Majestic Sierras -- "The Range of Light

Alabama Hills 1, California

The best thing about any road trip, travel, or adventure is the anticipation of what might lie around the next bend. Broad glacial etched valleys, magnificent forests, rushing rivers, towering peaks… endless skies? And sometimes it is not your first time around that curve, but the anticipation is there anyway. Memories of times and travel long ago, visions from the past that will never leave your mind, or just beautiful scenes that you have longed to see, to breathe in, one more time. Beauty, new and old, expected, and total mesmerizing surprise --that is what every journey offers!

Sunlite Pool, Upper Kern River. California

All of this was in my mind as my wife Stephanie and I left California’s Lost Coast and turned east away from the Pacific, heading inland and upwards to follow the  Sierra Nevada Range south. While I’ve been to the state many times, it has been too long since I’ve been able to take my time and really explore.

Kern River Reflection. California.

Decades ago, and very early in my river conservation career, I found myself sitting in the foothills and fields beside the Pit River. I was waiting to meet partners and volunteers who would work with me to improve conditions on that river. That snowballed into the creation of  a broad coalition of river and environmental interests, and provided numerous trips and time to explore and work on other California rivers such as the Feather, American, Tuolumne, and the Kern.

Greater Yellowlegs!

One of my absolute favorite places from that time was the small community of Kernville. The Kern Valley is one of the world’s longest glacier-sculpted valleys and is nestled deep in the southern Sierra mountains (often referred to as the Range of Light). In the center of this valley, the North Fork of the Wild & Scenic Kern River begins high up at over 13,000 feet in Sequoia National Park. Its course leads it downstream through the Inyo and Sequoia National Forests and the Golden Trout Wilderness (and through Kernville) for approximately one-hundred and sixty-five miles.

Alabama Hills 2

Anticipation began as soon as I planned to go back, but it really hit fever pitch when I started up Highway 178 beside the lower Kern and among towering cliffs and house and building sized granite boulders (granitic knobs called Kernbuts and depressions named Kerncols). I wondered if Kernville would be the same?  Would some of my colleagues and friends still live there? If so, would they remember me? Would visiting again reinstate and validate all of my wonderful recollections of this special location?

Upper Kern River Reflection! California.

As I remembered it, Kernville was a wonderfully tiny and eclectic community and home to a tightknit and passionate group of whitewater paddlers and river conservationists. To my surprise, Kernville remains pretty much as I recalled.

Clouds & Sunset! Alabama Hills, California.

Since I hadn’t been back for nearly thirty years, driving up the river was for me a kind of personal Brigadoon. Names of  river sections  like the Cadillacs of the Kern, Johnsondale, and the Forks of the Kern (upper headwaters) came rushing back. Upper Kern rapids like Bombs-Away and Squashed Paddler had memories of people and river studies leaping to the forefront of my sight and mind. Best of all, several of my old friends still lived there. It may not have specifically been a “heather-on-the-hills” moment but a few phone calls led to several pleasant afternoons of re-living the past. Such verification of your friendships and past is a rare treat.

Eastern Sierra Nevada Sky! Alabama Hills, California

Visiting Kernville had logistical benefits as well as the eastern Walker Pass provided a relatively low and snow-free route across the mountains. We had the opportunity to join a good friend in Death Valley (another favorite and often-visited location for me) and the pass led us directly towards that location. Along the way, we cruised the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and those towering peaks I referenced earlier. The clouds were awesome (wonderful clouds and skyscapes seemingly followed us on our entire trip) and you could actually see the Pacific storms buffeting off the range, keeping snow off our location and creating phenomenal skies and sunsets.

Eastern Sierra Sunset. Alabama Hills, California.

High above us, the Sierras were getting hammered with snow. But on the eastern side, it was cold but sunny and clear. Just perfect! We stopped and boondocked at Alabama Hills National Scenic Area near Lone Pine, California, a place so unique and stunning that it is hard to describe with boulders, dozens of natural arches, climbing faces --- and a background (the Sierras) that is just unworldly.  As you can imagine, the views were awesome … but the night skies were something else as stars, galaxies and constellations  slowly rotated above you.

"Range of Light" Alabama Hills, California.

Tomorrow, death valley and a rendezvous with our friend as we leave the mountains and head for the desert.

Endnotes:

There is so much going on today that is both terrible and unimaginable. It gets worse every day! I try not to dwell on this in my Northwest Rivers Photography postings simply because that is not why I write. I want to get people to understand just how great nature can be and share photos that make that point. But now, those natural areas are increasingly under attack, from impacts to clean air and water, to logging in our national forests, to the opening of federal lands to extraction, and more recently, legislation to delist grey wolves in Colorado. The very places I love and write about are threatened and could be lost! We each need to write our local, state  and national leaders urging them to protect special places.  Look for future posts that will include my letters as examples.

When I first moved to Bellingham, WA, I did so because of its forests, rivers, and mountains (and because my wife got a job at the local state university). On top of that, it was just a hop over the border to British Columbia where nature (once north of Vancouver) never seems to end. If you read my posts, you know just how much I love BC and Canada. I have friends there, and many of my best memories (bears, salmon, wolves) come from there. It is beyond my understanding how anyone, let alone the US, could economically threaten, bully, and antagonize our neighbors, friends, and allies? For my part, I intend to spend every day (and dollar) I can north of the border. I stand with Canada!