The house in this photograph is a well-known abandoned local landmark located in the rural, rolling hills of the San Gorgonio Pass area. The structure sits on a prominent knoll in the open fields of Cherry Valley, California, situated just north of Interstate 10, east of Calimesa, and west of Beaumont. Specifically, it is located in the hills off of Singleton Road. It’s a ranch-style house featuring a light-colored stucco exterior and a classic Spanish-style terracotta tile roof. The property has been abandoned for several decades. Over the years, it has become a popular subject for local landscape photographers, rural explorers, and videographers due to its stark, isolated placement on…
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Breakfast for the Birds
It seems as though we’re constantly mixing sugar and water to set out in the backyard for the hummingbirds. Those hungry little birds crowd our feeders this time of the year. We have six feeders and they can drain them all in a day. It will be that way throughout the summer, and that pleases me. I enjoy watching them zip in and out, up and down, forward and backwards, and even upside down as they jockey for position at the feeders.
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Dune Fencing
Dune fencing (or sand fencing) creates a subtle but important boundary between the ocean’s shifting energy and the fragile sand‑dune habitat trying to re‑establish itself along the shoreline. The fences catch blowing sand and help rebuild low dunes that once formed naturally, giving native plants a foothold and reducing the scouring effect of wind and foot traffic. Even though they look simple, these structures are part of a broader effort to protect coastal ecosystems that have been worn down by storms, rising tides, and decades of heavy recreation. Around Southern California’s Doheny State Beach, the fencing also guides visitors toward designated paths, keeping the most sensitive areas from being trampled…
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Symmetry
I was out in the Mojave Desert to visit the Western America Railroad Museum in Barstow, California. It was early morning and the museum wasn’t open yet, so to kill some time I took a drive around the city and came across these desert stone houses on a rocky hillside. Those stones look like they would make for some pretty good insulation to help keep you cool in the summer, warm in the winter.
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Old Burn, New Growth
The Kaibab Plateau carries a quiet, layered story where old burn scars and new growth sit side by side, shaping a landscape that feels both wounded and resilient. After past wildfires swept through its high‑elevation forests, the charred trunks of ponderosa pines and spruces became stark reminders of how fire resets an ecosystem. Those blackened silhouettes still stand in many places, creating a dramatic contrast against the plateau’s wide sky. Fire ecology here is complex, and the plateau shows how disturbance opens space for sunlight, nutrients, and the next generation of life. Amid the remnants of those burns, new growth pushes upward with surprising force. Aspen clones send up bright…
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Victorville Rails
Just south of Victorville, CA, in an area railfans call Frost, there is a massive steel rail flyover bridge. This crossover exists specifically to safely flip the trains back to right-hand running as they head east into Victorville and toward Barstow after climbing the Cajon Pass.
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Lifeguard Station 34
Around Station 34, the beach shifts with tides, seasons, and the steady movement of sand, creating a backdrop that is always in motion. Early mornings often bring soft light and a sense of stillness, while afternoons fill with families, board‑carrying locals, and the layered sounds of coastal life. The lifeguard presence adds a subtle structure to all of this, shaping how people move through the water and how the beach community forms around shared space.
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Ethiopian Yirgacheffe
Being the coffee connoisseur that I ain’t, I’d never heard of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee until my wife brought home a couple bags of whole bean a while back. I like it.
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Camping at the Beach
“Camping is nature’s way of promoting the motel business. ”― Dave Barry There was a time when I enjoyed camping. I’d go all the time. But sometime in the last few years I seem to have aged out of camping. I still love the idea of camping but my body has developed quite a dislike for it and makes me pay dearly in aches and pains whenever I do it. So I don’t camp anymore. That’s life. But when I did . . . Camping at South Carlsbad State Beach feels like checking into a cliff‑top resort where the ocean is your alarm clock, the breeze is your personal stylist,…
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Navy Bean & Ham Soup
Navy bean and ham soup feels “magical” because a handful of humble ingredients—beans, a ham bone, a few vegetables—transform into something deeply flavorful, comforting, and nostalgic. The magic isn’t mystical; it’s the chemistry of slow cooking, the richness of smoked ham, and the emotional weight of a dish that shows up in family kitchens generation after generation. If you’ve ever heard this dish called “Senate Bean Soup”, there is a great piece of history behind it. Navy bean and ham soup has been served in the U.S. Senate restaurant (Dirksen Cafe) every single day for over a century. While the exact origin story is debated—some credit Senator Fred Dubois of…
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Tail End of a BNSF Intermodal Train Negotiating Sullivan’s Curve Grade in the Cajon Pass
Train watching is essentially the art of standing near a set of tracks and getting way more excited about a passing locomotive than anyone reasonably should. To the uninitiated, it may look like a group of adults eagerly awaiting a several-thousand‑ton metal tube so they can shout things like “GEVO!” or “SD70ACe!”—which, to be clear, are not cheat codes but locomotive models. It’s a bit like birdwatching, except the birds weigh 400,000 pounds, can’t fly, and occasionally honk at you with enough force to rearrange your skeleton. Still, there’s a thrill in spotting a rare engine, a heritage unit, or simply a train that’s longer than your last relationship. For…
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Fastest Things on Wings
I like this book. I’ve probably read it a dozen times in the last ten years and highly recommend it for hummingbird fans, or anyone interested in birds, for that matter. “Southern California ranks as the hummingbird-rehabilitation capital of the United States, if not the world. State-sponsored and private nonprofit wildlife organizations admit more than one thousand hummingbirds into Southland rescue facilities every year.”— Terry Masear, Fastest Thing on Wings, Rescuing Hummingbirds in Hollywood More info: Los Angeles Hummingbird Rescue
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South Ponto Beach
In the late 1960s we would use the area around this strip of beach as an unofficial overflow campground whenever the regular campgrounds – South Carlsbad and San Elijo – were full. Overnight camping here was illegal and therefore frowned upon by the authorities, but as long as we behaved ourselves they rarely hassled us about it. So, for the most part, we behaved ourselves. It’s a beautiful stretch of coastline that sits right on the border of southern Carlsbad and northern Encinitas. These days, unlike many of the narrow beaches backed by high cliffs further south in Leucadia, South Ponto is highly accessible and wide open. It’s a favorite…
