Explore the World one Step at a Time
Explore the World one Step at a Time
100 Lizards, 2 Blood-Squirting Showoffs, and a Fire Scar In early May, our Community Science team laced up for a lizard survey along the Panorama Loop Trail at Black Rock Canyon, in the quiet northwest corner of Joshua Tree National Park. The mission: count lizards. The final tally on this nearly 7-mile (≈11 km) loop with about 1,200 ft (365 m) of climbing? A very satisfying, perfectly round 100. A…
Eye to Eye With a Rattlesnake When my Canadian friend told me she wanted to see a chuckwalla, I knew exactly where to take her: the Fortynine Palms Oasis Trail in Joshua Tree National Park. It’s a 3.5-mile (5.6 km) round-trip hike with about 660 feet (200 m) of elevation gain, and in my experience, it’s one of the most reliable chuckwalla-spotting trails in the park. What I conveniently didn’t…
When the Desert’s Timing Goes Off In early spring I was showing a friend the Hi-View Trail at Black Rock Canyon in Joshua Tree National Park. I like this trail: it’s easily accessible, doesn’t require a national park pass, and there are bathrooms. There are several access points, and the trail often gets shown as a 1.3-mile (2.1 km) trail, but if you start at the Black Rock Nature Center…
The Desert Oasis That Knows How to Bounce Back Some places make you work to find them. Dos Palmas Preserve is one of them, tucked away near the Salton Sea at the end of a few sandy dirt roads. I have visited Dos Palmas several times with my community science collaborative. I was there in 2023 and 2024, just a few days after a fire had swept through, and I…
A Wildflower Walk in the Coachella Valley Preserve If you ask me to name a favorite wildflower trail, the Moon Country Trail in the Coachella Valley Preserve is always near the top of the list. It’s roughly 4 miles (6.4 km), give or take; however the route is signed that season, and mostly flat. The one real bit of climbing comes when you head up to the vista point, and…
California lawmakers have passed a historic bill (Western Joshua Tree Conservation Act) to permanently protect the western Joshua tree, making it the first law in the state aimed at safeguarding a species threatened by climate change. The legislation, part of the state budget agreement, is expected to be signed by Governor Gavin Newsom and take effect on July 1, 2023. Conservationists have welcomed the move, recognizing the tree’s significance as…
I was reading what I wrote back in October last year about how I needed to step away from the noise and it dawned on me that I actually never truly did step away. In the 9 months since that post, I moved, changed jobs, and never really slowed down. With mental health as such a big topic right now, I am back in that same mental space with a…
I had to cancel photo shoot plans in Joshua Tree National Park this past weekend due to rain and wind rolling into the Coachella and Yucca Valleys. It wasn’t quite as sad as it may sound. We don’t get a lot of rain here in the Coachella Valley. In fact, we had 209 days without measurable precipitation in Palm Springs. So I for one enjoy the few rainy days we…
Cleaning up some areas of my desk and drawers, I came across this poem by Marlene Seven Bremner written last year for me on National Poetry Month at the Microsoft HQ in Redmond, WA. It still feels as relevant as last year.