Many years ago, after I had visited a few National Parks in California, I became enamored by the idea of visiting all the National Parks by 2025 by visiting at least two new National Parks every year. It was an aspirational goal, serving as a motivational force to keep me seeking new adventures and planning new destinations every year. It felt far away, but I slowly kept kept chipping away at this goal, getting closer and closer even as the number of National Parks were expanded. And yet, in a few weeks, I will be visiting my 50th National Park (of the 63 named National Parks today). I never imagined I would reach this milestone this quickly and putting me within earshot of my goal. That said, the next dozen, with a few in Alaska, are anything but easy or accessible.
This gave me a moment to pause and think of the very first National Parks I had visited, of the memories I had created, and of the experiences I had had. The very first one on the list was Sequoia National Park, that I visited with a few colleagues during my first summer job in the country, and that experience was life-changing. Not only was it my first visit to a National Park, it was also my first camping experience. And having grown up a big city kid, seeing nature and wilderness in such a scale was eye opening.
Here is one image that captures the feeling of enormous scale that I felt watching these giants rising high against the foliage of the forest
Sequoia National Park
CA USA
Floral Wonderland
In some years, spring is muted, and in some years, the mountainsides explode in color as wildflowers bloom enmasse, blanketing the sun-drenched slopes of the Cascades. This year, it was the turn for the eastern side of the Cascades to greet visitors with a fresh coat of balsamroot, phlox, lupines and many other varieties of flora. Normally a drab sun-baked brown for the rest of the year, the lush green slopes get carpeted with tiny shrubs and plants from different flowering species competing for space and attention from the pollinators which have a field day. Watching the flowers dance and sway with the cool winds from the Cascades blowing down these slopes is a mesmerizing experience.
What makes it even more special is the ephemeral nature of this phenomenon: blooms like these rarely occur every year, and even if they do, last more than a few weeks before they fade away and are taken over by the dry summer browns. Hence, it is worthwhile to go seek out these special places at the right time, all the while make sure not to trample on these delicate blossoms.
Wenatchee
WA USA
Spring in the Skagit Valley
Perhaps the best sign of the warming temperatures of spring is the bounteous availability of a kaleidoscope of flowers: roses, tulips, daffodils, balsamroot, orchids and much more. And in the well drained soils of the Skagit region of Washington, colorful fields of tulips and daffodils grow profusely, attracting tourists and florists from all over the world. While not in the scale of the tulip fields of Holland, the flat fields and fake windmills give the impression of a dutch countryside, except for the towering mountains of the Cascades just to the west.
Wandering around the fields one evening, I found one particularly bright patch of daffodils in peak bloom. I tried to frame the dense patch of flowers against the tall cypress trees.
Skagit Valley
WA USA
The Interconnected Planet
When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world
John Muir
Earth day is the one day of the year that the whole world pauses to think about the environment. But one day a year isn't enough, because protecting and preserving nature should be a lifelong guiding principle, and not of effort that is expended in just one single day. And because nature is so interconnected, it cannot be dependent just on actions that taken in a few locations. It should be the ethos for everyone.
For example, the California poppy is an ubiquitous flower, found in different parts of the west coast of North America in multiple different climates. A single flower from a single shoot, fragile though it may be, represents significant effort by the plant to propagate itself for future generations. And its success is dependent on so many interconnected factors: location, short-term weather and long-term climate trends, wildlife, pollinators and lastly, humanity. On a global scale, the human species has such a high impact and influence on nature, that the burden of preserving the delicate balance also falls on to us.
After all, the Earth is what we all have in common
Pinnacles National Park
CA USA
Fleeting Moments
Cherry trees are not necessarily rare trees. After all, there are likely more than a million of these spread around the US, and plenty more around the world. Yet their puffy pink and white blooms attracts crowds like clockwork every year who come to take photographs of one of natures miracles. Perhaps it is their fleeting nature of transformation from barren branches to bountiful blooms to scarlet foliage that draws in crowds.
As a consequence, it is near impossible to capture the blooms without also capturing the throngs of humanity that visit the area. I chose a frigid morning hour to capture a moment of zen at the University of Washington campus, long before the hordes arrive to the placid grounds.
Seattle
WA USA
Spring in the Skagit Valley
Every year, the blooming of the daffodils heralds the arrival of spring in Washington. Tiny bursts of yellow color dot the streets and villages of the Pacific Northwest, its characteristic trumpet and bell shape swaying in unison in the wind.
Out in the pastoral landscape of Skagit valley, vast fields of yellow daffodils carpet the landscape in early spring, ready to be picked and shipped to the neighborhood florist. Photos don't do justice to the scale of the farms that cover the area here.
I spotted this one out in the distance as I set out for a breath of fresh air and sunshine. The skeletons of the tall aspen, yet to regrow foliage for the year, towered over the carpet of yellow on this late evening.
Skagit Valley
WA USA
The Eclipse of 2017
2017 was a memorable year for many reasons, but watching a total eclipse tops that list. I still remember driving the day before towards the town of Madras, to a campground (which was really farmland let to fallow) right on the path of totality. I wandered into the town, walking right into the heart of an eclipse-themed carnival. After having had my fill of that atmosphere, I got back to the campground, which had swollen in numbers stretching over the entire open field. The people here were eagerly awaiting in anticipation of the big event of the next day.
Morning dawned and the crowd slowly gathered around to catch a spot of open ground to shoot the eclipse. The sky gradually cleared up of the clouds left over from the night with the rising temperature. Groups of astronomers from as far away as Poland had set up their armada of telescopes catering to different spectra and magnifications for viewing the upcoming eclipse. Meanwhile, I only had two cameras that I jerry rigged to carry mylar filters, along with a eclipse-shade for myself. I had set the cameras up to shoot at a specific interval so that I could go and watch the eclipse through one of telescopes belonging to the neighboring tent.
Soon, a chorus of sounds went around the campground as we observe the first contact of the eclipse. As the eclipse progressed, the size of the solar disc kept reducing, leading to a drop in temperature as well as the volume of the songs the passarine birds lowering to ominous levels. And then totality hit the area, and it was a spectacle like no other. A hushed silence pervaded the area, with everyone engrossed by the dance of the plasma in the coronal stream. And soon after the famed Baily's beads appeared, transforming the sun into an celestial diamond ring. A cacophony of screams, joyful gasps of delight and a chorus of claps spread around the area, with everyone feeling thoroughly blessed by the scene.
Its funny that even though eclipses that are predictable to the exact time and location, they still inspire an awe in every person who watches it. Perhaps there are some instincts leftover from our genetic past that still prods us to observe this celestial dance in rapt attention. As for myself, I can't wait long enough to see the next one
Madras
OR USA
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An Ode to my parents
The blooms of Skagit Valley, are still a major attraction in the spring. Every year, thousands make their way to the wet and muddy fields of the various flower gardens to admire rows and rows of neatly planted tulips and daffodils.
It may be trite and banal, but I do visit it every year. But my last visit was a special one, as I got to take my parents to this beautiful location. Ever since they first saw photos of this array of flowers, they had expressed their desire to come here. And in the spring of 2019, I got to satisfy one of their many dreams. It is not easy, for they live on the other side of this planet, but in doing so, I felt more elated that I could have ever felt in simply taking photographs of this oft-visited destination in the Pacific Northwest.
To my parents, I thank you for all you have done to make me who I am, and for setting me on a amazing journey. I hope I get to meet many more of your dreams.
Skagit Valley
WA USA
Coral Dreams
When I first stepped on cobblestone shoreline, I was greeted by an amalgam of blue beach stones. But as I kept walking down the shore, I spotted a few white ones in the mix: a composite of different types of wave-smoothened coral rocks. It took me a while to realize the scale of this: a vast beach littered with thousands of these corals, and that meant I was seeing the remains of a rich coral reef ecosystem that over the years had slowly died off.
It made me realize the fragility of this ecosystem, which, over the last few years has slowly died off due to the direct and indirect effect of human activities. While snorkeling in different parts of the Virgin Islands, all I encountered were dead and dying reefs, and except for a few stragglers, the ocean floor was fairly barren, and sad. Seeing this all over the island, I wondered if this region would ever recover.
Virgin Islands National Park
USVI
Coastal Forests
The rugged coastline of Oregon is a road-trippers paradise. Smooth sandy beaches interspersed with steep cliffs where the coastal forests meet the rugged ocean all lie within arms length of small coastal communities. And on a crisp sunny day, these places are a delight to explore.
Along one such beach, the morning fog filtered through the trees, creating crepuscular rays that beamed down to the shoreline bedecked with mossy rocks, decaying deadwood and the occasional sea stacks.
Ecola State Park
OR USA