by Susan Bancroft | Apr 29, 2016 | Desert, Geology, Hiking, Photography
I was driving up off the Mojave on CA 14 on my way to Death Valley to shoot the rumored ‘Superbloom’ out there this year. As I drove up a rise off the desert floor, the flat expanse of the Mojave suddenly gave way to 5 story-high palisades of red and...
by Susan Bancroft | Mar 9, 2016 | Desert, Photography
The irony, of course, is that Death Valley is full of life. Whether or not you see it depends on when you arrive. In the heat of summer most of that life shelters into the earth in burrows or dens, or under a thin layer of rocks and soil; anywhere that’s out of the...
by Susan Bancroft | Feb 3, 2016 | Hiking, Photography
With no meaningful rain in the the last four years, whatever color was in the oak leaves had drained away along with the water table, leaving wooded views so muted that you really began to wonder: just how much more will this landscape be able to stand? Then it...
by Susan Bancroft | Jul 9, 2015 | Beaches, Big Sur, Hiking, Photography
ANDREW MOLERA State Park: (June 2019) CLOSED TRAILS: River, Twin Cottonwoods, Hidden and Trail Camp/Headlands. OPEN TRAILS: Creamery Meadow, Ridge, Bluffs, Panorama, Spring, East Molera, Bobcat and Coyote Flat trails. NOTE: On October 31, 2018 the seasonal footbridge...
by Susan Bancroft | Aug 30, 2014 | Hiking, Photography
Well, actually, you have to work a bit before you get to the fields of gold. Before that, there’s a 7 mile washboard road that’s a field of dust and gravel. Especially if you find yourself 50 yards behind another car that’s heading to the same place....