Do You Really Want to Yurt Me?
The Joy of Yurting, plus a Death Valley mystery solved, a potential new Griffith Park mountain lion, inspirational field rangers, a ski resort for sale, some summer weather, new trails and more!
howdy
My first trip to Oregon was in 2005. It was the first year my work gave me “paid time off,” and I cashed all five measly days of it in to drive my Honda Accord up the 5 and into the Beaver State. I explored Crater Lake National Park, got a taste of the high desert through Bend and Sisters, camped at Silver Falls State Park, spent a few days in Portland and the Columbia River Gorge, and then camped along the coast a few nights heading back toward California (with a short detour to see a show at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival).
Was this a lot to do in a week? Yes. Probably too much. But it was fun, and it made a big impression. I live in Portland now, and I still make pilgrimages to some of those places I visited on my own personal Corps of Discovery Tour—Silver Falls, for instance, has become my go-to hike as soon as the fall foliage starts turning, and it never ceases to fill me up with joy. But one thing that really stood out from that first visit was how proud Oregon was of its state-owned yurts.
When you visit the Oregon State Parks, you’ll hear a lot about yurts. And if you, like 2006-era me, don’t really know what a yurt is, it’s basically a big, extra-sturdy, semi-permanent tent. Oregon has both yurts and cabins at parks all across the state, and you can still get them for as cheap as 40 bucks a night. With no setup required and heat inside, they make for extra cozy options in the shoulder seasons, as long as you’re flexible enough to get one of the prized reservations.
Well, I was finally able to snag one of these yurts a few weeks back at Cape Lookout State Park for a moody, dry-enough trip on the coast … and I have to say, I get it now.
After a great afternoon hiking the park’s namesake trail, my husband and I headed into the expansive campground, where it was just a scattering of RVs and a handful of very hardy tent-campers. In the woods, but still within earshot of the waves, we found our new temporary home and rolled on in, laying out our bedding, and turned on the heat while we curled up with some good books and listened to the rain falling on the canvas roof.
You really couldn’t ask for a more peaceful way to end a hiking day … unless you count the rain clearing and the skies opening for a long walk along the moody northwest beach, where streams cascaded down forested cliffs into the ocean and bald eagles circled overhead.
Especially in cold, wet weather, it was great to have a spot to crash that was 100% dry, and although I definitely would not describe the vinyl mattresses as especially comfortable, they did make for cozy spots to enjoy under the cover of a few layers of wool blankets. And eating meals on our small porch, gazing off into the deep, mossy woods while under the watchful eye of a Steller’s Jay was kind of the perfect way to wrap up this experience.
Modern Hiking
Good stuff from the Modern Hiker site
In addition to the trail guide for Cape Lookout, I also added a great romp in Topanga State Park through the Musch Trail from Andrew Shults recently. Did you know there’s a campground in Topanga State Park? It’s one of the very few official campgrounds on the Backbone Trail, and though I’ve never stayed there myself, I bet it would be a really unique experience.
The Big Story
Something to talk about
Bienvenido, La Niña
It looks like the long reign of El Niño is over, and Pacific water temperatures are bringing us to what will likely be La Niña conditions during the summer. The El Niño-La Niña phenomenon is dependent on ocean temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific, and these changes can affect global weather. It’s not super dependable—sometimes a shift may make it much more likely to rain somewhere but they can still skate by in drought conditions, but we’re talking about broad likelihoods here, not acute predictions.
Right now, meteorologists are increasingly confident we’re leaving El Niño and entering La Niña conditions, which generally means the Western U.S. is due for a wetter, cooler summer. The pattern also is associated with stronger winds in the Rocky Mountains, bigger monsoon season in the Four Corners region, and drier weather in Colorado’s Front Range and in New Mexico. In transition seasons like this, June tends to be fairly unpredictable.
For a very in-depth explanation of all of this, as well as outlooks on fire season, check out this post from the team behind OpenSnow. OpenSnow is an outdoor weather app that will provide pinpoint snow predictions in the winter as long as general weather, precipitation, and wind and smoke conditions in the summer, too. It’s a paid app, but one I’ve used and been a fan of for years, if you’re in the market for something a little more specialized than your phone’s basic weather app. I don’t get an affiliate kickback for saying that, I just have genuinely found it useful!
Your Parks
Your Places
Rangers in Training
I was very honored to write a feature story on the National Forest Foundation’s Field Ranger Program as it ramps up for a new season. The Field Ranger program is a skill training and education program for Los Angeles County youth, providing a wide variety of hands-on experience in the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument with the U.S. Forest Service. Getting to chat with people who have organized and participated in this program was a real treat, and I left all of our conversations incredibly inspired.
Death Valley Vandalism Solved
Well that was pretty quick, wasn’t it? Last week, I mentioned a historic aerial tram tower in Death Valley National Park that was toppled. Just a few days after the announcement from park rangers, the person who knocked the tower over came forward and has been cooperating with the park service. According to National Parks Traveler, the person contacted the park service and said they had anchored to the structure in an attempt to get out of some deep mud, and they did not intend to cause the damage. No further information is being released about the person at this time, but I’m glad they came forward.
Want to Run a Ski Resort?
If you’ve got a few million dollars lying around and want to run a historic ski resort close to Los Angeles, the Mount Waterman Ski Area is listed for sale at $2.275M. Opened in 19239, Mount Waterman is the first ski resort in Southern California and was operated by the homesteading Newcomb family (some of whom were there first rangers in the San Gabriel Timberlands Reserve, which pre-dated the Angeles National Forest). It was sold to an outside business group in the 90s but was denied operation from 2001-2008 because of operational violations. In 2008, a group of fans from San Diego got the money together to buy the operation, but they never seemed to be able to get their act together to get the ski hill consistently operating—even in years of exceptional snow. I didn’t really know how to ski when they were getting snow, but I do know some folks who just went up there on their own, hiked up, and skied down the existing runs.
This property has a lot of challenges, but you know I’m always a fan of preserving historic sites. Maybe someone could figure out a way to do some mountain biking runs up there in the dry months?
RELATED:
Hike around Waterman Mountain (that’s the name of the actual mountain, even though the ski hill is Mount Waterman. I know) and check out some of the historic ski lifts!
Also poke around Kratka Ridge, which was home to another set of historic ski runs.
Wildlife Crossing
Wildlife and the Outdoors
A New King of Griffith Park?
News broke this week about a potential mountain lion sighting inside L.A.’s Griffith Park, one of the country’s largest urban wilderness parks and previously the home of the smallest mountain lion range on record for the now-deceased mountain lion P-22. Near Barham Boulevard on the park’s western edge, a family claims to have spotted a mountain lion sitting on an oak tree. The same family had seen P-22 near this location earlier, as well. Although this sighting has not been confirmed by the National Park Service yet, if the cat is collared, it could—coincidentally—have the designation P-122. Video of the sighting at the LATimes Instagram account.
One More Thing
Oh yeah, before I go …
Don’t think I didn’t forget — I’m still doing this summit photo nonsense.
I thought we were out of mud season, but it’s been raining and cold the past two days so I think I’ll still get to keep washing all these layers nonstop.
Until next time,
Happy Trails.
Thanks for sharing those yurt photos. They have them in Pennsylvania and I always wondered what they looked like inside. Might have to try one now that you have revealed the mystery.
Please keep us posted on the new mountain lion! Thanks for being my ongoing connection to the west coast outdoors!