logan Pass Visitor Center was literally covered with snow and was certainly not yet ready to greet the summer hordes.

Angie and Will Friedner pause en-route to Logan Pass, backdropped by
Bird Woman Falls;
Return form Logan Pass for a total of abut 32 miles,
which makes for a day of fun and health-filled activities

Though it took me several hours to ascend to Logan Pass, from there it was all downhill, which I enjoyed — coasting along at about 30 mph. That seemed like a sane speed, but apparently not everyone agreed. On the way up we’d almost collided with some downhill riders who must have been cruising at dangerous speeds, perhaps 45mph.

And that may account for the day’s sad experience.  As Will and Angie approached the West Side Loop they encountered a small group gathered around a lady who had either crashed or been hit by as an out-of-control rider. Blood covered the road where she was laying and she was immobile.  Park ranger responded quickly. An emergency helicopter soon flew in and took her to the hospital. We have no idea what the outcome might have been.

BEST WAY TO EXPERIENCE THE PARK:

Certainly that was a very unfortunate incident, but other than that our day was glorious, and later, WE AGREED THAT BIKING IS THE BEST WAY TO EXPERIENCE THE PARK. By July, hordes of visitors have massed, and when that happens, numbers are so OVERWHELMING that in recent years parking spaces at Logan Pass are completely taken.  That’s when competition for parking gets mighty nasty.

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OTHER BIKING EXPERIENCES ON NATIONAL AND STATE LANDS:

Anza Borrego

Learning from Biking

©Bert Gildart: Yesterday (3-8-17),  photographer friend/Airstream owner Bill D and I hiked Moonlight Canyon Trail searching in part for the elusive Ghost Flower, a species that derives its name from the ghostly translucency of its flowers. Certainly, that’s appropriate, but Bill and I concluded the plant could also be named because it is so ephemeral.  “Here today, gone tomorrow,” is the way Bill expressed the condition, adding, “like a ghost.”  And that seems apt, for over the years Janie and I have visited Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, we’ve only seen but one example of this beautiful white flower.

But Bill and I lucked out, and during our hike we found a number of small clumps, and then, later, as we researched the species, discovered it has some characteristics that make Mohavea confertiflora unique.

Bill and I return to Moonlight Canyon, near Aqua Caliente. 
An excellent area in which to see bighorn sheep and to find the elusive Ghost Flower.

NO NECTAR

Mohavea confertiflora flowers March to April, and what is unique to the species is that it does not produce nectar.  Instead, the internet tells us [the species] “has adapted a morphology resembling the flower Mentzelia involucrata, which often grows in the same habitat. Mentzelia involucrata produces nectar to attract female bees of the genus Xeralictus.”

The explanation further says that our ghost flower attracts the same pollinators to its flowers through floral mimicry (an evolved act in which a species derives a benefit by mimicking some feature found in another species):  In this case the Mohavea flowers contain marks that resemble female Xeralictus; these marks operate as a sign stimulus to the male bee, which enters the flower and in doing so pollinates the Mohavea.”

These facts piqued our interest and we worked hard to capture the blood-red marks (located deep in the “bowl”) of the plant.

Note the blood-red splotch in the bowl
of these ghost flowers, another feature that makes them unique.

FIGWORT FAMILY

Because the species has some unique features that it shares with snapdragons and penstemons, the ghost flower is placed with them in the figwort family (Scrophulariaceae). But its appearance is decidedly different and can be recognized by the long, hairy, light-green leaves that are elliptical to lanceolate.  Plants we saw stood about 4 inches long.

We saw a number of plants on our hike through this beautiful canyon accessed from Agua Caliente, but had spent so much time photographing Ghost Flowers we figured we could dally no further, for Larry and my wife Janie were waiting for us so we could all to sit down beside Bill and Larry’s Airstream and enjoy the scrumptious mid-day dinner Larry had prepared.

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OTHER FLOWER POSTS:

Photographing Cacti — In Macro Mode

Strobes, Great for Photographing Flowers in Windy Weather

THIS TIME LAST YEAR:

Organ Pipe Water Issues

One of my loop routes, a 26 mile road along the base of the Swan Mountains,

©Bert Gildart: Because of the social nature of FACEBOOK, I generate many more quick responses and “Likes” using that form of social media then I do by posting blogs.

As a result, I sometimes overlook the people who say, “Sorry, we want to know what you’re doing, but we don’t want to deal with another  program.   As an attempt to share I’m going to start summarizing some of my Facebook postings on my blog.  By so doing, I hope to make my blog postings more than just a hit or miss project.

As a result you’ll see two postings here, one on biking, the other about photography and magazine submissions.

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YESTERDAY I BIKED  26.4 MILES along a series of secondary roads that departed from our drive. Locals will recognize the route as consisting of Riverside Road, Fishhatchery Road, Foothills Road and finally, LaBrant. For the most part it is an agrarian setting and signs along the way told of the price of a dozen fresh farm eggs ($2.75); of dirt roads to Jewel Basin Hiking area; and, naturally — in this area — of how best to prepare for life in the hereafter.

As I ride I monitor activities with a top-of-the-line Garmin, which was a birthday gift from my lovely wife. Information is thorough and includes standard data such as rate of travel, average speed and both heart and cadence rate. When home all this information can be downloaded onto my cell phone or onto my computer. I can also examine my route in the form of a map.

For any interesting in the map, and the information just mentioned, here’s a link.  Generally I find it takes about 20 seconds for the data to load.

I find the program helpful as I chart attempts to improve overall conditioning — and later, to look back on a very interesting bike adventure.

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1271194635

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AND NOW MY ENTRY ON THE SUBMISSION OF IMAGES FOR AIRSTREAM LIFE: Just completed a story for Airstream Life magazine, a periodical that appeals to a travel-oriented audience. Most readers are highly adventurous and many are interested in nature photography. Obviously most tow an Airstream.

The magazine is “slick” meaning my images are reproduced with great fidelity

The magazine started about 12 years ago and I’ve sold to every issue since its inception. Images accompany my stories and are sometimes related to the season, in this case to fall travel here in the West. Over the years I’ve covered areas from all of the Canadian provinces and from areas embraced by all four corners of the U.S. Generally our trips are also made for other magazines as well.

Note the belligerence in the eye of the moose, now in rut and potentially a very dangerous and aggressive animal.  Not so the cow moose, simply interested in plucking vegetation from the bottom of this pond.  Photo by Bill Mullins, one of the nation’s top nature photographers.

©Bert Gildart: Though not as beautiful as are many of the other species now attracted by our feeders, nevertheless, the bland-appearing cowbird is a species of great fascination, essentially because of a habit it developed from a long ago association with a most formidable  mammal.

BUT FIRST THE HABIT:

Cowbirds do not build nests, rather they parasitize the nests of others, and prolonged studies reveal cowbirds will lay eggs in the nests of at least 220 unsuspecting species. Further studies show that over 140 species of surrogate “parents” have raised young cowbirds.

So how did cowbirds pull off a trick like this? They accomplished the feat long ago learning from an association with the countless number of bison that pounded across the prairie. In those long ago times bison made annual peregrinations across the Great Plains of North America, and those herds numbered in the millions. As they migrated they stirred up insects and these bugs became an easy food source for any species that chanced to be in the area.

Parasitic cowbird, whose habits
acquired from association with herds of bison

COWBIRDS MOVED WITH THE BISON

Cowbirds were present,  but a problem existed for bison didn’t stay long in the same area. Rather, they moved, and when they did move, cowbirds lost access to their easy food source. The solution? To eat, cowbirds had to move with the bison but that meant they couldn’t build nests. Further, that meant that any eggs they did lay would be abandoned.

The solution was to parasitize the nests of other birds, leaving incubation and the feeding of young to all the hawks, finches, robins, warblers, and crossbills — birds who relied on other foods. Certainly not all these other species adopted the mottled eggs that cowbirds laid, but most were oblivious, meaning that populations of cowbirds thrived.

Today, cowbirds still eat easy-to-gather insects because cattle stir the bugs just like bison did a century ago. And, so, today, even though the vast herds have been killed off, cowbirds continued with the parasitic trait they learned so many years ago.

Bison, insects and cowbirds all go together.  Once millions of  bison
stampeded across the prairies, and thankfully,
we still have a few remnant herds.  Bison skull, Badlands, N. Dakota is symbolic of vanquished herds.

BISON & BIRD:

Fascinating, and I thought the information so exciting that I wanted to pass it on. Of course, I would not have been able to offer this information if a cowbird had not landed on my feeder, prompting me to grab for my field guide and confirm identification. But then I noticed that the guide offered an extensive discussion about the relationship with bison and bird, which I believed interesting.

Hope you do too.

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THIS TIME NINE YEARS AGO:

Learning to Roll a Kayak

©Bert Gildart: Montana’s Flathead Valley has a huge population of osprey, and right now they are in the process of building nests. Mostly we see them on the top of telephone poles, but every now and then friends tell me of a nest they’ve found. Generally, they’ve discovered a pair nesting in a tree somewhere along Flathead Lake, which was the case with this one shown here.

Last year biologists counted 21 osprey nests, but discovered that only 18 were active.  Observations with spotting scopes further revealed there were a total of 33 nestlings, 29 of which successfully fledged.

Usually osprey will remain in the Flathead through late September or early October, at which time they return to wintering areas, which include southern Texas and Mexico.  Osprey are a magnificent species and we’re delighted so many have selected the Flathead as their summer home.

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Four Years Ago:  A Most Pleasant Day With Rattlesnakes

©Bert Gildart: Several  days ago, I rode my bike by an area of Anza Borrego Desert State Park in which Hedge Hog Cacti were blooming in profusion. Next morning Janie and I drove by the same area and could not find a single Hedge Hog in bloom. I know that flowers of the species close at night, but apparently they remain closed when clouds are heavy and winds are blowing.

Hedge Hog is an interesting species for other reasons as well, specifically for the adaptations it has made to harsh desert conditions. In college, botany fascinated me and I took a number of courses on the subject as electives. Over the years I’ve used the information and hope others might enjoy hearing it here. Information about desert flowers is currently manifest because so many cacti are now in bloom.

©Bert Gildart: Between wind-swept Dante’s View and the torrid salt flats dramatized by the Devil’s Golf course – located thousands of feet below — Death Valley supports over 1000 species of plants. Realizing that the area in between consists of materials such as iron, aluminum, titanium, hematite and some green chlorite, the tally really should be impressive.

Badwater, as seen from Dante’s View. 
In between these two extreme landscapes, the terrain hosts about 1,000 different species of plants.

What’s more, weather is not always conducive to plant growth, a condition that can overlap, for several days ago we struggled for balance as I created the two panoramic images included here. Wind was howling at the Devil’s Golf Course, and a storm was already blowing hard. Off in the distance, Janie and I could see huge clouds of sand swirling about 30 miles in the distance near Stove Pipe Wells. It did not seem like a good day for flowers, nevertheless, right now you cannot travel far in this desert park without seeing huge fields of flowers, and their radiance and breadth draws gasps!

That’s not snow, it’s salt…  And it represents the harsh conditions in which Death Valley plants have evolved. 
Look closely and you’ll see our truck, here a blue dot.  Panoramas create much altered perspectives as in this case. 
Actually, I’m about 50 feet away from the truck, but then this is a 180 degree sweep.

©Bert Gildart: In the Sonoran desert, characterized in part by Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, everything seems to revolve around water, and generally, from the scarcity of it.

For the past few days as we’ve been hiking and biking the area, that fact has been driven home. Several days ago, we hiked to Red Tanks Tinaja, a formation that is configured to collect water, something it apparently does well, for the damp sands were stippled with the tracks of ungulates, perhaps peccaries or the endangered Sonoran antelope.

But more prominently it was impossible to escape the struggling beauty of saguaros embraced as they were by the limbs of the verdant palo verde. At the trailhead to the Red Tanks Tinaja, Park Service interpretive panels explained that saguaros have been here for almost 10,000 years. To survive, the panel explains that the seeds creating these trees thrive only when they chance to fall in the presence of a nurse plant such as the palo verde. In their embrace saguaros generally survive, for the thick-leaved plant can offer much-needed shade and sometimes, too, shelter from harsh rains. As well, the palo verde can hide its then-tiny charge from being seen and then eaten.”

©Bert Gildart: Yesterday, for the month of November, the Northwest Outdoor Writer’s Association newsletter included my image of the Chief Joseph Battlefield.  In the past, the image has been used in a number of publications to include my book, MONTANA ICONS.

I think the image addresses several issues. With the North Star positioned at the top of the teepee poles (for other stars to circle around it), I hope the image suggests that after Chief Joseph’s desperate and near-successful struggle to escape the confinement of reservation life, the spirit of this famous Indian chief remains free.

Tragically, this is the only place he might be free, for the U.S. government did not live up to any promises they made to him.

Joseph outmaneuvered the Army for several thousand miles, and though their numbers were few and the opposing forces many, Joseph proved himself to be a superior general.  Sadly, he was stopped just short of Canada, his destination, where he was hoping to join Chief Sitting Bull.  But the telegraph defeated him, bringing in General Miles at the Bear Paw Mountains. Sitting Bull, of course, had just defeated Custer, a man who graduated at the very bottom of his class at West Point.

The image also tells a story of Night Skies and asks a question, tacit though it may be.  How many places are left in the world where light pollution allows such clarity?

The answer is:  Few, very few!

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LAST YEAR AT THIS TIME:

West Point, Where Our Parents Now Rest

©Bert Gildart:With very little connectivity in Shenandoah NP, creating posts has been difficult.  Nevertheless, I was almost overwhelmed by some of the photo opportunities that presented themselves, particularly ones of deer and bears.

Let’s start with bears, and the images that follow were afforded while traveling south along the Skyline Drive, just past Timber Hollow Overlook.  I arrived shortly after Momma Bear had ushered Baby Bear high into a tree. Momma Bear then shinnied the tree herself and assumed a guard position on a limb about 20 feet above the ground. She didn’t seem to object to her situation until someone driving an unmufflered vehicle screeched to a stop and then began running around with a cell phone camera.

Here are some images of Momma Bear showing some of the aggressive poses she assumed as more people stopped and began moving in toward the base of her tree. I must note that I was way back with a 600mm telephoto lens. I think the lens provides an acceptable working distance.

FAWNING SEASON:

The other great opportunity occurred early one morning as I wandered one of the park’s meadow area.  In Shenandoah National Park, May and early June are the times in which fawns enter the world. Their arrival creates lots of stories and most bring a smile to the face of the listener.

For instance, about a week ago a doe tucked her new born into some tall grass near our camper. First, however, she licked it and then licked it some more — the goal to remove every bit of scent from the body of its young. Then she went off and left it for several hours as she browsed the surrounding woodland and grassland for food.

Normally, that’s a safe practice, but one doe was not so lucky. While gone, a hungry bear found the fawn and the rest of the story is not such a happy one — at least for the doe. The incident happened just before I arrived.

But, generally, hiding the new born works; it gives the mother a chance to regroup and the young a chance to acquire its footing. Then, several days later when fawns can move around, they join their mothers and begin learning about the huge world they’ve just entered.

That’s when most of my images were taken and, I must say, the interaction of doe and fawns sure brought happiness to my life. It’s wonderful that Shenandoah preserves such a magnificent slice of nature. These stories are accessible for most anyone willing to rise early and do a bit of searching.

We’re now on our way north mostly to visit family.  Because most work, we’ll have lots of spare time to complete work on our book Hiking Shenandoah.  Point of fact, the book does more than just outline hiking routes; it also details the natural history and history that hiking in this magnificent park affords.  Release next year will mark the books fifth update.

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THIS TIME LAST YEAR:

Miles City Bucking Horse Sale

©Bert Gildart: As promised (at least on my Facebook account), we’re posting images of the magnificent wildflowers that  winter rains seemed to assure.  It’s a sudden transition, but it’s happening right now.

Just outside the campground proper, a number of flowers have reared their heads.  Along the Perimeter Trail, we’ve seen  Buckhorn Cholla, Hibiscus, and the Brittle Brush.

L to R: Brittlebrush, Buckhorn Cholla, Hibiscus

Sadly, some of this beauty has been off limits to visitors until this past September when it was finally deemed safe to open. Because of the vast amount of drug — and just plain human — traffic passing through this exact same area, over 60 percent of the park was closed in 2003. During those 11 years vegetation was trampled and the endangered pronghorn was inhibited from expanding its range.

Park officials recognized the travesty and found funding was now available to bring in the manpower necessary to control this flow.  Last year funds became available and the Border Control was increased from about 50 officers to 500. As a result, the entire park has reopened, and nature has responded to the enforcement that followed and already nature seems to be reclaiming itself.  Just a few days ago one of the volunteer park interpreters spotted the rare Sonoran antelope in the area Janie and I hiked — the Red Tanks Tinaja.

L to R: Red Tanks Tinaja, Desert Gold, Globemallow, backdropped by Senita Tree

And two days ago, though signs are posted everywhere asking that you “Please Let It Grow,” vegetation has grown — at least in some places.  Yellow flowers (the Desert Gold), are now sweeping across the sands that characterize La Abra Plain, the region flanking the South Puerto Drive. From the same region the orange flower (Apricot Globemallow,) has reared its head and, here it is backed by the Senita Tree.

Truly, this is a magnificent area and there is little wonder that Organ Pipe National Desert was designated an International Biosphere Preserve, meaning that it is unique in the word.

We’re delighted to be here.

THIS TIME LAST YEAR:

Organ Pipe Test Opening

©Bert Gildart:  Three years ago Janie and I hiked the Alamo Canyon Trail in Organ Pipe National Monument – and it was here that we encountered a group of illegal Mexicans stealing along the stream bed.  They were carrying large backpacks highly suggestive of drug smuggling, and the experience was unsettling.  Silently, they glared at us and we glanced back.  Turning, they clamored out of the boulder-strewn stream bed and clawed their way onto the far bank.  Then they disappeared into the brush.  We scurried back to our truck, and then as park instructions requested, we reported the incident to park headquarters.

The experience was, in fact, alarming, and so disconcerting that we have never returned to Alamo Canyon.  But the beauty of the canyon remained fixed in our memories, and because it has been haunting us, and because of increased security measures to help insure visitor piece of mind, yesterday, we returned.

Alamo Canyon is, in fact, a splendid area, lush with both organ pipe and Saguaro, which you see immediately as you hit the trail.  They flank the path and frame the Ajo Mountain Range, whose jagged ridge juts into the blue desert sky.

A stream parallels the trail and because of recent rains it was trickling, creating condition reminiscent of the features that apparently attracted, Bill and Birdie Miller who homesteaded here in the early 1900’s.  Initially, they build an adobe home, but in the 1920’s the couple replaced it with a brick structure that still stands today.

Certainly the availability of water attracted the area’s early homesteaders, but perhaps it was also the beauty of
Alamo Canyon that so characterizes this gem of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. 

About 100 yards past the old brick home, we found a set of corrals and at this point we ran across park volunteer Lee Campbell.  Ironically, we had attended his digital slide show only the night before.  He said the corrals were constructed in the early 1930s.  He also said that Bill Miller left his wife Birdie and that she managed the cattle all alone.  Eventually, however, she sold everything off to the Grey family, whose ranching efforts we had explored several days earlier.

Janie examines the old corral built in the 1920 by Bill and Birdie Miller

For us, Alamo Canyon now stands out as a gem in the Sonoran Desert, offering what we believe are some of the monument’s best and most intriguing groupings of saguaro and organ pipe.  But equally as important, we believe that when we think Alamo Canyon it will be yesterday’s adventure we think of first, rather than of our encounter in January  of 2012 with a band of illegal aliens,who may have been transporting drugs.

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ORGAN PIPE ADVENTURE FROM 2012

Illegal Aliens, Our Encounter was Unnerving

©Bert Gildart:  Out of concern for visitor safety, much of Organ Pipe National Monument has been closed for about 12 years. (See link to my posting about the murder of Ranger Kris Eggle.) But in February of 2014 the park service brought in Superintendent Brent Range and instructed him to apply his background in law enforcement and try to reopen closed areas.

L to R:  Pleats of the Senita are more boxy and project fewer spines; Janie hiking through Senita Basin; Senita “tree.”

INCREASED VISITOR SAFETY

For starters Superintendent Range increased the ranger staff from about seven permanent rangers to about 20, increased the border patrol from about 100 to about 300, and installed better surveillance equipment. Though we suspect there is more to come, Range opened all closed park areas in September 2014.

For increased visitor enjoyment, the “new” park also began offering van shuttles to wonderful hiking areas, such as the Senita Basin. Our van was full and following an hour drive along a rugged backcountry road to a trailhead, Janie and I struck out on a five mile hike.

The hike enabled us to familiarize ourselves with a most interesting member of the cactus family, the senita. Though the organ pipe is sensitive to cold, senita is even more so, and this monument represents the specie’s most northern extension from Mexico. To cope with the cold the tops of senita are covered with hair-like structures. Structurally, the pleats are more “boxy” in appearance and are more widely separated.

L to R:  To prevent drug runners from plowing across international border in their vehicles, park has erected steel fences.  Road and trail to Quitobaquito are now open and no longer require an ARMED ESCORT, which we joined several years ago.  You’ll still see black water bottles , but they (hopefully) are “artifacts” of a hard core drug era rather than reflective of the times.   But note, as the park service certainly points out, illegal crossings still occur.

We plan to remain in Organ Pipe for at least another week and will be posting more images about this forgotten park. Once it had the reputation of being the nation’s most dangerous park, but we believe that designation is now changing.

Here are a few images of our hike, the senita and “artifacts” from along the road.   You’ll be seeing more posts from Organ Pipe.

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Organ Pipe Recollections From Many Visits Over the Years:  Airstream Camper Tips from Organ Pipe, and Organ Pipe’s World Class Cactus Forest

©Bert Gildart:  Though I try to be laid back and unobtrusive as a photographer it’s hard to completely avoid scrutiny during Death Valley’s annual ‘49ers celebration where most everyone who congregates is hoping to hold the past together.  The period of time they’ve been celebrating for 65 years in this huge desert park is exciting, and part of that history includes the recollections of a gallant struggle for life.  It was a struggle that today forms the foundation for Death Valley’s exciting history, and the celebratory atmosphere of the thousands assembled this past week commemorates that idea.

Today's celebrants follow same route used by gold seekers in1849

So it was not a big surprise when one of those celebrants hurried over to me and motioned for me to follow.  “There’s a man right over here you’ll want to meet,” said the celebrant  with a wave.  “He’s the great, great grandson of one of the original Jayhawkers. Meet,” he said moment later, “Don Christiansen.”

CAPTAIN DOTY:

Don is in fact a third generation descendent of Captain Edward Doty, and significantly from my point of view, Mr. Christiansen seems to have learned all he can about his historic ancestor.

Briefly, for the purposes of this short entry, Doty is remembered as the man who became captain of the Jayhawkers when Asa Haynes became too weak to lead. Doty assumed leadership near Death Valley, where heat, lack of water, and endless expanses of salt created hardships from which several never recovered.

The group that history now refers to as the Jayhawkers originated in Galesburg, Illinois.  There, a nucleus group of young men departed for the recently discovered California gold fields.  As they traveled, others joined, and because of the number of jaybirds and hawks they saw along the Platte River, the group soon took the name “Jayhawkers.”

PLACES OF BEAUTY?

Life was not easy as they traveled and along the way many in the group had to divest themselves of treasured items because of weight.  Then, just north of Death Valley, they had to burn wagons and kill oxen for food.  Bad enough, but when they reached what we today call Death Valley, hardships multiplies.  Many of the places that we look upon today as places of beauty and intrigue proved life threatening to the Jayhawkers.  Some of those places include Zabriskie Point, Furnace Creek Wash, the Devil’s Golf Course, Salt Creek…, and, finally, Emigrant Pass.

L to R:  Image one (Zabriskie Point) and two show terrain those traveling to California gold fields had to endure.  Image three is of Don and Lucye Christiansen.  Don is great, great grandson of Capt.  Edward Doty, one of a group of 49ers that traveled to the California gold fields.

Today, the 49ers celebrate those places and areas of hardships endured by the 49ers, and in the case of Don Christiansen – by his great, great grandfather.  I’ll be learning some of the specifics when Mr. Christiansen and I visit for further dialog.  In the meantime, it is significant to remember that the celebratory atmosphere exhibited by several thousand these past five days is intended to hold together an exciting part of our American history.

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THIS TIME TWO YEARS AGO:

Indian Hills

©Bert Gildart: For a while we had dozens of Pine Siskins showing up at our feeder most every day.  Now, about the only consistent species attracted to our feeder is a family of Grosbeaks.  This morning the lighting conditions were fairly good, so I couldn’t resist the temptation to improve my Grosbeak files.

My stock photo files number in the hundreds of thousands, and we makes sales monthly to a number of outlets.  Such work has kept me busy for over 40 years, and I plan to continue for as long as I can depress a shutter.  Rewards have been many, and as usual, we have plans for some extensive trips starting this fall.

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THIS TIME LAST YEAR:

America the Beautiful.  But You Cannot See it Because it is Shut Down

http://gildartphoto.com/weblog/2013/10/06/america-the-beautiful-but-you-cannot-see-it-its-shut-down

©Bert Gildart: We were absolutely amazed late yesterday afternoon when a rather large raccoon shinnied up the Douglas fir tree that leads to our porch — and sometimes to our bird feeder.

It was broad daylight, the TV news was blaring through the screen door, and we had just taken down the feeder because we know that at night, if we leave it out, our friendly masked bandit will pounce at the opportunity and possibly do irreparable damage.

Raccoon at our feeder in broad daylight

We watched the coon for a few minutes as it searched the porch, then tapped against the window. Casually, it looked up, munched a few of the seeds finches, chickadees and grosbeaks had spilled onto the deck, and then slowed padded off.

So now we know our raccoon is still lurking around, and if we leave for the day, we need to bring the feeder inside.

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THIS TIME LAST YEAR:

*Biking to Glacier’s Logan Pass

©Bert Gildart: Heading home now to Bigfork, Montana, but we left much undone from this trip into the Southwest and expect we’ll soon return.  We have to!

Lake Meade is experiencing low water levels, and that could make for some fascinating excursions.   When Hoover Dam was constructed water levels rose and covered a vast area to include the abandoned St. Thomas settlement.  But the severe drought of the past couple years has reduced water levels on Lake Meade leaving many areas exposed for the first time in years.   Once the town was flooded higher than 60 feet above the tallest structure.  We’ve been told it’s eerie now — a visit to a real life ghost town.

Lone figure helps inspire inspiration from The Wave

Of course, we’ll want to see more of Valley of Fire, one of the most remarkable parks we’ve recently visited.  Though the park is not huge, we didn’t get a chance to see all we wanted, primarily because we spent so much time at the geologically fascinating area called The Wave.  I think the lone hiker in my associated photo peering down onto the chasm supports our thinking.  He’s shown here spreading his arms attempting through a body gesture to understand all that spreads before him.  His expression remains motivational, but so was that of a very elderly gentleman whom we met later.  He was stumbling along with a pair of walking sticks and told us he’d been coming here every year for decades.

“It’s inspiring you know.  And I learn so much.”

Same holds true for us.

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AIRSTREAM TRAVELS THIS TIME LAST YEAR:

*San Diego Wildlife