Bitterly Beautiful

Last night we got the first real snow that actually stuck around. So this morning I headed over to the Barn Island area marshes to try and get some good photos. I was hoping there would be snow completely covering everything, but I guess I've now learned that snow doesn't really stick to tall grass, or cover it up very well. The wind was bitter cold, so i just snapped a few quick shots with my iPhone and headed back to the truck. Beautiful. Bitter, but beautiful. 

Trustom Pond NWR, Rhode Island

Today I headed east on Route 1 into Rhode Island to check out the Trustom Pond Nat'l Wildlife Refuge near Charlestown. It was an overcast, grey day, but I was enjoying driving through the countryside of Southern RI (as always). As I'm cruising down Matunuck School House Road I see a big silhouette dive down out of a tree and up again. I quickly pulled to the side and saw a large owl perched up in the branches. I grabbed my new 16x binoculars (a Christmas present from mom and dad - thanks!) to get a better look. This creature was beautiful, and I couldn't believe how lucky I was to see it on the move. When it was perched, you could barely see it at all due to its clever coloring. I grabbed my field guide and flipped to the owl section and saw that it was a Barred Owl. Beautiful. I followed it down the road a ways, as it would occasionally glide to another perch. Then finally snapped a quick photo with my iPhone through my windshield as it dove into a nearby field. 

Just down the road a bit was the entrance to Trustom Pond. Even with the miserable weather, I was really impressed with this place. Apparently it was a large farm donated by a woman in the early 1970s, and has since grown many native grasses and has harbored all sorts of wildlife. It's an area of forest and fields that leads down to marshes, ponds and eventually the barrier beach, which has also been left undeveloped. The beach is Moonstone Beach, which I drove around to before heading home, and it looked like a great area to explore. Another time. 

There were a ton of geese (hard to see in the photo), the usual gulls and some ducks. I'm sure with better weather there would be a greater variety. I walked out to Osprey Point, had a Christmas puff on my pipe and headed back through the woods. It was a good day. 

Beavertail, Rhode Island

My first post from the East Coast. Wildly overdue. I have a lot of photos and excursions to detail, and they're just going to have to be out of order. Today is Christmas Eve. And I had a great day, so here I am, finally sitting down to write. 

I arrived here in New England some four months ago in late August, 2012. I had never been here before and didn't quite know what to expect. I remember that warm day that I drove across the New York - Connecticut border, and wound my way down through the state to the coast, and on to New London. I was instantly intrigued and a little spellbound by what I saw, and what I felt. I soon found an apartment overlooking the Mystic River and as I continued to explore the area and venture further and further up and down the coasts, and into the interior, I fell in love. The land here is almost...alive. There is a character to it. A personality. The light itself, whether warm or cool, thinly veils some sort of soul behind it. It frustrates me greatly that I can't adequately put into words the impression that New England has given me, and continues to give me. I think that's what is so impressive - that it continues. There are no bad days exploring. No matter which direction I choose - driving five minutes, or five hours, the result is the same. New England delivers. 

I don't dare to compare this side of the world with the West Coast. Not because one is better than the other, but because they are so different. Those that know me, know that I love California. I very nearly left my career to stay there. I love it there. And I always will. I've talked a lot of crap about the East Coast in my time (mostly referring to the Mid-Atlantic, which I still not particularly drawn to), but those cuts were clearly spoken in complete naivety of New England. I'm not afraid to say it, I love New England. Like the lure of a beautiful, mysterious new girl in the back of the class, this place has a special hold on me, and I've never quite felt such a serene comfort. 

I will have to revisit my earlier excursions into Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island (I've been busy the last four months), but for now I'll just talk about today. 

I headed east for a little area called Beavertail State Park, at the southern tip of Jamestown in Rhode Island. This was supposed to just be a stop off on my way to Sachuest Point Nat'l Wildlife Refuge further east past Newport. Beavertail was a lot cooler than I had anticipated. The lighthouse, which was only the 3rd lighthouse to be built in the colonies, was impressive. The rocks below it, on all sides, were even more so. I didn't get to see Winslow Homer's rocks off Prout's Neck on a day with good light (it was overcast and dreary that day), but I was more impressed with these, by far. The unique blends and bands of color in the rocks, the lines, the slates, it was beautiful to look at. 

I didn't see too many interesting birds, beyond the usual gulls, but I didn't stay too long as I wanted to get out to Sachuest Point. To my disappointment, then I got there a half hour later, the refuge was closed due to Hurricane Sandy damage. I did see some Sanderlings running around on the beach. After watching them for a bit, I detoured down through Newport's mansions and was pretty blown away. How that many people had (or have) that much money is completely beyond my comprehension. Some of them even looked abandoned, it was crazy. Definite inspiration for moody, mysterious stories. I did run into the Nat'l Museum of American Illustration, which I didn't know existed, but will most definitely be back for. It was a good day. And to top it all off, the timeless aroma of wood-burning stoves and fireplaces is filling Mystic on this brisk Christmas Eve. Life is good. 

Black Mountain, Calif.

Yesterday I took off for an overnight trip to Black Mountain, just west of San Jacinto Mtn, about two hours from Long Beach. I found the spot just by looking around at camping locations online, and I couldn't have been more pleased. This place was incredible. I was at the Boulder Basin campground - you go about 8 miles past the tiny mountain town of Idyllwild and then you turn off and take another 5 miles up a dirt fire road to the camp. First time my trucks ever been in 4 wheel drive. It was great. 

The camp site was beautiful, full of giant boulders, a ton of woodpeckers knocking all over the place, giant pine trees and crisp air. I took a short hike up to the Black Mountain fire lookout, that's been in use since the early '60s. The view was incredible. I spent a few hours at the camp site reading the Dharma Bums, and couldn't help but picture Jack Kerouac working and living in the fire lookout, like he did one summer long ago on Desolation Peak. 

 I had no idea there were mountains and vistas like this within a 2 hr drive of the beach. It was raining off and on though all morning (after a pretty rough night's sleep), so instead of staying another afternoon and night in the tent hiding from the rain, i packed up early and drove back to long beach this afternoon. Great time. 

Pine Valley, Utah

On the trip to Utah this June, our family friend (and mom's boss) let us use their cabin up on Pine Valley, Utah. We'd been to this same cabin the year before and really liked it, so we wanted to have another crack at it. The air is always cooler than it is down in the desert. It's a great, peaceful place full of green pine trees, big blue skies and lazy afternoons. We spent most the time playing cornhole or horseshoes, or just whittling on the porch. We did go fishing one day at Baker Reservoir - I caught nothing, and Dusty caught like 5 or 6 little fish, and threw them back. The best part was probably the dutch oven cooking. Well, that and the stars. We got some great long exposure shots of the night sky. 

Sand Mountain, Utah

A few weeks ago I took a trip to Southern Utah to meet up with most of my family - Mom and Dad, Dustin, Brandon and Misty and their kids Kyla and Casey. We rented these side-by-side 4x4s and a friend of our parents took us out on these huge dunes and rock trails all over this mountain (called Sand Mountain) just south of Hurricane and east of St. George. It was a great, new way to experience an area we've been coming to most of our lives, and see it in a different way. Awesome time. 

Bro'd Trip / CA, AZ, CO, UT, NV

These are some photos from last years Bro'd Trip (June 2011). My older brother Dustin and I drove from Los Angeles east up into Arizona, looped over through a corner of Colorado, then west into Utah and looped around through to our parents house in Hurricane, Utah, then down through Las Vegas and back to Los Angeles. 

Our route took us to the Grand Canyon, Arches Nat'l Park, Canyonlands Nat'l Park, Capitol Reef Nat'l Park, Grand Staircase-Escalante Nat'l Monument, Sunset Crater, Monument Valley, Four Corners, and countless other small points of interest and Native American ruins. 

It was so liberating to get out with no real concrete schedule or plan, and just drive around the west, seeing all these incredibly beautiful places. We promised to do more Bro'd Trips in the coming years - We'd like to road trip/camp up through Montana - see Glacier Nat'l Park (haven't been there since High School), or maybe even a trip around Colorado. We took hundreds of photos, so I'm sure I'll get around to posting some more on here. 

The map is loosely the route we took - not exact, but pretty close.