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. […]
Cape May Migration
Starting September 29, we spent 16 days in Cape May, NJ, a peninsula famous for its fall bird migration. It is a very interesting area because the migration is exceptionally diverse (involving songbirds, raptors, and seabirds), complex (in terms of the effects of weather and geography), and well-studied (with several long-running counts organized by the […]
New England
Leaving the James Bay region in mid-August, we stopped for the night in Ashuapmushuan Provincial Park, southeast of Chibougamau, Quebec. We expected to head out first thing in the morning, but discovered that, despite the remoteness, we had a good cell signal, enabling us to catch up on a number of tasks that had piled […]
James Bay
This blog posting is more than twice the usual length, to keep the information on this infrequently visited area within a single entry. After finishing up our “Southeast” agenda, which took about six months, there were no firm plans for the remainder of the year. Cooler weather, more remote camping, and paddling opportunities sounded good, […]
Southern Appalachia
Leaving the Great Smokies, we headed north on the Blue Ridge Parkway. This scenic mountain road, with many pull-outs, runs 469 miles through North Carolina and Virginia, without a traffic light or stop sign. It joins up seamlessly with the Skyline Drive, which adds another 105 miles of the same as it winds through Shenandoah […]
Nomadic Naturalists 