The full name of the world heritage site is ‘Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California’, and the UNESCO site covers much of the old Sea of Cortez which Jacques Cousteau once called ‘the world’s aquarium’. Many of the mountainous islands in the gulf are home to unique species—including a rattle-less rattlesnake—and are protected from development, including the island of Espíritu Santo near La Paz. Last month I visited many of the gulf’s bays on the Baja peninsula, including Bahías de Los Ángeles, Concepción, Loreto and La Paz. In the Loreto national marine park, I saw bottlenose dolphin and fin, humpback and blue whales, including those blues in the videos below.
Daniel Romero marched with César Chávez back in the day, so when a nationwide protest against recent cuts to the national parks & US forest service popped up today at noon, of course, he came wearing his ‘¡Si, Se Puede!’ T-shirt. He knows from experience that predicting turnout is a fool’s game, but instead of the expected 3, there were around 20, even at a very small park in a rural area best known for a loop of track for trains to change elevation to traverse the Tehachapi pass. Another was Fernando Chávez, a grandson of César, who discussed the need for solidarity, coalition building, and activism at the base of the old oak tree next to Martyr’s Garden, where his grandparents lie at rest. “We’ve been protesting forever”, said Romero. “Even though we are sometimes excluded, we have always tried to support each others’ causes”, said Chávez, recounting how spontaneous protests recently broke out after a particularly brutal local raid by ICE. Romero listed the unions that marched with them, describing diverse families and even weddings during the boycott and strike.
This was an early park visit for me, as it’s local. Unlike my quiet visit 3 years ago, folks here today were sad, angry and surprised by the chaotic decisions to cut 1,000 NPS staff and 10% of the USFS. One employee here had just transferred from New Mexico when his job was axed by Elon Musk. Many of those affected were young, promising staffers, full of optimism. Supposedly he is scrambling to get the transfer reversed to stay employed. While there may be some cost savings, in the long run, the work these folks do protects and adds a lot of value to our country, so cutting when hiring is needed is counterproductive. I felt the need to apologize for still driving a Tesla, but folks understood, knowing others who are now trying to unload theirs. I’m keeping mine, as the climate crisis is going to get worse, despite efforts to delete the word climate from government documents.
I know Saturdays are supposed to alternate state photos, so I’ll add another and a video below. But I thought you might like this real time update from a very appropriate park for a protest, with people whose lives were defined by the proud history of protesting in America. Next week will return with another western state. Thanks for reading!
7 trails cross the Southwest region, including 6 National Historic Trails linking multiple sites, plus a National Scenic Trail. Here’s a quick summary in case you are interested in exploring the trails in the region.
Butterfield Overland NHT passed through Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico (although the photo below is near a stop across the Arizona border in Tombstone).
Earlier this month I visited Sierra de San Francisco in central Baja Mexico to see the prehistoric rock paintings which are a world heritage site. They are spread out over a vast, mountainous area and just to see a few requires a 5 day group trek on burro to reach several different caves. One closer site, El Ratón—called ‘the rat’ but meant to be a cougar—, is a short hike off a long, well-paved road. Unfortunately, it’s not the best of the rock paintings, as the alcove is fairly open and the art has faded. The small free museum in San Ignacio is overseen by an official who provides required passes out of his office next door, when he’s there. Hiring a local guide is required along with paying various government fees. For a solo Baja driver, it’s best to visit El Ratón on the way back north, as the cave road is north of San Ignacio, where you must pay first. Group tours can be reserved from San Ignacio, Loreto, and Guerrero Negro. Frankly, I recommend just going to the museum and making a donation. There you can see some good photographs of several of the best examples, along with a large reproduction, above, to give you a sense of how they are displayed on alcoves and in caves. Traveling through Baja, you see reproductions in many public spaces, proudly reflecting the internationally renowned 2000 year old cave art, the cultural remnants of the Cochimí people.
All of us experience good times and bad, but we handle them differently. Our Myers-Briggs personalities vary, focusing inwards or outwards, gathering facts or relying on intuition, using logic or trying to please others, planning or being spontaneous. So some follow the feelings of others in the moment, while others may insulate themselves in structured reality. Knowing our type helps us make the most of our instinctual thinking.
If your support network is helping you flourish and keeping you happy, that’s nice. But if they’re feeding you bad information or guiding you on the wrong path, then you need to recognize and change that. If you are checking off all of your personal objectives, that’s nice. But if you’re ignoring good advice or are unhappy, then you need to recognize and change that.
Balancing is an act that often requires effort. The ancient philosophers and poets preserved their wise advice for us to use today. When times are good, we need to restrain our optimism before our expectations become too unrealistic. When times are bad, we need to combat pessimism to face adversity with the strength we can muster.
Sadness is normal in many circumstances, and rather than medicate it away, we need to recognize the cause and handle it appropriately. Humans evolved the feeling of sadness to aid us in improving our lives, so we there’s a risk to removing it artificially. Sadness is often a signal that we need to process a feeling, learn from a mistake, make a change, forgive or move forward. Feeling sad is often an opportunity for us to apply our instinctual thinking for our own benefit, if we put in the effort.
But when the circumstances do not justify our negativity, we need to recognize and adjust our attitude. When I drive long distances, I sometimes check the elevations to predict mileage per charge. When I’m in a good or bad mood, sometimes I mistakenly feel like I’m driving uphill or downhill, when I’m not. If your emotions cause you to misjudge reality consistently, then you need to figure out why and how best to handle that.
Remember, your instinctual feelings evolved to try to help you. So think about them and harness them to live your best life.
Earlier this month, I visited El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar [literally ‘the stink beetle and the great high desert’]. It’s a UNESCO Biosphere and World Heritage Site in Sonora Mexico, and it’s a sister park to Organ Pipe Cactus NM across the border in Arizona. A dozen pronghorn scampered through the various cactus, but unfortunately the border wall prevents many species from moving freely in their natural habitat. The main attraction is ten large volcanic craters, including the deep, symmetrical Elegante below. The landscape is extraordinary and otherworldly, with long black lava walls, cinder cones, sand dunes, various cacti, bushes, shrubs and wildflowers. There is enough rainfall to support birds, reptiles and wildlife like big horn sheep. Some folks camp overnight to experience the vast dark skies, far from large human settlements.
A 2018 movie called Sonora was filmed here, and the movie describes the desert as both the middle of nowhere and ‘the devil’s highway’. A few years ago some criminals moved into the area, but they are gone now. The roads are severely washboarded, sandy and sometimes are blocked by local landholders due to disputes over compensation, so I hired a driver, a van and a guide. There are no facilities to speak of, so you need to bring whatever you need in and pack everything out. From the supercharger in Gila Bend, it’s more than a full charge round trip to Puerto Peñasco or Rocky Point where guided tours depart, so I charged at my hotel on the Playa Bonita. The local economy is still recovering from various border shutdowns and Covid, but the onsite park museum is expected to reopen soon, which will bring more visitors. But for my visit, I was happy to have the whole park to myself.
My medium term goal is to visit all the parks in the lower 48 states in my electric car, and that necessarily includes taking an occasional car ferry. I would prefer never to take carbon burning transportation, but I’m neither going to risk my life nor break the law, nor encourage anyone else to do so. Some river roads, coastal highways and islands rely on ferries—such as in the Outer Banks or San Juan Islands above—, without practical alternatives. The only way to visit the Statue of Liberty or Alcatraz is to take the ferry.
My general rule is to arrive at each park by zero emission vehicle but to take park transport as needed to enjoy the park, like at Steamtown. Whenever I can, I encourage park employees to replace their old transport with solar powered electric boats, which would be perfect at Fort Matanzas. And the NPS is slowly converting its transportation to renewable, for example at Zion.
The Salmon River flows into the Pacific just out of sight between the headland and the beach above. The trail up here to the lower viewpoint starts at the boat launch, climbs through a lovely mossy old growth grove and crosses a few small bridges—the cascades were hidden in the brush—before reaching the meadow where a rare flower and butterfly live. There’s an upper viewpoint some 700 feet further up the hill, but I figured the closer view was better.
This UNESCO Biosphere is mostly on Nature Conservancy land, thanks to concerned citizens who rallied to protect it. Definitely needed the birdsong app: white-crowned sparrow, golden-crowned kinglet, chestnut-backed chickadee, pacific wren and a brown creeper, not to mention the usual coastal waterfowl and some raptor I couldn’t identify. Lovely spot on the Oregon coast with about a dozen other hikers on the trail on a beautiful day last fall.
Zero Carbon Travel 