After leaving British Columbia on the Cassiar Highway, we reached the Alaska Highway in the Yukon Territory (YT). An overnight stay in Watson Lake, YT to do errands was not very successful, though I did at least get the previous blog post published, while camped under an active and very noisy Common Raven nest! Proceeding […]
Category: Natural History
Eleven Degrees of Latitude
Despite being only the third largest province of Canada, British Columbia is more than twice the size of California. The western 2000 miles of the U.S.-Canada boundary lies on the 49th parallel, and the three sparsely populated Canadian territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) have 60 degrees as their southern boundary, hence British Columbia spans […]
North to the Border
Having finished our loop back through southern California for wildflower displays, we started heading north on April 8, with a goal of crossing into Canada on May 5, when we had a ferry reservation from Port Angeles, WA to Vancouver Island, BC. We spent our first night in Morgan Hill with Rob, Tam, and Sierra […]
California Dreamin’
After leaving Anza-Borrego State Park (SP) and the Sonoran Desert, we headed north, stopping to visit with our friends Jim and Ellen Strauss in Pasadena. We reached Carrizo Plain National Monument (NM), located west of the southern end of the Central Valley, just before dark. This area is notable for both wildflower displays and a […]
Sonoran Desert Wildflowers
We left El Paso on Feb. 22, 2½ weeks after returning from Ecuador, for a 7½ month trip through western North America, complementing the focus of 2017 on the center on the continent, and 2018 on the east. The primary goal of the trip is to explore Alaska and northwestern Canada, which we last did […]
Ecuador and Thermal Scoping
Eileen and I just got back from 20 days in Ecuador on a birding tour (“Jewels of Ecuador”), run by Field Guides, Inc., with whom we have previously traveled to Kenya, Brazil, and Thailand. The group was fairly small, with 7 participants, simplifying the logistics as everyone could fit in a single vehicle (a small […]
2018 Wrap-up
Leaving Cape May, we headed west to Front Royal, VA, to repeat the drive we did last fall, down the Skyline Drive (through Shenandoah National Park) and the Blue Ridge Parkway, as far as Asheville, NC. The fall color was very inferior this year, with only a few decent areas, at the very highest elevations. […]
