The Twisted Forest, Dixie National Forest, Utah

While I was looking through tourist information on our trip to Cedar Breaks, I found a reference to the Twisted Forest, a grove of bristlecone pines, and some general directions to it in the Dixie National Forest. I was intrigued--I love bristlecones. So we braved a Forest Service road that started near Brian Head with the van. The road was in great shape, and I hooted with excitement as we drove across the slopes at Brian Head ski resort. We wound our way around the mountain, through beautiful aspen groves, past empty campsites, over a big, muddy puddle, and arrived at the Twisted Grove trailhead 3.5 miles after leaving the pavement. A sign, overhung by a bristlecone pine, greeted us.

As soon as left the trailhead, we entered Ashdown Gorge Wilderness. We also had stunning views of what awaited us: old growth bristlecone pine on orange and white substrate. How cool was that!

Some of the bristlecone pines looked very strange, and not that healthy. I'm not sure what's going on with them.

Many showed stripbarking, or only a small strip of bark alive keeping part of the tree alive, while the rest was dead. This is a common strategy for bristlecone pines to live longer. The sign said that at least one tree in this grove was over 2,000 years old.

We did find some younger ones. We'll have to revisit this tree in a few years and see who is taller. (Note what Desert Boy is carrying. He read so much this summer!)

We kept going until we reached the ridge (this brought some tears from Desert Girl, who really didn't want to hike the half-mile trail). I left the kids with water and snacks and walked the ridge to explore some more. I found all kinds of neat trees.

This one was barely hanging on. Brian Head Peak is in the background.

This one was dead but had such an interesting shape.

I must love the neat twists, as I took a lot of photos of them!

The lighting wasn't what I considered ideal, but I tried to work with it.

A storm was moving in from the east and we could hear some distant thunder, so we couldn't stay much longer.

 This sure is a place I'd like to return to. You can find more info about the Twisted Forest here.

On the way back we walked up to the top of the chair lift at Brian Head.

It was crazy seeing the slopes without snow. Hopefully we'll be back this winter!

Looking for Lichens up Mount Washington

 I had the opportunity a couple weeks ago to travel with Dr. Brad Kropp from Utah State University to look for lichens up Mount Washington. He's doing a lichen inventory for Great Basin National Park.

What are lichens? They are pioneering organisms that are a mix of fungi and algae. I always learned it as "Freddy Fungi took a Lichen (Likin') to Alice Algae." Lichens can grow in soil, on rocks, and in trees, and last year some researchers found about 50 different kinds at the top of Wheeler Peak. This year Dr. Kropp is looking all over the park. One of the target areas was the limestone substrate of Mount Washington.

The weather forecast was for 70% chance of thunderstorms, so we didn't think we'd get much time on top of the mountain. During the morning the clouds sped over us.


I learned some basics about lichens. They come in many sizes and shapes. Some only grow a millimeter or two a year, so they can be hundreds or even thousands of years old.


Color, shape, and location are clues to what species of lichen it is. Many, though, have to be examined under a microscope.


In the photo below are endolithic lichens. Endolithic means "in the rock." Most of the lichen is in the rock, and just a little is showing. How cool is that?


Dr. Kropp scraped off lichens to take back to the lab to examine. He noticed that there were a lot fewer species on Mt. Washington than on Wheeler Peak.


Speaking of the two mountains, in the foreground is the white limestone of Mt. Washington, and in the background is the Prospect Mountain quartzite of Wheeler Peak. Also in the foreground is Holmgren's buckwheat (Eriogonum holmgreni), a plant endemic to the Snake Range. It's not found on Wheeler Peak, but is found from Pyramid Peak south. The clouds sped past, but no thunderstorms emerged.

It was a fascinating day looking at lichens, and I realized how much I had overlooked them in the past. Most likely over a hundred species live in the park, and it's only over the last year that they've been given much attention.


Over the next months Dr. Kropp will identify the different lichens and then make a guide to them.

 If you'd like to learn more about lichens, here are two interesting websites:  Rocky Mountain NP page and Yosemite NP page .

Memorial Day Weekend Trip Day #1: Anasazi Museum and Lower Calf Creek Falls

 So the weather forecast for Memorial Day weekend basically stunk. Rain for three days, it said. I said we're going anyway. We had gotten an invite to a canyoneering get-together in Boulder, Utah, a place I had never been and wanted to see. We took off Friday night after work and after driving a few hours it got dark and rainy and we decided that instead of pushing through and setting up our tent in the rain, we would stay in a motel for the night.

The next morning we got up early and headed towards Torrey, Utah. I had driven through once years before but really didn't remember any of it. Then we headed south over Boulder Mountain, a road that was paved only in 1985. As we ascended towards the pass (at about 9,000 feet!) the rain turned into snow, and at times we crept along at only 15 miles per hour. At one point we stopped and Desert Girl and I had a little snowball fight.

When we rolled into Boulder, we decided we would check out the Anasazi State Park Museum, where we found interesting displays. Outside we found a pit house.

Desert Girl liked going into one of the buildings.

Then we headed to our meeting point, set up our tent, met old and new friends, had lunch, and decided to head out for a rainy hike with friends to Lower Calf Creek Falls, part of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. To get there we took the spectacular Highway 12, which follows the hogsback (top of the ridge for a number of miles), with dramatic dropoffs on both sides (and very few guard rails).

We turned into the popular campground eponymous with the falls, grabbed rain jackets and umbrellas, and started off on the 6-mile round trip hike.

We stopped for a family photo in this neat (and dry) alcove.

Along the hike were numbered stakes, and we followed along with the brochure. One visitor told us the pictographs were hard to find because they were so small. When we got to the viewing point, I was amazed at how large they were--nearly life size, just far away.

The rain let up a bit, but the skies stayed cloudy. I had fun looking at flowers and birds on the way.

Primrose with raindrops

We could hear the waterfall before we could see it. Then suddenly, through the trees, there it was.

As we got close, a cold wind pushed us back. But Desert Girl braved the wind and walked to the edge of the pool. The falls were huge, swollen from all the recent rains. It was a beautiful sight and kind of made up for the fact that we couldn't go into canyons that day.

 I spotted this blooming cactus on the hike back.

Desert Girl was really tired, but she perked up when we reached this little cave.

Desert Boy tried to get in too, with a little help from Dad.

It ended in lots of laughs.

It was a great way to spend a rainy afternoon. We made it back to camp just in time for a delicious dinner and then it was off to bed to get ready for the next day's activities.

A Few Sights at Mount Rainier National Park

Before my husband and I started our big climb, we had time to see just a few things at Mt. Rainier National Park. The entrance with the huge beams is impressive. Then the road continues through massive trees. Once in awhile you can get a peek at the mountain.

Since I knew we would be above treeline for most of our trip, I really wanted some time to savor the huge old trees lower on the slopes. We took a short 0.4 mile hike to some impressive trees.

I liked seeing how these two species had grown together.

My husband spotted a banana slug. This is definitely a creature we don't have around in the desert!

Then we went for a 2.2 mile-round trip to Carter Falls. I was delighted that we got to start our trip on this cool bridge over the Nisqually River.

The water was low in September, I can only imagine how scary it might be to cross in June when the water is a lot higher.

We came across this old wooden pipeline, wrapped in metal. We were clearly walking on an old road, but never found out more about the history of this area. This is part of the 93-mile long Wonderland Trail that circumnavigates the mountain. On our way back down, we found an older man who was hiking it from Longmire to Sunrise. Soon after we found two middle-aged women who were planning on hiking the whole trail, which takes 10-14 days. Only about 200-250 people complete the entire trail each year, which has over 22,000 feet elevation change. That's like climbing Mount Rainier multiple times! These two ladies had climbed the mountain a couple years ago and were now excited to see the park from a different perspective.

A close-up of the old pipe.


It didn't take us long to get to Carter Falls, one of the many waterfalls in the park. I had fun playing with a new filter as I photographed the falls.

After we hiked back to the vehicle, we drove up to Paradise, one of the main attractions of the park due to the wildflower displays. We didn't want to do any hiking here, as we would be on the trail from here up the mountain the next day. Also, some of the trails were closed due to repaving. That led to one lady who arrived to gasp, "It's closed!" She thought the whole mountain was closed and was clearly distraught. Hopefully she noticed people hiking on the detour route.

We checked out the visitor center, which had some rather unsatisfying exhibits hidden away in a corner on the second floor. It was clear that the construction had been done to support the 30-foot snows that occur some winters.

Then we went over to the Paradise Inn. It would have been fun to stay there! We thought we might each lunch there, but they started serving too late for us to make it back to our check-in for our climb.

The lobby had some interesting architecture. We hope to come back here.

We also went over to the Guide Service building. It looked like it had interesting exhibits where maybe we could have learned more about my husband's grandfather and his guiding days, but it was all locked up. The season at Paradise is very, very short, mainly July and August, with some hours in September.

We grabbed a bite in the cafe and then headed back down the mountain. We stopped to take a look at Naruda Falls. Here is the river before it drops.

And here is the marvelous waterfall. (Can you see the bridge at the top? That's where I took the photo from above.) An old interpretive sign about geology had us stymied, but fortunately a newer one helped to explain better that we were seeing a contact zone at the bottom of the falls between volcanic rock of Mount Rainier and other rock (uh, my memory fails me what kind of rock!) of the Tatoosh Range.

We stopped in at the Longmire Museum, where the dated exhibits were much more helpful than the newer ones at Paradise. The kind volunteer at the Museum was also able to answer all our questions.

I had to take a quick photo of this old touring bus. Nowadays traffic is really high on the park roads, necessitating lots of construction to try and keep up (not to mention all the floods that periodically wipe out large portions of roads).

There is so much more to see at Mount Rainier National Park, but we'll have to see it on another trip. It sure is a lot different than the desert, and it's interesting to see how people, animals, and plants adapt to so much more precipitation.