Teddy bear-like Cholla cactus, Dr. Seuss trees, and searching for U2: Happy 75th Birthday Joshua Tree National Park!

The Iconic Joshua Tree

To celebrate the 75th birthday of Joshua Tree National Park, here's a tribute I wrote about a past visit:

Nestled among six mountain ranges and straddling the Mohave and Sonoran deserts, Joshua Tree National Park dispels the popular erroneous notion of deserts being lifeless and barren. One of our newest national parks (upgraded from a national monument in 1994), this wondrous, yet foreign landscape provides a paradise for naturalists, geologists, and archeologists alike.

A visitor may encounter a speedy roadrunner dashing across the terrain in pursuit of prey or a patient desert tortoise munching on a wildflower. In the Wonderland of Rocks, time and pressure have shaped fanciful sculptures from the granite—a toyland for giants. And the park’s namesake decorates the terrain with its outstretched limbs embarking in slow, gymnastic contortions as it reaches ambitiously and hopefully to the sky.

Spending time in Joshua Tree is akin to wandering into a Dali painting or a Dr. Seuss story—reality has become slightly askew, magical, and mysterious. During my visits to the park, I often think I have strolled into a dream. The trees themselves seem like friendly, ancient companions, real world versions of Tolkien’s fictional Ents. Even in death the trees retain their otherworldly character, as Mary Oliver describes in her bookThe Land of Little Rain, “After Death, which is slow, the ghostly hollow network of its woody skeleton, with hardly power to rot, makes the moonlight fearful.”

Visit in 1991: I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking ForIn my first visit to the park almost twenty years ago, I camped under a starry night sky and wondered if the trees were indeed ghosts—they appeared to vibrate under starlight. I felt comforted sleeping among such trusted sentinels—ghostly perhaps, but surely benign spirits.

Given that I was twenty-one and a passionate U2 fan, one purpose of that long-ago trip was to find theJoshua Tree from U2’s famous album. After arriving in the park and witnessing the ubiquity of Joshua Trees, I quickly realized the foolishness of that endeavor. During this most recent visit, one park ranger informed me the tree is sadly no more among the living.

Cholla Cactus GardenThe garden of the furry, teddy bear cholla cactus is one of my favorite sights in the park. (Be warned--the teddy bear comparison does not extend to texture—hugging the cholla would result in a very painful experience.)  After miles of a sparsely vegetated landscape, the cholla appear unexpectedly in a small area, as if they were settlers who traveled from a distant land. I spent part of the afternoon during my recent visit slowly walking in this unusual garden.

The desert transforms into a palette of color during the spring bloom. This year’s wildflower season is quickly approaching, and according to park staff may prove to be a very colorful season. If you travel to the park, be sure to stop by the new visitor center in the town of Joshua Tree, which is jointly operated by the Joshua Tree National Park Association and the National Park Service. And while you are there pick up my friend James Kaiser's excellent guidebook--Joshua Tree: The Complete Guide.

You can visit my gallery for more photos of Joshua Tree National Park.

A pika running over my foot, misguided frog mating, and other lurid tales from a hike in Yosemite

Snowpack comparison of Gaylor Lakes (photo by Beth Pratt)“Bully!” as Teddy Roosevelt would have exclaimed, seems the most appropriate way to describe my perfect day hiking in Yosemite last week. I wandered for an afternoon in the Gaylor Lakes basin (Tioga Country is my favorite place on earth), marveling over the abundant, late season snowpack that still covered most of the region while enjoying the constant melody of running water that accompanied me during my hike. Yosemite is usually alive with water in the spring, but this display of turbulent creeks and roaring waterfalls is unusual for late July.

I also counted myself lucky with wildlife sightings, although I am still adjusting to being forced to downgrade my expectations in the Sierra after having just returned from three years of living in Yellowstone where I encountered charismatic mega-fauna on a daily basis. I miss the wolves, but I’ve had no better wildlife encounter than on this hike when a pika—an animal I cherish seeing in the high country—ran over my foot. My friend, the naturalist Jack Laws, who I have often scrambled up boulders with in the high country searching for these remarkable creatures, claimed when I related the story to him that it was the pika’s way of welcoming me back to the Sierra.

I’ve shared some photos from my bully day below in a slideshow, along with some videos as well. For more photos, visit the National Wildlife Federation’s California Facebook page.

Musings about trips to the Mobil Station, the Sierra snowpack and climate change

With Chef Tioga (Matt) Toomey at the Whoa Nellie DeliOne of my favorite non-wilderness destinations in the Sierra is the Whoa Nellie Deli at the Mobil Station in Lee Vining. Aside from the allure of the scrumptious fish tacos and mango margaritas, I love talking baseball with Chef Tioga Toomey as even with his (misguided) affinity for the Kansas City Royals, he still appreciates my hometown Red Sox.

After gorging myself on the great food, I usually stop and take a photo of one of my favorite views of Yosemite right outside the Mobil Station entrance. If my topo map reading skills are correct (not always a safe bet) the view features the side of the Dana Plateau (my favorite place on earth) and Mt Gibbs. Being sort of a weather geek, I like to snap this view at the same time every year to compare the snowpack. I missed it only in 2008 and 2009 when I was working in Yellowstone.

View from the Mobil Station on June 23, 2007 (Photo by Beth Pratt)The Sierra Nevada has experienced a phenomenal snow year—certainly one of the strangest I have experienced in my twenty years in the state—with the snowpack registering at over 200% of normal (and higher depending on the location). Yet as noted in a recent article by Peter Fimrite in the San Francisco Chronicle, the unusual pattern isn’t due to the amount of snow that fell (which was still a bunch), but the timing of the snowfall.

“The issue, experts say, is how the cold weather has lingered…preserving the ice pack long after it normally would have melted. Mike Pechner, a longtime Bay Area weatherman who runs Golden West Meteorology, said monitoring in nearby Soda Springs shows that it is the deepest snow at this date in the high elevations since records were begun in 1868 by the folks who built the Transcontinental Railroad.”

View from the Mobil Station on June 24, 2011 (Photo by Beth Pratt)As every Californian knows, once summer arrives, it begins to get hot. Very hot. Temperatures rise quickly and a snowpack that is still preserved in June is apt to become liquid very fast. And for the same reason that Yosemite’s visitors are delighting in the late season waterfalls this year, residents downstream in the foothills and the Central Valley have been on flood alert. The Central Valley historically served as a major floodplain that absorbed water from snowmelt, but the region today is one of the largest hydrologically altered areas on the planet and human development has largely replaced natural river flow.

Yet even with this above average snowfall and late season precipitation, the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada and the West is declining—on average the snowpack in the western states has declined 30% in the past fifty years. Why is this significant? Because 70% of our water in the west comes from snow. The repercussions of climate change on our water supply are frightening even if the best-case scenarios prove to be the worst.

The inevitable response to this unusual snow year for the Sierra Nevada has been to debunk climate change. The accurate counter to this false claim is that anomalies in a single year do not disprove the overall trend, which in this case is a long-term decline. A recent blog post by Alyson Kenward on Climate Centralexplores this issue and also offers the interesting graphic illustration below of snowpack levels as of June 1 from 2004 to 2011.

So I’ll continue to snap photos of my favorite view in Yosemite after my fish taco feasts and baseball chats at the Whoa Nellie Deli. And I’ll enjoy the abundance of snow decorating the granite cliffs this year (and lament how late hiking season will come in Tuolumne), but my hunch is I’ll see less and less white on my favorite peaks in the Sierra for years to come.

Jack Hanna wants you for the Great American Backyard Campout!

One of my first big camping experiences as a teenager at Girl Scouts National Center West in WyomingREI and the National Wildlife Federation are partnering to encourage people across the country to camp outdoors this weekend through the Great American Backyard Campout. The event evokes some Brady Bunch moments for me, since as a kid I used to camp in my backyard, tell ghosts stories with my friends, shine flashlights at the stars, and devour the yummy s'mores my mom used to make.

Camping also connected me to the natural world, and I loved listening to the insects and frogs sing at night (I used to think it was the music of the stars) or searching for bats, or simply resting in the tent and falling asleep with the earth's heartbeat as a lullaby. So this weekend, get that tent set-up, make a run to the grocery store for some marshmallows, and fall asleep under the comforting night sky.

Here's a PSA that REI filmed with myself and Jack Hanna promoting the campout. Not sure how I got paired with someone as cool as Jack Hanna, but it is fun promoting camping in a cocktail dress! Jack and I filmed this message at our Voices for Wildlife event in Los Angeles last week.

An armadillo on the green carpet and a mountain lion as a dinner guest: National Wildlife Federation's Voices for Wildlife celebration

An armadillo on the green carpet. Photo by John ShearerAn armadillo upstaged celebrities on the “green” carpet. Raptors flew overhead during dinner. An alligator relaxed on stage, stretched across the laps of hosts Jack Hanna and Annabelle Gurwitch. And a grey wolf and mountain lion greeted guests during dessert.

I am lucky enough to have recently started my dream job, California Director for the National Wildlife Federation, and one of the many perks of my role is attending a cocktail reception with Gila monsters and baby possums. And of course working with some of my environmental heroes is another highlight. Last week I got to do both at NWF’s Voices for Wildlife gala at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. The event celebrated the organization’s 75^th anniversary by recognizing individuals who have displayed a commitment to protecting our natural world.

Jack Hanna and Chevy Chase on stage. Photo by John ShearerThe evening had so many high points, I am still recovering from an excitement hangover. Jack Hanna, who I watched avidly growing up when he made appearances on television with his animal friends, delighted and inspired the audience with his enthusiasm and love for wild creatures. NWF surprised Jack with a wildlife hero award, given to him onstage by another of my childhood favorites Chevy Chase (my dad and I watched the movie Foul Play every time it was on channel 56).  Chevy and his wife Jayni are committed environmentalists and served on the program committee for the event.

With an environmental and artistic hero of mine, Lawrence BenderAnother honoree, Lawrence Bender, is an environmental and artistic hero of mine. Aside from producing all of Quentin Tarantino’s movies (Inglourious Basterds was just genius), he also produced An Inconvenient Truth and helped create curriculum and a website to empower youth to become conservation activists. Howard Ruby’s beautiful photographs of polar bears decorated the event and also stood as a powerful testament to the importance of NWF’s mission of protecting wildlife. Howard's work with Climate Classrooms and Eco-Schools with NWF is invaluable.   Anderson Cooper, who accepted his award via video feed, was honored for his coverage of the BP oil spill. Alyssa Milano was also recognized for her social media campaign that assisted NWF’s efforts to help wildlife impacted by the spill.

Baby possums are pretty adorable!The wonderful event was made possible by a visionary and remarkable woman, Alanna Tarkington, through support from the Grace C. Harrison Trust. Proceeds benefit NWF’s work in California. Follow our efforts in the Golden State on Facebook and Twitter.