Get Your Feet on the Table

Get Your Feet on the Table

North Table Mountain Ecological Preserve For a few months of the year, there’s a flat vista rising about 300 feet above Oroville that offers up an intriguing, if short-lived, natural show I find completely irresistible: acres of rugged volcanic basalt rock covered in...
Gold Country Nugget

Gold Country Nugget

The desk clerk said “Monday and Tuesday nights are good nights to stay. The rooms are quiet. There’s no Karaoke in the bar on Monday and Tuesday nights..”  I’m guessing that’s a good tip, in a sideways kind of way. I had thought about a trip to...
Rock nut? Listen Up

Rock nut? Listen Up

I’ve had the bug to get back over to the Long Valley Caldera along the eastern Sierra region since I drove through the area a few years ago. On that day, it was a cool June morning. I was heading North on US 395, eastern Sierra on the left, and over to the right I...
Little Lakes, Big Views

Little Lakes, Big Views

I’ve wanted to see some alpine lakes in the California Sierra for quite some time but always assumed that would require some serious backpacking and probably a sobering elevation workout to enjoy a classic view of blue water bordered by bold granite features. You know...
The Pinnacles, in Full Bloom

The Pinnacles, in Full Bloom

The big El Nino was a bit of a bust. We did get more rain than we’ve had in the previous five winters around here, but nothing like the ‘biggest El Nino event in 50 years’ was expected to bring. As it turns out, we had just enough to get the hillsides green, trigger...