The house in this photograph is a well-known abandoned local landmark located in the rural, rolling hills a few miles west 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…
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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’s like that throughout the summer, which pleases me. I enjoy watching…
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Doheny Beach 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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Ethiopian Yirgacheffe
Not being much of a coffee connoisseur, I’d never heard of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee until my wife brought home two bags of whole bean a while back. I like it. Drinking Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee is essentially the closest you can get to checking your standard, motor-oil-adjacent morning brew into a high-end botanical spa. Instead of hitting your palate with the…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
