Shenandoah was my first exposure to the rolling Appalachians, and to my first National Park on the eastern half of the United States. It was a very different experience compared to the parks in the western half. Shenandoah was designed more for the automobile tourist, with beautiful paved parkways that snaked atop ridgelines coupled with generous pullouts for the best views of the blue mountains.
Except for the Appalachian trail, hiking and backpacking seemed to be afterthoughts. And since the Park was established long after the region developed, accommodations consisted of motels and hotels in the various communities that border the park. And in that aspect, it was very similar to its southerly brother - the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
I had tried to time my visit, over a decade ago, to see the fall foliage. However, Mother Nature was a fickle beast, and only very small sections of the park showed any hints of color. Nevertheless, it was a memorable trip to visit such a venerated addition to the National Park System.
Shenandoah National Park
VA USA
A National Park Jouirney - Lassen Volcanic National Park
Lassen was not high on my priority list, but being reasonably close to home during my first few months in California, I decided to pay a visit to this National Park. Named for the southernmost active volcano in the Cascade range, the park offered a beautiful wilderness area dotted with pristine lakes and plenty of cinder cones, geothermal features such as geysers, bubbling hot springs and vents fuming with sulfurous gases, and challenging hikes that promised epic views.
While it doesn't carry the breadth of features and landscape found in Yellowstone, the combination of high alpine terrain and stunning hikes make it worthwhile to spend a couple of days exploring this unique National Park of California. I still remember being enthralled by the clear waters of the summit lakes, and the chaotic skyline of Brokeoff mountain and Chaos Crags. For the young visitor in me, the vivid descriptions provided to the different landscape features were enough to carve a special place for Lassen in my heart.
I returned a couple more times to the park to explore other areas and to capture an annular solar eclipse, but I would never forget the awe and wonder I had felt on my first trip.
Lassen Volcanic National Park
CA USA
A National Park Journey - Grand Canyon National Park
They say never to visit the Grand Canyon in the peak of summer unless one had a deathwish. And yet, that was exactly what I had done. Lacking any travel experience in the desert southwest and foresight to temper my hubris, my foolish brain assumed that Grand Canyon would be perfectly ok to hike in June. It took a deathmarch down and back up the canyon to realize the foolishness and audacity of what I was attempting.
My first glimpse of the giant gaping hole was jaw-dropping. In front of me was a canyon larger than what I had imagined, gouged by a excavator of stellar proportions. It was only later I realized that this impressive geological spectacle was the the result of flowing water acting on a land that was rising slowly over millennia. My brain tried and failed at making sense of the immense number of sandwiched layers that formed the terra-firma over which I was standing.
Hiking down the canyon helped provide an even better sense of perspective, primarily because the slow slog back up gives you plenty of time to admire the layered terrain on which the trail was laid down on. It can be easy to get lost ensconced in the rich topography, but the stench of fresh mule dung fermenting in the hot sun will snap you back to real life, and you will discover newfound energy that will help you scurry past those unforgettable droppings.
On my return visit to the park, I carried with me those experiences, and that helped me time my hikes properly, including setting up at the right location for sunset. This is one such view from the rim of the Grand Canyon, looking down at the river still carving its way down the canyon.
Grand Canyon National Park
AZ USA
A National Park Journey - Yosemite National Park
There is no grander a cathedral of granite than Yosemite National Park. Stepping into its hallowed halls with walls of towering granite from whose ledges gush waterfalls, is like stepping onto another planet. And while its star attraction, the Yosemite Valley, carries all the trappings of modern civilization, the towering geological features put the human efforts to tame it to shame.
When I lived in California, I used to visit the park multiple times a year, enough to observe the sharp change of seasons. But the summer in its mountains holds a special place in my heart. In the summer, my favorite place in Yosemite, however, was not the valley, but the high Sierra terrain. Far away from the maddening crowds, the quieter pace of the delicate alpine terrain offers an opportunity to slowdown and admire the small flowering plants as well as the iconic granite peaks topping above the forests. And at night, the higher altitude affords an humbling opportunity to observe the night sky far away from sources of light pollution.
This image showcases the night sky during one such summer visit.
Yosemite National Park
CA USA
A National Park Journey - Crater Lake National Park
Crater Lake National Park was just a hop skip and jump from Redwood, relative to the overall distance we were driving. Having arrived at Crater lake with very little driving experience, I remember being afraid of even driving along the curvy rim road that winds around the massive crater. But my fear vanished as soon as I got the first sight of the massive crater.
For a big city kid, seeing a pristine lake as large as this, with a deep blue color quite unlike anything I had seen before, was a life-changing experience. I had never experienced anything of such scale, let alone a volcano whose crater had a 33-mile rim. That, coupled with the stark alpine scenery of the surrounding Cascades, made for an unforgettable first visit.
My second trip to this park was more than 16 years later in less than ideal weather conditions, but it was enough to spark the joy of being in this very unique National Park. This particular image, however, is one of my first attempts at a panorama from my first visit.
Crater Lake National Park
OR USA
A National Park Journey - Redwood National Park
The third park in my journey through the 59 (then) National Parks was the Redwood National Park. I had planned it as a short detour on my way to the fourth one (more about it on my next post), hoping to see the tall coastal redwoods that this region was so famous for. And while I did get to admire the grandeur of the misty forests with towering trees, it is hard to get a perspective of size of the Coastal Redwoods unlike the Giant Sequoias further inland. I remember bad weather and lack of planning marring further exploration of this park, and I had tabled this place in my memory for a future visit.
Despite being so close and accessible, I only had the opportunity to visit this amazing park once after that. I used the opportunity to admire the rugged and rocky coastline, and hike amidst the giant redwood forests, and feeling like an eternal dwarf in unspoilt nature. I wish I could go back and spend more time in this beautiful slice of nature that is often left out of the tourist maps, and explore the unexplored.
Here is my take of the rocky shore one foggy evening, where I exaggerated the color with the help of the Singh Ray Blue and Gold Polarizer.
Redwood National Park
CA USA
A National Park Journey - Kings Canyon National Park
The first National Park I had visited in the country was Sequoia National Park. Being a sister park to Sequoia, Kings Canyon was the obvious choice to visit after Sequoia. After the intimacy with gentle giants in the first park, Kings Canyon was a shift in scale. I gazed with wonder at the towering granite canyon walls where gushing waterfalls flowed into bubbling creeks that meandered amongst grassy meadows laid out along the South Fork of Kings River. I even gained my first hiking chops on one of the many hiking trails that climbed up from the valley.
That vast mountainous landscape would draw me again for many years after that. Since then, I have hiked and backpacked in many different parts of that park that covers a vast swath of the Sierras far away from any civilization. I have been blessed to have been given the opportunity to explore this spectacular part of California, and this wilderness nestled in Kings Canyon holds a special place in my heart.
This image was a night sky from one of the many backpacking trips to Kings Canyon national Park
Kings Canyon National Park
CA USA
A National Park Journey - Sequoia
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
The Monuments
It was not my first rodeo at Monument valley. But I still got the chills looking at these towering buttes and mesas rising above the vast dry desert floor of the Colorado Plateau. And on this particular day, a transient sandstorm created a layer of haze around the shale skirts of the buttes and exaggerated the vast wild West atmosphere exuded by the Valley of the Rocks.
The park is still closed, and that prevented us from getting up close and personal with these monuments. But they still held their beauty from afar.
Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park
AZ 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